My all grain (BIAB) no chill beers are all really bad...

[Mizz]

 

[Mizz]

just posted a recipe there. Very similar to something I've made before. I'm pushing the hops because I like a hoppy ESB- Hargraves hill for instance.. I feel like this could be close. Is it enough to boil some water and run it through the ball valve on the keggle? taking it apart is a pain.

 

[Mizz]

Great Head - I might take you up on that offer at some point.

 

[NealK]

I am no expert but have had a few shit tasting beers from my BIAB. How are you transferring the wort to the cube? I have been just opening the tap and letting it pour in to the cube. I think this may be causing oxidation which is not showing up until after fermentation. Samples from fermenter taste good until after cold crashing. Then the beer gradually tastes worse adn worse as it gets older (Nail polish aroma and off flavour). Both bottles and keg have the same flavour. I am going to change the birko tap to a ball valve and transfer via silicon hose and try to get zero splashing next batch to see if that fixes it.
I hope this information is useful to you and if anybody can confirm or deny this may be the issue it would be helping me too!
Cheers
Neal

 

[Mizz]

Hey NealK,

I use a ball valve and a silicon hose that reaches to the bottom of my cube so i don't have that issue. You should definitely not do that!

 

[jaypes]

I am no expert but have had a few shit tasting beers from my BIAB. How are you transferring the wort to the cube? I have been just opening the tap and letting it pour in to the cube. I think this may be causing oxidation which is not showing up until after fermentation.

Hot side oxidation is negligible, oxidation after fermentation is the one that will turn good brews bad

 

[Mizz]

Yeah Jaypes is right there. Ball valve and hose is good though.

 

[jyo]

Especially if your squeezing the crap out of your bag when sparging.

That's gross, Truman.


From the initial description of thin and wine-like, I am siding with infection as the culprit.

 

[Mizz]

I just tried a bottle.. i'll also add that this is not overpowering its just not pleasant.. no mouthfeel and a tiny bit of a sharp -wine or cider character only at the back and of the pellet. I can tell it would have been good! should I be adding sulfate to melbourne water to bring out hop character? from what i can tell on the EZ water calc we dont have any!

 

[Nick JD]

What's the SG of the beer you are drinking? Can you measure it at 20C when flat and post it?

That will rule out half of this thread's conjecture immediately.

 

[iralosavic]

Your spider instinct will tell you to stop drinking your beer if it's infected! - well mine does anyway. There's usually something slightly medicinal or some kind of unusual flavour that makes you raise one eyebrow, even if it isn't bad enough to spit out on the floor.

I agree with Nick; use science! If the FG is suspiciously low, all other observed variables point towards an infection. If the FG is NOT lower than acceptable ranges, then we can keep tossing ideas around for another few days until someone else comes up with another way to use science. I like saying science, although now the sc letter combination is starting to look stupid. SCience. :/

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Won't be the crush - I used standard crush at CB for a year or so and it wasn't an issue.

In fact I asked Ross for a BIAB crush in my early days and his response was "makes no real difference". I stuck with that, and I didn't have a problem.

My dough's still on infection.

 

[Mizz]

nickJD- got a strong chocolate coffee porter, and a rye ipa in two hydrometer samples now. I'll wait till it's flat and get back.

didn't think it would be the crush seem to get reasonable efficiency.

 

[manticle]

Yeah 65-66 is on the lower end for body

?

 

[manticle]

I've decided to clean the hell out of my all my plastic equipment with bleach-then boiling water-then sodium metabisulfite-then soak in no rinse sanitiser overnight-then rinse again with boiling water. I'll make batch of beer I've made and see if I've fixed it.

If it doesn't then replace the plastic.

 

[bum]

OP, try to ignore most of this complete shit-show of a thread. Consider all the infection related advice. Everything else can pretty much go get stuffed.

Never read so much crap in my life. So many assertions based on nothing. Not your context. Not science. Such a horrible thread. Really.

 

[jc64]

I quite like the thread, though I did just talk about infection related info Mr Bottom.

 

[mattdean4130]

Thanks again,

Nick JD- Yeah I've been cleaning my taps just not taking them apart, but I'm fairly thorough. I do it until i can't see anymore discolouration then run the sanitiser through it for 60 seconds or so.. Ps I've opened and cleaned them now.

FWIW - and this comes with a disclaimer that i know absolutely nothing and have never attempted anything harder than a tin of coopers and some hops, but last year i had three brews in a row fail. All tasted like vinegar.

I bleached the shit out of my PET bottles, fermenter and everything in contact with the wort etc after failed brew one, and in between 2 & 3. One thing i didn't do was disassemble my tap (because at the time i didn't realise it pulled apart)...

Well, after an extended hiatus of brewing (because of said failures, and wasted money, and frustration) i finally got the nerve to get back into brewing. I got some pink powder stuff from my local brew shop that burns my nose if i get a whiff - i soaked everything including my pulled apart tap in that. I also did the same with bleach, and repeated. I moved to glass and threw the PET bottles (just seems that much cooler bottling with glass anyway) - i'm two weeks bottled into the first brew i've done back and there's no vinegar. Infact, they're tasting quite nice (a little malty, but they're very young!).

I'm unsure whether my problems were bottles (as i've heard from a couple of locals PET's are renowned for harboring bacteria), or something else. What i do know though, is those taps are a haven for bacteria when inspected pulled apart. Lots of tiny little nooks and cranny's...

My tap was a coopers kit tap,

That might have all been a waste of time, but i thought i'd share anyway.

 

[Cocko]

Sorry, TLTR - how long have they been bottled?

 

[manticle]

Never read so much crap in my life.

You're on here a lot so I'm not sure how you can be so certain.