Homebrew twang

I've heard this term used a lot, but is it real, and if so what causes it?

Is it imperfect brewing technique (and therefore just a cover-all term for any manner of off-flavours), is it due to the yeast strains available to homebrewers, is it quality and freshness of ingredients (therefore kits should be worst) or is it down to temperature control? :hmm:

I recently did my first brew (Youngs bitter) and it has a slight tang to it, I put it down to Chlorinated water, but when my dad tried it he said back in the days he use to brew beer that tang was sometimes so strong it would ruin the taste of the beer. But he described that tang as being the thing that all home brews had and essentially the home brew tang.

I have tried a Wherry now so will be interested to see if that also has this tang. :wha:

supersteve said:

I recently did my first brew (Youngs bitter) and it has a slight tang to it, I put it down to Chlorinated water, but when my dad tried it he said back in the days he use to brew beer that tang was sometimes so strong it would ruin the taste of the beer. But he described that tang as being the thing that all home brews had and essentially the home brew tang.

I have tried a Wherry now so will be interested to see if that also has this tang. :wha:

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30+ kits since the 90s. Most had a twang to some extent. The two Wherries didn't and were the best I ever did, although I added extra yeast to avoid underpitch with the supplied 6g sachet and dry hopped.

Extracts were better, and out of the 3 all-grains packaged so far, there's no twang at all, just really good beer, and the 4th tastes fine in the sample jar too.

The few (admitedly cheap) kits I did before switching to all grain all had the same familiar "twang". This was irradicated overnight when I switched to AG and i've not had it since

It is all due to the way the wort is initially produced. this is alemans take on it

the majority of the 'Tang' comes from the mistreatment of the wort during boiling . . . which is done under vacuum so it never really boils anyway (at least not at 100c . . .more like 60-65C). This means that the enzymes may still be active, they don't get a proper hot break . . . hop utilisation is dire (or non existent) so they use pre isomerised hop extracts and not real hops.

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The whole thread and particularly alemans imput on Page 3 gives a good insight.

Have a look Here :thumb: :thumb:

It was a predominant feature of kits from the 70's era,
Needing a long time in the bottle/keg to mellow out.

All 3 of the kits I did had a twang to some extent which improved with time. Two I described as yeasty (still have about 3 bottles of one of them left - these are reserved for making stew) and one as cidery. Not had the problem with the extract or AG brews since. Of course it may be partly as I was a new brewer: the first brew had poor temperature control, the second kit had probably been sat in the shop for ages and the third had a lot of sugar added.

graysalchemy said:

It is all due to the way the wort is initially produced. this is alemans take on it

The whole thread and particularly alemans imput on Page 3 gives a good insight.

Have a look Here :thumb: :thumb:

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So as a kit brewer it's all down to the manufacturer? Nothing we can do to stop the tang?

Some kits are really good plus time in the bottle definitely helps. This is probably why kits are generally better today than they were in the 70s - better manufacturing.

supersteve said:

So as a kit brewer it's all down to the manufacturer? Nothing we can do to stop the tang?

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Some kits are simply better than others, and also how long the kit has been sitting of the homebrew shops shelf. :thumb:

I am happy to hear AG brews don't (or shouldn't) have this. It's definitely my ambition to get to AG brewing, but I was wary of continuing to brew beer if it would always have THBT to it.

in the 80's my friends father used to brew his own beer and sometimes we 'borrowed' the odd bottle. That stuff always had the twang. I have no idea how long the 'borrowed' bottles had been conditioned for but over the 2 or 3 years that this went on for, it always had the twang.

This was one of the reasons that put me off this hobby a few years ago until trying a couple of home brews from a colleague. The first batch I made was last summer and I had issues controlling the temperature. It tasted great when I bottled it, but when I couldn't resist the urge a week later there was a faint twang to it. As this was my first batch it didn't last long and I had been reading about off flavours so I put it down to temperature control.

Anyway I pretty much only do cheap one can kits usually brewed to 18 litres with a kg of sugar. They are kept at 18C for two weeks, finings are added, temperature reduced to 16C left for 2 days, racked, batch primed and then bottled. They are then kept at 18C until I drink them and they get a maximum 30 mins in the fridge. (60 min for lager)

These are ready to drink after four weeks in the bottle and I have never ever had a twang of any kind. Occasionally when I brewing something different e.g a stout and curiosity gets the better of me, I will have a sneaky bottle after two weeks...... HELLO TWANG.. you're back!

So I just call it 'green beer twang'

Anyone still reading this? :lol:

i found it happens when white sugar is used , but not so with brewing sugar... :hmm:

artyb said:

i found it happens when white sugar is used , but not so with brewing sugar... :hmm:

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Have you based this on using the exact same kit brewed in the same way but with different sugars? :hmm:

artyb said:

i found it happens when white sugar is used , but not so with brewing sugar... :hmm:

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I bought two cans with the intention of doing a toucan not long after I started. Then I read somewhere that it wasn't a great idea (on here I think) then I bought something else from Wilko's and the brewing sugar was on offer a £2/kg. Instead of using the brewing sugar with the intended can I did a side by side with two Hoppy Copper Wilko kits, brewed at the same time, same temp but with one using table sugar and the other with the brewing sugar.

Absolutely no difference at all. Needless to say I only use table sugar now.

supersteve said:

artyb said:

i found it happens when white sugar is used , but not so with brewing sugar... :hmm:

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Have you based this on using the exact same kit brewed in the same way but with different sugars? :hmm:

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I was typing it when you were thinking it

You are better off using malt extract or a kit enhancer or better still one of the two can kits. :thumb:

MattN said:

artyb said:

i found it happens when white sugar is used , but not so with brewing sugar... :hmm:

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I bought two cans with the intention of doing a toucan not long after I started. Then I read somewhere that it wasn't a great idea (on here I think) then I bought something else from Wilko's and the brewing sugar was on offer a £2/kg. Instead of using the brewing sugar with the intended can I did a side by side with two Hoppy Copper Wilko kits, brewed at the same time, same temp but with one using table sugar and the other with the brewing sugar.

Absolutely no difference at all. Needless to say I only use table sugar now.

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I haven't done a side-by-side, but my experience concurs. I've done an AG with over 13% cane sugar in the bill. No 'THT' at all. I drank someone else's nearly identical AG: no THT at all.

Aleman's info (via graysalchemy, above) is very interesting and sounds very plausible. An interesting test would be for someone to try to recreate THT in a small AG brew, perhaps by boiling for just 30 mins or something, well before a hot break. :whistle:

Co-incidentally I was discussing this today with a home brewing friend of mine, we have recently swapped a couple of bottles of beer, mine was Brewferm tarweissbier and his was wherry, despite the obvious differences there was a very similar aftertaste, the twang. He thinks my expectations are too high whilst I was hoping that home brew would live up to my expectations of brewing commercial qualtity beer at home, mmm maybe he's right?
Anyway I was wondering if extra long bottle conditioning would remove it (brewferm beers apparently need this anyway, even the wheat?) or if using finings would get rid of the yeasty twang, but if you use finings prior to batch priming does it prevent proper carbonation in the bottle?
So many questions, sorry :?

Another thought as to why kits don't taste as good - they usually seem to come with small packets of dried yeast. They are normally about 5g whereas the decent sachets you buy separately are 11g. Underpitching can definitely produce off flavours.