Slippery Mouthfeel

[Drufazz]

Hi everyone,

My last batch came out with a very slippery mouthfeel. Also has deposits around the neck of the bottles. Taste is off.

Anyone know what causes a slippery feel in the mouth ?

I seem to be having a lot of trouble getting a decent brew lately. I don't know why, i'm very sterile. The only thing that went wrong with this batch is that i set the fermenting fridge too low and it turned off for several hours and the fermenter got up to 28C

Cheers,

 

[sstacey]

i'm very sterile.

I can probably only comment on your beer. Are you brewing largers or ales?
Possible that it is diacetyl which can give an off flavour.

 

[voota]

I was reading something about this in BYO a while ago, I think it sounds like your problem... but if you say your sanitation is good?

http://www.byo.com/mrwizard/759.html

 

[Adamt]

Excess use of maltodextrin can lead to a slimy beer also. The off taste may just be from the overheated fermentation. Is it an infected off taste or just a bad beer taste?

 

[Screwtop]

Even with good sanitisation a couple of my brews became infected with damnosa (ropey bacillus). The wort was really slimey, beleive me if you started drinking a glass you couldn't finish till you reached the bottom, if you get the "yuk" drift. After advice from an experienced brewer in NZ I went back to bleach for sanitising, then after changing to Phos had a number of acetobacter infections so returned again to bleach.

 

[lonte]

Possible that it is diacetyl which can give an off flavour.

Diacetyl is my W.A.G. but if you could describe "off" a little better it may be easier to help.

 

[Drufazz]

I can probably only comment on your beer. Are you brewing largers or ales?
Possible that it is diacetyl which can give an off flavour.

Coopers lager kit i think. I fermented it at 24C though I have been reading 9C is the right temp for lagers.

I used 1KG of raw sugar and 500gms of light dry malt.

Sanitation I have been trying neo pink with 3 rinses of everything and a final rinse of boiling water. I've even tried using rubber gloves thinking it might be something on my hands .... made no difference.

I haven't had a decent brew in about the last 10-12, i'm at my wits end. Bought a whole new fermenter kit even.

I have a coopers ale batch down now in which I filtered the water through the "brita bucket filter", used safe-ale yeast and brew booster sugar... have to wait and see how it turns out.

Though still having trouble keeping the fridge temp stable, will have to get a controller. Just using a timer switch on it atm but we've had some colder days and temp dropped to 16C from 18 ....

Cheers,

 

[sstacey]

Hi Drufazz,
The terms lager and ale refer to the type of yeast. What is written on the can of coopers extract is meaningless (with that respect). You used an ale yeast which ferments well at around 18degC. A few degrees either side will not make that much of a difference between making a great beer and an average one.

Don't give up your brews can and will improve.

For sanitation I use (and so do many people) a phosphoric acid/detergent blend that is sold by many of the homebrew stores as Terminator, One Shot or other brands. I have not used neo pink so it's hard for me to say how well it will sanitise your gear and how many times it needs to be rinsed out.

I think the main problem with this brew was the extremely high fermentation temperature. Try dropping your temp down to 18degC. I know it's not easy without a temp controller, but at least you have a fridge - I only recently got one myself. 16degC won't hurt the brew.

You said you haven't had a good brew in the last 10-12. Were you brewing better beers before this?

 

[Drufazz]

Hi Drufazz,

You said you haven't had a good brew in the last 10-12. Were you brewing better beers before this?

Yes I started off well, my first brew had a seasoned drinker tell me it was the best home brew he'd ever had ! That was in winter and had a friend help me with it who mistook C for F and pitched the yeast at about 12C and left in the fermenter for two weeks (which makes me think i need to get the temps down)

After that brewed about 15 or so more with no probs, through summer at high temps with no temp control. Then I started getting beers that didn't taste nice, one after the other .... nothing had changed in the way I brewed. I've tried so many different techniques ... sodium biowhatisname, bleach, neopink, boiled water, rain water, water from the supermarket.

I'm still wondering about chlorine ... i filtered the last lot through a brita filter which should hopefully remove most of it ...but now i'm wondering about neopink .. heard someone say they had trouble with it.... might try one of the no rinse ones next time, and get a fridge temp control.

Cheers,

 

[pint of lager]

Get back to basics. You have brewed a decent beer before, you can do another one.

Cleanliness. Make sure every surface that touches your brew is clean. Pull everything apart in your fermenter, wash thoroughly with a bleach solution, neopink or napisan. Do not use a cocktail, just one of these products. Remove all gromets, tap, o'rings in lids, airlocks etc. These all need washing, rinsing and sanitising.

Rinse thoroughly, use a no rinse sanitiser such as phosphoric acid.

Ingredients. Get rid of the table sugar. Buy a decent mix from your HBS, at the very least use dextrose.

Temperature. Ales brew at 20 deg. Lagers at 10-12. Lager means a proper lager yeast, most kits, including the supermarket copers lager use ale yeasts as they are cheaper and less confusing for new brewers.

Have a read of the new brewer FAQ, it goes into more detail about these.

 

[Slurpdog]

Drufazz

Ever taken your taps apart for cleaning?
If not, then I'd start.

 

[mika]

Fill in your location Drufazz, might be a AHB member just up the road who can drop by and let you know straight away what's wrong with the beer.....maybe :unsure:

 

[Drufazz]

Get back to basics. You have brewed a decent beer before, you can do another one.

Cleanliness. Make sure every surface that touches your brew is clean. Pull everything apart in your fermenter, wash thoroughly with a bleach solution, neopink or napisan. Do not use a cocktail, just one of these products. Remove all gromets, tap, o'rings in lids, airlocks etc. These all need washing, rinsing and sanitising.

Rinse thoroughly, use a no rinse sanitiser such as phosphoric acid.

Ingredients. Get rid of the table sugar. Buy a decent mix from your HBS, at the very least use dextrose.

Temperature. Ales brew at 20 deg. Lagers at 10-12. Lager means a proper lager yeast, most kits, including the supermarket copers lager use ale yeasts as they are cheaper and less confusing for new brewers.

Have a read of the new brewer FAQ, it goes into more detail about these.

I pull all the fermenter apart and sanitise everything. The next thing I was going to try was a no-rinse sanitiser

The batch I have fermenting now I bought a booster sugar pack from the HBS, and temp has been good at 18 (though did get down to 16 overnight. One thing I am worried about was that when I originally pitched the yeast the wort temp was at 24, didn't have enough cold water to get it down to 18. I've read that yeast is optimized at what temp it's pitched at ? It's been in a week and I just took a reading and it's 1.20, the sugar pack said it should finish at 1.10 so got a while to go.

Btw profile updated

Cheers,