HOME BREW POST BOIL QUERY

[Kamikazio]

Hi all, I hope everybody is doing well. I have just done my second ever home brew batch and I noticed that after the boil, when I transferred my wort to the fermenting vessel it had a few areas of oily looking patches sitting on the top of the wort. Can anybody advise what this is And is it normal ?

When my kettle was emptied, it had a look of foam, typical greenish-ish brown in colour, but it also has white foam in amounts it, I had used a whirlflock tablet for the first time so I wonder if is this that has caused the white foam ?

finally, my recipe calls for dry hopping for 4 days, should this dry hopping start after all 1st fermentation has been completed ? Or during the 1st fermentation ?

mid appreciate every bodies thoughts on the above and thank you in advance

regards

C Mack

 

[Stevieboy]

I would assume the oils were from the hop additions in the boil.

 

[The Baron]

You can dry hop either of your suggestions as it is a point that brewers can not agree on.
1. you can dry hop whilst the 1st ferment is going but not used by many
2. you dry hop after the initial vigorous ferment has slowed down which is my preferred method usually 3/4/5 days depending on how fast your yeast is
3. after it has more or less stopped fermenting say day 7/8 when the yeast has finished cleaning up these are only approx times as the yeast may take longer say 9/10 days
the greenish colour is from the hop residue I would think and yes oils will come out of them so sounds pretty normal to me

 

[Kamikazio]

So, firstly, thank you all for your initial responses, I have now fermented and dry hopped my beer. As I was bottling it (direct from the fermenter) I tasted a small sip of it…. And …. It tasted really bad!! It tasted chemically, with no beer taste at all, undrinkable. I’m worried it’s maybe infected ? The beer smelled great in the glass, but tasted horrendous in the mouth. Can anybody give guidance on what’s gone wrong and if I’m as well throwing the beer away now. I’m half hoping it will improve after bottle conditioning

 

[ScruffyBrews]

The chemical taste could be from a number of things. If you're getting a plaster / medicinal flavour it could be from chlorine entering somewhere in the brewing process, make sure you are using a no rinse sanitiser or make sure all cleaning products are thoroughly washed off anything that comes in contact with the beer. Also, if you have a high concentration of chlorine in your tap water you can add half a campden tablet to your brewing water at the start of the process and let the water sit for a little while which should help. If you have this flavour there's no saving it I know of...

If its more of a white-spirt / nail polish remover flavour it's most likely from your fermentation temperature, if the beer is too hot during fermentation more fusel alcohols are produced which give this off flavour. Aging in the bottle may reduce this flavour slightly but if its a really strong flavour of nail polish its unlikely aging will help.

Hope this helps, and don't be deterred, we've all been there!

 

[Kamikazio]

Thank you for the response, I’m struggling to choose between the tastes you have advised above… could be a bit of both . It’s an IPA I’m making, I pitched at 20degree C and it maybe fluctuated between 19/21 maybe 22 degree C during the fermenting process. I have had the yeast sitting in a spare room (still in packet) for about 2-3months with a fluctuating room temp of about 14degreeC up to maybe 25degreeC on occasions, would this have an impact ? Safeale-US05

Could it possibly be the dry hopping that has caused these flavours straight out of the fermenter ? Maybe I’ll let it condition for a couple of weeks and see if it has faded !! could it be harmful taking small sips to check out ?!

The beer does smell pretty good, I’m assuming if it was an infected batch that it would taste and smell really bad ?

 

[ScruffyBrews]

US-05 is pretty resilient so I wouldn’t say the temperatures have caused the issue you’re describing. I typically keep all my yeast in the fridge but dried yeasts should be fine at room temperature.

When using a lot of dry hops you can get a “hop burn” flavour which would generally dissipate over time, but that doesn’t sound like what you are describing.

Depending on what infects a beer effects how it tastes, this can be anything from a sour taste to phenolic flavours and plenty in between. Just use common sense, if it smells and tastes awful don’t drink it.

My advice would be look closely at your sanitation practices, make sure you are using non-chlorine sanitisers, make sure everything is really clean and make sure that anything that touches the beer is free of chlorine and well sanitised.

I am by no means an expert and there are people here far more knowledgeable than me but sanitation practices would be what I would be looking at if it were me.

