Tannins!

[NegFerret]

Hi folks,

Not posted on here for a while.

I was wondering if anyone can help me here. I'm aware that if you sparge at too high a temp or sparge for too long you can end up pulling out a lot of tannins which I've read cause a bitter taste (like sucking on a teabag?).

For this reason I used to stop at 1000 (at 60c, about 1010?) to avoid tannin extraction. I also kept tasting what was running out of the mash tun.

I got a bit lazy on the last few brews and have started just tasting constantly towards the end, it's always tasted sweet to me and the sparge has always seemed to run it's course.

The latest brew tasted fine, also tasted good a week after first bottling it. But now it has this incredibly bitter aftertaste...not a good bitterness...and it stays in my mouth for ages. Could this be the fault of tannins? I'm annoyed as it's one of my big brews for christmas :x

Anyone think this might be tannins, or should I just wait and see? Wierd how it's only just started to taste like this, could be because I have a cold I suppose.

Curse my lazy sparge method.

 

[Mark1964]

it could be or it could be left over steriliser or contaminated bottles. On this brew what was the readings with your hydrometer when you stopped sparging?

 

[NegFerret]

I didn't take a hydro reading while sparging as I was just tasting it to check it was still sweet. Would it be obvious if tannins were coming through?

The first bottle I tried (last week) tasted nice. I tested a bottle yesterday to check carbonation and it had this bitterness, checked the keg tonight and had the same bitterness (smelled bloody lovely though!).