Off Flavour in last 3 kits

[pfitz]

If the first one was good and the next three not so good, was the gear all new for the first one?

Maybe an issue with cleaning and sanitising practices that need a tune up.

Just another thought.

I agree with the others, BIAB is much better than kits and REALLY easy.

 

[kahlerisms]

I've tried to take the hose discussion over here

 

[Ivonavich]

He said he uses stc 1000 so temp control isn't a problem.

My bad I must of missed it in reading.....

 

[jyo]

I know the garden hose discussion has been moved elsewhere but as others have suggested, I would be pointing at this as being the cause. When doing kits I filled the fermenter using the garden hose once and the resulting beer was disgustingly hosey. Tipped the keg and never tried it again.

 

[hoppy2B]

I'm not a fan of US05 yeast to be honest. Did you use a different yeast the first time and then get put onto 05 by the people on here. I suggest using a different yeast and see how that goes along with adding some hops maybe.
I've used SN9 yeast with good results.

 

[goomboogo]

I've used SN9 yeast with good results.

What if he doesn't want to use a yeast best suited to wine and cider?

 

[bum]

The sentence before that is uncharacteristically good advice though.

 

[hoppy2B]

What if he doesn't want to use a yeast best suited to wine and cider?

Based on your logic 05 would be better suited to beer production than SN9, but I prefer SN9. What's life without adventure?

 

[stakka82]

If the first one was good and the next three not so good, was the gear all new for the first one?

Maybe an issue with cleaning and sanitising practices that need a tune up.

Just another thought.

I agree with the others, BIAB is much better than kits and REALLY easy.

Yeah I would go with this especially if the gear was new for the first one.

 

[felten]

:icon_offtopic: Most wine yeasts can't actually ferment the maltotriose sugar which is present in wort in a fairly large proportion.

I'd stick with the beer yeast.

 

[JakeSm]

if temperature control is not the issue, then i would lean more towards the sanitisation processes used. if all kits had this twang/metallic taste then people would not buy them at all. maybe there is something being used in your brewing that hasnt been cleaned properly after your first brew.
the usual culprit for this is the tap and tap seal in the fermenter. make sure it gets cleaned really well before starting. as well as everything else, obviously!

 

[hsb]

My guess is that it doesn't relate to unsanitary problems (seems less likely to be consistent over three separate brews to me) but to process/ingredients. With a description like 'crap homebrew' I'm going to take a punt on a 'crap homebrew' process. If that's the water (try a pint from the hose - does it have the same taste?), or underpitching, or from too much sanitiser in the brew, or just sugar/kit twang - first brew is never a good comparison since it'll always be the 'best' on one level and you didn't have a baseline to compare from.

Did you taste it all the way through from brewday to bottling? When did the twang appear?

 

[jaypes]

My sanitation is pretty good, I soak everything in PSR overnight before a thorough rinse with the hose then douse it all in diluted phosphoric acid (country brewer sanitiser)

I almost use 500ml of sanitiser on every brew, spraying everything that comes into contact with the wort.

I tasted it out of the fermenter and it seemed pretty good (no real twang)

It sort of tastes like solvent when you first take a swig then you get the beer flavour

 

[jaypes]

I have got all the kit for a 35-40L batch of AG

I might brew one using the same methods - hose water, sanitiser and see if it tastes the same

 

[hoppy2B]

I recommend you boil the whole quantity of water. I have never had a off flavour since doing this and used to get them all the time hitherto.

 

[jaypes]

Boil the whole quantity for a kit?

 

[itguy1953]

What temp did you pitch yeast at?

Pitching at high temp while ST1000 and fridge reduce temp to 18degc can cause yeast to throw solvents and phenols. This used to happen to me. Now I pitch ales at 16-17 degc and hold for 24 hours, then allow to increase to 18degc.

Also low wort oxygenation can cause off flavours.

 

[jaypes]

I pitched at around 22 degrees and had the stc set at 18 degrees - I suppose it would have taken an hour or so to drop from 22-18. I wouldnt have thought yeast would work that quick and throw that amount of solvent/phenol

Wort oxygenation - well i dont think i have a problem there, there is approx 3 inches of foam on top once I am done shaking the f#cker

 

[GuyQLD]

We have no established baseline and there's been so many changes that it's hard to pin point any one thing.

Surprisingly enough the usual culprits here (temp control, sanitising) seem to be under control, or at least the OP seems to be on top of it.

You don't have to boil the whole quantity if all you're worried about is chlorine in your water supply, leaving it to stand for 24 hours will do that for you and be far less mucking around trying to get back down to temp. I also suggest that you go back and brew that first kit again - whatever you did that time seemed to work and you have some of the big ticket items down pat.

Try and reproduce that brew exactly, if you didn't use the hose, don't use the hose. If the brew comes out just as good or almost as good you know it's not your original process, but one of the things you've changed.

Given that the only consistent change I can see if your water supply (the dreaded hose, oh noes) and I would consider that the rest of your changes to be fairly low risk I'd take a gamble that that is your culprit.

You could even try the original kit with the hose - if it has the same problem it supports it being your problem; personally I think this is fraught with a touch of danger... it might be something else all together and this might end up being a false positive.

Personally, I'd try to copy brew 1 exactly the same and see if I got the expected outcome - that'll rule out most of the other variables (since you've pretty much covered all the basics) and you can move ahead from there knowing it isn't something small and hard to diagnose.

The devils advocate in me wants to know if all the kits were the same manufacturer, but that's more for interest sake than anything.

 

[itguy1953]

I pitched at around 22 degrees and had the stc set at 18 degrees - I suppose it would have taken an hour or so to drop from 22-18. I wouldnt have thought yeast would work that quick and throw that amount of solvent/phenol

Wort oxygenation - well i dont think i have a problem there, there is approx 3 inches of foam on top once I am done shaking the f#cker

I think that you will find that it will take around 6 hours to drop the wort temp from 22 to 18. Enough time for yeast to create phenols. This is exactly the problem I had in my beers before I started to reduce temp to 17 first and then pitch. No more phenols except in my Belgians.