 

[Kamikazio]

Thanks scruffy brews, I use Chem San and once sanitised with this I cannot think of any occasion when water touched the wort. Hmmm Hop burn, it does feel as though if I swallowed the beer it would burn … I’m going to let it condition in the bottle for a couple weeks and try again … I’ll let you know how it goes

 

[Stu's Brews]

Thanks scruffy brews, I use Chem San and once sanitised with this I cannot think of any occasion when water touched the wort. Hmmm Hop burn, it does feel as though if I swallowed the beer it would burn … I’m going to let it condition in the bottle for a couple weeks and try again … I’ll let you know how it goes

If you are using ChemSan then there should be no issues with that causing the taste.

As others have mentioned, it could be chlorine in your water supply. Do you use tap water and if so, do you do anything to treat it?

Do you use a yeast starter or do any calcs to estimate how much dried yeast you should add? If you under pitch your yeast (i.e. use less than is recommended) then it can cause rapid yeast growth, which generates fusel alcohols (amongst other things) that can give the burning sensation you describe. I've had this problem in the past and found that using a yeast starter to make sure I had an appropriate pitch rate made a significant difference.

 

[Kamikazio]

Thanks for the reply Stu’s Brews.

I do use tap water and didn’t treat it, this is my second brew, the 1st brew I done turned out great using the same water and not treated… maybe I just got lucky.

I bought my recipe kit from the malt Miller online, it came with the bag of yeast, I assumed that this was packed to suit the recipe, maybe it wasn’t. I don’t do any yeast calcs or use a starter…. It’s all a bit new to me, but I’m not sure I changed any methods on this brew from my last brew (other than using a whirflock tablet).

 

[Stu's Brews]

Thanks for the reply Stu’s Brews.

I do use tap water and didn’t treat it, this is my second brew, the 1st brew I done turned out great using the same water and not treated… maybe I just got lucky.

I bought my recipe kit from the malt Miller online, it came with the bag of yeast, I assumed that this was packed to suit the recipe, maybe it wasn’t. I don’t do any yeast calcs or use a starter…. It’s all a bit new to me, but I’m not sure I changed any methods on this brew from my last brew (other than using a whirflock tablet).

For the water, half a Campden tablet should do the trick. I add mine just before starting to heat my mash/sparge water.

I suspect the yeast packet in the kit is enough to brew with, but still technically under pitched (especially if you are brewing a pale or IPA style). Combined with some fermentation temps on the higher end of the scale then it could definitely lead to excess fusel alcohols and a solvent flavour. A simple solution (before heading down the yeast starter path) would be to buy an additional packet of yeast and add that to what comes with the kit.

 

[Kamikazio]

This is great info, there is more to this brewing than I first anticipated. I am starting to think it may be Fusel alcohols that may be my issue, As it does have a strong alcohol like burn to it.
I think I need to try and get a yeast calculator looked out and pay more attention to this in the future.

If the off flavour dissipates in a few weeks of bottle conditioning, will that confirm fusel alcohols are my issue ?

This is a link to my recipe Eight Arch – Corbel | The Malt Miller

I noticed my original gravity (1058) was way higher than the recipe suggested and final gravity (1027) also higher than the recipe suggests, my gravity calculation says that my final beer is 4.2% when the recipe suggests it should be 5.5%…. Could a stuck fermentation causemy issues ?

 

[Stu's Brews]

This is great info, there is more to this brewing than I first anticipated. I am starting to think it may be Fusel alcohols that may be my issue, As it does have a strong alcohol like burn to it.
I think I need to try and get a yeast calculator looked out and pay more attention to this in the future.

If the off flavour dissipates in a few weeks of bottle conditioning, will that confirm fusel alcohols are my issue ?

This is a link to my recipe Eight Arch – Corbel | The Malt Miller

I noticed my original gravity (1058) was way higher than the recipe suggested and final gravity (1027) also higher than the recipe suggests, my gravity calculation says that my final beer is 4.2% when the recipe suggests it should be 5.5%…. Could a stuck fermentation causemy issues ?

We've all experienced this learning curve at some point so you definitely aren't alone!

This is the calculator I use but there are others out there: Homebrew Dad's Online Yeast Starter Calculator

You may find that the fusel alcohols clear up a bit with more time but I don't think it is guaranteed.

The slightly higher OG suggests you've just had a more efficient brew than assumed in the recipe. Efficiency can vary between 65 to 85% depending on the brewing system.

The high FG does sound like a case of stuck fermentation but I wouldn't expect that to specifically cause the flavours you are describing.