Messages

1

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Soapy off flavor

« on: January 20, 2013, 07:58:23 am »

Keith, did you try the blind taste test yet?  I am interested to know if it fixed the perfume character. 

One of the things about 'lipids' is that it is all encompassing for all types of oils, fat and waxes, and includes fatty acids, sterols (phytosterols), triyglcerides, cholesterol and some vitamins.  Basically, any generic compound that is (or partially) hydrophobic.  In yeast, it includes the membrane bound phospholipids and the intracellular vitamins, sterols and free fatty acids.  I imagine if you do a standard methanol:chloroform extra with hop pellets, they would test positive for 'lipids', as hops contain many hydrophobic compounds including oils, resins, sterols, alpha acids and beta acids.  I think the hop oils should generically fall into the category of lipids, but I am not sure about the extent to which AA and BA are classified organically.  I guess my point is that I think you can still get oxidation of lipids without yeast coughing up their guts.  Oxidation of isomerized AA, or the often neglected BA, could easily occur while we oxygenate our wort prior to fermentation, or any point downstream.  Additionally, no one discusses the 'plant' parts of hops which are loaded with phytoesterols (lipids) and consequently make their way into beer.  If Fix is correct, then the soapy (perfumy) character of oxidized lipids could be coming solely from the hops.

2

Beer Travel / Re: Louisville, Kentucky

« on: January 20, 2013, 07:15:06 am »

The folks at Apocalypse are excellent people.  They are all 10+ year homebrew club members who started their own brewery.  Unfortunately, they still work real jobs and are only open on Fridays and Saturdays. 

The only place I know of to get your AHA discount is BJ's.  They have good food and beer, but are pretty for away from the main beer scene here.

3

Beer Travel / Re: Louisville, Kentucky

« on: January 18, 2013, 08:50:28 pm »

Two must visit places are the Holy Grale and Sergio's; the Louisville Beer Store is pretty good too.  My favorite breweries are BBC and Cumberland; both serve excellent food btw.  We also have a Gordon Biersch if you like lagers. 

4

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Soapy off flavor

« on: January 10, 2013, 07:43:24 pm »

George Gix attributed soapy esters to lipids in the beer.  I have noticed soapy aromas especially when using EKG and Challenger hops.  Both were high in beta acids, and I have wondered if the oxidation of betas produced the soapy aroma. 

Also, I keep cognizant that sometimes we associate a flowery aroma with soap because soaps all use flowery fragrances and additives.  It may just be a normal hop aroma or flavor that over time we have come to associate with soap. 

Do you have a reference for autolysis producing soapy off-flavors?

5

General Homebrew Discussion / CO2 scrubbing attempt

« on: January 05, 2013, 04:46:23 pm »

I made a German lager that ended up with a little DMS in the finished beer.  Otherwise, it was malty and delicious with no oxidation or contamination character.  I wasn't sure if the DMS might correct itself with some lagering, so I decided to try to scrub it out with forced carbonation.  For a week, each day I released the pressure in the keg, then repressurised by filling through the liquid stem.  This bubbled CO2 through the beer, and I hoped would force out the DMS.  I don't taste much DMS now, however, the beer tastes like it has aged past its prime and tastes oxidized.  I never took the lid off the keg or exposed the beer to air, so I am not sure why it is now oxidized. 

Anyone else experienced this while trying to scrub with CO2?  Thoughts?

FYI, 100% pils, FWH hallertau, 90 min boil, whirlpool chill, wlp833 (4L starter), 4 weeks @ 50F, transfer under CO2, 6 weeks @ 35F, 15 PSI @ 35F. 

6

Commercial Beer Reviews / Re: Unibroue la Terrible

« on: January 01, 2013, 07:58:32 pm »

I believe Unibroue is the best brewery in Canada.  Love their beers.

7

Ingredients / Re: Too much lactic acid?

« on: January 01, 2013, 01:44:55 pm »

The volumes sound reasonable, but it ultimately depends on the acid concentration and buffering capacity of your mash. 

8

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Fermentation Temperature wih WLP028

« on: January 01, 2013, 08:35:29 am »

I have had issue with WL recommendation for this yeast for some time now.  If it truly is a Scottish strain, then it should be adapted to cooler fermentation temps (well, historically at least.  With modern breweries the rules change a lot.). That said, I always use WLP028 at 58-62F and it chews through big beers nicely. 

9

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Increase in FG in secondary?

