Over the weekend I’ve had feedback from @Hopsteep and from the LAB Black Friday Homebrew Competition.
The feedback from @Hopsteep was that my beers (Mild, Bitter, Stout) were thin, we’re over carbonated, and had a bitterness/aftertaste. Frustratingly this is not my experience serving the same beers from the keg so I need to get my head round this because it’s happened before, more than once, in competitions.
I’m wondering if by overcarbonating the beers I’m introducing excess carbonic acid and giving the beer a harsh bitterness. To test this idea I’m going to carbonate two bottles of the same beer (Mild) to different levels of carbonation.
Both of the 500ml bottles will be filled from the keg which is pressurised to 5psi and is stored at about 12C which should give me about 1.4 volumes of CO2. As I fill the bottles there is only atmospheric pressure so most of that CO2 will escape. As I cap the bottle I squeeze it to expel the last of the air in the head space (about 1cm). I need to add priming sugar to take up that head space and replace the CO2 lost from depressurisation. So in this trial…
One bottle will get 0.5g of sugar which I hope will just fill out the head space and replace the CO2 that escapes through bottling. The other bottle will get 2g of sugar which will most likely take me somewhere between 2 and 3 volumes. You’re welcome to do the maths for me
Then in a couple of weeks I’ll provide feedback on the results. I’m hoping this will address the carbonation and bitterness issues, it may also address or reduce the issue of the beer being thin but I’m going to look into that further, maybe raise my mash temperature a couple of degrees and test the mash temperature with a thermometer rather than rely on my Inkbird.
The feedback from @Hopsteep was that my beers (Mild, Bitter, Stout) were thin, we’re over carbonated, and had a bitterness/aftertaste. Frustratingly this is not my experience serving the same beers from the keg so I need to get my head round this because it’s happened before, more than once, in competitions.
I’m wondering if by overcarbonating the beers I’m introducing excess carbonic acid and giving the beer a harsh bitterness. To test this idea I’m going to carbonate two bottles of the same beer (Mild) to different levels of carbonation.
Both of the 500ml bottles will be filled from the keg which is pressurised to 5psi and is stored at about 12C which should give me about 1.4 volumes of CO2. As I fill the bottles there is only atmospheric pressure so most of that CO2 will escape. As I cap the bottle I squeeze it to expel the last of the air in the head space (about 1cm). I need to add priming sugar to take up that head space and replace the CO2 lost from depressurisation. So in this trial…
One bottle will get 0.5g of sugar which I hope will just fill out the head space and replace the CO2 that escapes through bottling. The other bottle will get 2g of sugar which will most likely take me somewhere between 2 and 3 volumes. You’re welcome to do the maths for me
Then in a couple of weeks I’ll provide feedback on the results. I’m hoping this will address the carbonation and bitterness issues, it may also address or reduce the issue of the beer being thin but I’m going to look into that further, maybe raise my mash temperature a couple of degrees and test the mash temperature with a thermometer rather than rely on my Inkbird.
