West Brew Golden Ale Problems

[rodsolo]

My son-in law and I bought all the gear for this. He's made his but I haven't as yet. His brew has a smokey taste that puts you off the thought of making it. Our local HBS in Toodyay gave us Edme european style lager wort instead of Muntons. Does any one have any suggestions on what may have gone wrong? :icon_vomit:

 

[Kleiny]

What exactly did you make

kit with what extra's, what temp was it fermented at, what yeast did you use, did you add any hops, how long did it ferment for, and can you describe the off flavour ?

this info may give us some more to work with

 

[rodsolo]

The brew was exactly as listed in the Full bottle news letter.
Edme european lager instead of Muntons Premium;
Black rock Liquid Light malt 1.5 kg
250g cracked Carapils malt
250 g Dried wheat malt
25g Amarillo hop pellets
Safale us -05 yeast.

Boil 1 litre water add Carapils malt and simmer for 20 min.

At 19 min add Amarillo hop pellets simmer gently for 1 min.

Turn off heat rest for 15 min, strain and then add to other ingredients.

Final volume 21l.

Wayne's does not have a slightly citrus aroma as suggested. At first I thought he might have burnt the Carapils malt, but he didn't.

I hope this helps.

 

[flattop]

Can't help much except to ask...
When was it brewed?
Is the wort smokey at bottling time or has it been in the bottle for a few weeks?

I suspect the wort substitution is not to blame.

 

[mwd]

My uneducated guess would be tanins from the Carapils Malt.

"Boil 1 litre of water add Carapils and simmer for 20 mins " ?

I think you should be steeping the Carapils at about 65 C for 20 mins then pull out the malt grist before boiling and adding hops for the required times.

From other posts (Grain Steeping ) Use 750cc boiling water +250cc tap water should give 1 litre @65 C
Put the pot in a oven set at 100C for steeping time period to maintain around 65 to 70 C. ( Thanks to Buttersd70 for that last useful tip ).

 

[Fermented]

Not sure where the smokiness comes from, but it might be from the not completely correct instructions.

Usually, specialty malts are steeped not simmered or boiled. 70C for 20-30 minutes. You could try it as boil the water, take it off the heat, drop the Carapils in, wait 20, drop it into the wort.

Higher temperatures extract tannins and others from the specialty malt which can lead to undesirable flavour side-effects.

Have a look around the forums - lots of good info that will enhance your technique and end product.

Cheers - Fermented.

 

[Kleiny]

Boil 1 litre water add Carapils malt and simmer for 20 min.

At 19 min add Amarillo hop pellets simmer gently for 1 min.

Boil water and wait until it returns to 65C then add carapils and steep for 30min

strain the liquid extract from the carapils into a pot and bring to the boil / boil for 30min and add the amarillo hops, and any other extract 5min before end of boil, (leave out the wheat malt unless its extract because the wheat malt has to be mashed to convert its starches to suger)

At the end of the boil add it to your fermenter and top up with cold water until you reach 23L

ferment as usual once the temperature has reached below 26C so as not to harm the yeast

try to keep temperatures stable during fermentation at around 18-20C for ale yeast and 10-14C for lager yeast

the above should improve your beer and if you find your original gravity a bit low add some LDME (light dry malt extract) to bring it up to around 1.046

oh and dont forget to clean everything

cheers
Kleiny

 

[np1962]

Have done this exact kit+
Brewcraft instructions do say simmer grain but everything I've read since says steep at 65c
I kept a very gentle simmer and mine came out very well, fantastic aroma from the Amarillo!
My thoughts would be that the simmer was too vigorous/heat too high scorching some of the grain in pot??? or tannin extraction.
Go with the suggestion of steeping the grain and putting in oven for 20 minutes to hold temp at 65. Then add hops and sit for 15 mins before adding to extract and water in fermenter as per kit instructions.
No real need to boil the extract from what I understand.
Also keep the temp at 18-20 for fermentation.

Nige

 

[kook]

Smokiness sounds more to me like a phenolic from poor fermentation / sanitation issue rather than the (incorrect) instructions from Westbrew.

I'd go back to the basics here - how is he cleaning / sanitising his equipment? What temperature was it fermented at, and for how long? etc.

 

[rodsolo]

Thanks everyone. I'll try steeping the grain and see how it goes. It's interesting to see that Brewcraft are saying on other recipes(Chimay Blue),to soak the grain before adding to the wort. :beer:

 

[rodsolo]

The Mystery is solved!!! It was Wayne's first partial brew and he didn't realise that you didn't leave the grain in the fermenter!