« on: January 01, 2013, 08:29:44 am »

Maybe your airlock wasn't on tight and you evaporated 40 percent of your beer off.

If you didn't de-gas your secondary sample, you might have had CO2 bubbles lifting your hydrometer.

+1 bubbles, measure again and spin the hydrometer

+1

10

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: That German Lager flavor, round 2

« on: January 01, 2013, 08:27:03 am »

IIRC, Kai's conclusion was that it's the aging.

I thought the same, but I found a quote from Kai while reading threads this morning.  From another thread Kai started:

« Reply #9 on: December 04, 2012, 02:55:20 PM »
Quote
I think the cold conditioning portion of lager brewing is less important that we think. I also think it makes a difference, but it's easy to get away without it. Currently both my freezer chests are broken and I'll have to get away w/o properly "lagering" my Schwarzbier. At least it's winter and my basement is at ~60 F

Kai

11

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: They do a lot of things "wrong" yet the beer tastes fine

« on: January 01, 2013, 08:22:57 am »

Last night I joined my Boss at DejaBrew, an on-premise brewing place in Shrewsbury MA, to watch him and his friends brew a few batches of beer. Like many on-premise brewing places the brewing process is largely extract with specialty grains.

First thing I noticed is that even starchy grains like Aromatic and Rauchmalz get "steeped" in the full water volume while the water heats to 180F. No "proper" mash here but the beers don't seem to suffer from starch haze either. Looks like that even at the high water to grain ratio, that exist, the starches that make it into the water convert just fine.

They also pitch a single WL vial into 10 gal of cooled wort, even for lagers. The ales tasted fine and were enjoyable. The lagers were ok too, but did lack some of the flavors that I like in them. But none of the beers had off flavors that we commonly associate with under pitching.

Wort is aerated by shaking the heck out of the fermenters, which are plastic drums lined with plastic bags. I think that should be sufficient for the ales.

They used to have in-line aeration and propagated their own yeast, but got rid of it b/c they found that the additional work was not needed.

Go figure.

Kai

I am assuming the beers you drank were from previous brews?  Any chance the examples you were drinking were made with a little more TLC than the ones they make for customers?  It will be interesting to hear your evaluation once you taste the beers you made that day.

12

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: cold break

« on: January 01, 2013, 08:11:35 am »

I like to switch over my immersion chiller from tap to ice water once I hit about 80F, which takes the wort down to 40F.  It is impressive how much break falls out.  Sometimes it interferes with how much wort I can transfer cleanly to the fermenter. 

13

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: BJCP Tasting Exam

« on: January 01, 2013, 08:02:06 am »

By now the details of the styles should be memorized.  Now you need to get some fluency with judging and writing.  I would get a few classic examples of some styles, sit down with them and fill out a BJCP scoring sheet.  Then repeat and repeat until the structure of the responses come flowing out as naturally as possible.  Physically write out your responses until until you get some consistency in how you are presenting your evaluation.  Read the BJCP examples and mirror their flows and patterns to tasting and evaluating beer.  After a few times, evaluate a beer as if it were a different style. How would you evalute a dry stout as an APA?  How would you 'fix' the beer to taste like an APA?  All good practice for developing your own personal judging style. 

14

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Thermometer?

« on: January 01, 2013, 07:51:06 am »

Right, I was making the distinction for beer, and assuming (maybe incorrectly) he wanted to monitor fermentation temp.  I recirculate, so monitoring the outflow of the mash with the infrared is quite accurate.  No single thermometer in a single place is accurate for a static column of mash. 

15

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Secondary fermentation

« on: January 01, 2013, 07:45:14 am »

One thing that I always keep in mind on this debate is santitization.  Not all of the tales of off flavors come from the beer sitting on the yeast cake too long, but rather bugs that made it into the beer. 

That said, yeast are the only thing that will 'clean up' your beer.  If that is what you want, then leave the beer in contact with the yeast as long as possible.  IMO, the only reason to secondary is to 1) leave a little off flavor, and 2) get clear beer fast.  If you want a little yeast by-product, e.g., a touch of diacetyl in an ESB, then transfer to secondary.  If you need to turn over your beer faster and want it clear, then transfer to secondary.  When you transfer beer, you force the yeast to flocculate and fall out of suspension faster.  I believe the theory on this is that the mechanical action of the fluid transfer causes CO2 to offgas, creating bubbles and thereby nucleation sites for yeast to flocc.  There are many pics of this online where people do side by side comparisons, and the rate at which the yeast falls out of suspension is dramatic.