disheartened

[yeastinfection]

so ive been breweing for little over 2 years,
it appears that i have all the gear and no idea.
ive thrown away more than i have drank,
ive made numerous beers and one was ok, irish red, the others are disgusting,
one i think burned on the element as it tastes, well burned, earthy and muddy.
the others i cant quite suss , im not very good at describing flavors,
having said that they all taste very alike,
ive even gone back to basics . with 3 smash brews and they are pants as well,
i followed all the instructions, mash at 65 .. even mash out at 75 to see if it made a difference, it didn't.
i use a brew fridge as well so temp control is good ,
i used a new fv on my last brews in case i had an infection, still no joy,
i have a kit waiting to brew but im reluctant to waste the grains until i can work out what im doing wrong,
i clean everything with wvp and starsan , and i think im quite carefull when batch priming etc,
so before i tip my 80 odd bottles of drain cleaner away,,
any ideas what im doing wrong?
im using an ace micro brewer and all grian.
:bow::bow::bow::bow::bow:

 

[Cwrw666]

Everything sounds fine.
But what about your water - are you using tap water or bottled?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

How are your taste buds? (A bit of a stab in the dark)

I have been trying different beers from bargain booze and have tried many and i have a feeling my taste buds are not what they used to be as the difference between them is very small yet Mrs Tea says they taste a lot different, i think the proof of this is my favourite at the moment is Black Wych a 5% Porter beer by Wychwood which once over (as a lager drinker) you couldn't have paid me enough to drink

 

[yeastinfection]

Everything sounds fine.
But what about your water - are you using tap water or bottled?

i used tap water to start with but as i had issues with my beer i changed to tescos bottled , couldnt taste the difference

 

[Linalmeemow]

It'd be good if you could take a stab at describing the flavour - there are loads of reasons things could be going wrong. Are you using tapwater? What are your recipes? Where are you getting your grain and how old is it? What temperature are you fermenting at? All of these can affect your flavour...

 

[yeastinfection]

How are your taste buds? (A bit of a stab in the dark)

I have been trying different beers from bargain booze and have tried many and i have a feeling my taste buds are not what they used to be as the difference between them is very small yet Mrs Tea says they taste a lot different, i think the proof of this is my favourite at the moment is Black Wych a 5% Porter beer by Wychwood which once over (as a lager drinker) you couldn't have paid me enough to drink

i can relate to that, beer i drink now ,i would never have drank before, but even the wife spat my my beer in the sink,

 

[Sandimas]

Have a go at making an extract brew - DME, some adjunct grains such as crystal malt, and some hops. Keep it simple and see how it turns out.

When I moved to AG I was really disappointed. Everyone said AG would be wonderful, well it wasn't and many of my beers were inferior to my extract brews. Eventually I got there, but it took a couple of years. I felt like I was going mad because the AG advocats couldn't work it out. All I know is that the beer was definately worse - not bad, just not that special.

 

[-Bezza-]

Other than the missus, anyone else tried the beer? I had a couple that I didn't like but others said they were good. I was just being a bit too critical of my beer and striving for perfection too quickly.

Anyone else on the forum live near to you who could run through a brew day with you?

 

[MickDundee]

You say you are using VWP - are you rinsing it enough?

 

[Duxuk]

Send a bottle to a seasoned expert on this forum and see if they can pin it down for you. Don't imagine you'll struggle to find a volunteer!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Send a bottle to a seasoned expert on this forum and see if they can pin it down for you. Don't imagine you'll struggle to find a volunteer!

That is an excellent idea i wish i had thought of it. :thumb:

 

[Sadfield]

Try getting in touch with these guys, I'm sure they'll steer you down the right path.

https://www.twistedbarrelale.co.uk/home-brew-club/

 

[Saisonator]

Have a go at making an extract brew - DME, some adjunct grains such as crystal malt, and some hops. Keep it simple and see how it turns out.

When I moved to AG I was really disappointed. Everyone said AG would be wonderful, well it wasn't and many of my beers were inferior to my extract brews. Eventually I got there, but it took a couple of years. I felt like I was going mad because the AG advocats couldn't work it out. All I know is that the beer was definately worse - not bad, just not that special.

What do you think were the changes you made that eventually got things right?

 

[Sheepish]

Maybe if you list your process those that know a lot more than me might be able to help.

...so recipe, mash temp/time, boil time, hop additions, pitch temp, OG, how long in FV, FG, conditioning time, etc...

...also, is this all from the same batch of grain?

 

[jceg316]

+1 for @Sheepish's advice, and with the recipe if you explain what you are expecting the beer to taste like (naming the style or similar commercial beers).

 

[ACBEV]

Are you tasting your beer too early! The beer I brew often is yuk at first, but given a little time turns out quite good and sometimes really nice. My last but one brew, a Yorkshire Mild, I was awful at first, but now is really tasty.

 

[ExpatBrewer]

I wonder what yeast(s) you are using? The reason I ask is I had a persistent issue with one particular strain... the very popular ale yeast US-05. Almost every time I used it my brews ended up a very phenolic - 'bandaid' flavour, which is absolutely horrible. I explored all options I could think of to try explain this: sanitation oversights, water chlorine content etc etc but couldn't really pin it down. One thing was clear though, the issue never occurred with other yeasts... only US-05. Needless to say it's now on permanent ban from my 'brewery'! Just wondered if you may be suffering from a similar thing?

 

[MarkBowie]

Have you got various ones from different stages? If you’ve got some of the older ones and tried them all over again it should be easier to pin point what you consider is wrong with them. Definitely think sending a few samples to someone on here who has been brewing longer then us mere mortals is a brilliant idea.

 

[LesTom]

I feel your pain, my last 2 brews have went down the sink due to tasting bloody awful. This has been after 5 previous brews all being pretty good. I put it down to my immersion heaters going t*ts up after getting frozen during the night that the fermenter has been in the shed. The only up side is it's only been 2 gallons that have been binned.
Keep at it.

 

[Dutto]

:headbang::headbang:

I'm still wincing at the comment "I've thrown away more than I have drunk."

If my brews didn't taste all that good when the 2+2+2 had been completed I just stuck them on a shelf in the garage and tested one every fortnight or so. All except one of them (a Barley Wine) improved over time and became either palatable or a great "must repeat" brew.

Despite your Forum Name, you don't seem to be getting anything particularly wrong on the brewing side so maybe just leaving the brews for a bit longer is the answer.

If you feel that you must still throw a brew away, then I suggest that you keep at least six bottles back, stick them somewhere nice and cool and then try one a month at just below room temperature until the six bottles are finished.

I feel certain that, some time during those six months, you will bitterly regret throwing the other 36 pints away!:wave:

BTW, do you keep a Diary of what you do? I print out the Recipe as per my Brew Day and then add the "What happened." comments in an ongoing Diary that I have on my computer.

From the Diary, an AG Oatmeal Stout brewed back in December has the comment "Ran out of gas so one and a half hour delay on boil." so maybe this is why "Fermentation took SIX weeks. Longest so far!" occurred.

Maybe the two things are not related; but I sure as hell will try to never run out of gas again! :thumb: