BIAB lager recipe?

[john_drummer]

eeeuuuuwwwww that's nasty

something must have gone wrong somewhere along the line

[mayersbrew]

I would give it a while, maybe another 3-4 weeks in the bottle. I have had a couple of bad brews lately, the latest has been bottled in the fridge for about 2-3 months and is just about drinkable. The one before that I tipped away . I have never had a problem until I decided to try my tap water out. Its maybe a little change that has caused the problem but we are talking about chemistry here and it may come good in the end
Good luck with the daunting wait !

[john_drummer]

I brewed it in January, my second ever BIAB.
lagered in a secondary FV in the cold greenhouse for about 6-8 weeks*.
bottled 2-3 weeks ago. never had a problem with my other BIAB batches, or any Coopers Lager kits. I have no idea what went wrong, or when. maybe it was in the mash, maybe in the boil, maybe in the lagering. It wasn't good when it went in the bottles & it's not good now, on the basis of one bottle sampled. I'll give it a few more weeks in the bottle but this is definitely not for general consumption.

* I suspect this is where it went wrong but I could be mistaken

[liquidman]

I've tried to make a couple of BIAB lagers now, niether has turned out that good. Aparantly there less forgiving of errors in tecnique because of the "clean" flavour profile. Ho hum just have to try again and try to improve...

Good luck (I'm too lazy so am going for a klosch next!)

A

[RdeV]

Someone had better tell Bribie, his BIAB lagers are trophy winners!
In all seriousness, yes, lagers can be unforgiving, however there's no reason why BIAB is at any great disadvantage- it is just a means to produce wort and not a whole brewing methodology. Temperature control, an appropriate recipe and top shelf ingredients, water chemistry, a generous and healthy starter, long cold conditioning, clearing agents, sensible handling and enormous levels of patience are all required, fail on any one of those and the chances of getting a decent lager diminish rapidly.

[john_drummer]

it has a "soapy" taste, like someone put some fairy liquid in it - is that a yeast / temperature issue? Or perhaps I didn't clean/rinse the FV well enough?

IIRC the temperature of the brew never went above 18degC, but may well have dropped below that overnight - it was January after all.

[EoinMag]

Palmer says
Soapy
Soapy flavors can caused by not washing your glass very well, but they can also be produced by the fermentation conditions. If you leave the beer in the primary fermentor for a relatively long period of time after primary fermentation is over ("long" depends on the style and other fermentation factors), soapy flavors can result from the breakdown of fatty acids in the trub. Soap is, by definition, the salt of a fatty acid; so you are literally tasting soap.

[john_drummer]

I think this is what it may be

[liquidman]

Hi RDve

I'm not suggesting the issue is to do with using BIAB I'm just doing something wrong! I *think* its either oxidising in my FV as it lagers (Not that likely) or sometimes my joint in my sypon hose can be a bit leaky. Its just that a 10 week turnaround is a pain in the back side when all you get at the end goes down the drain

A

[RdeV]

Yep liquidman, I guess was being a little bit rhetorical too!
I can hear you though, the pain of ditching a those months of effort and even worse, the resulting empty keg is just unbearable!
You'd be surprised how some flavours do clean up with a thorough lagering, I have had several of late fermented with 2782PC Staro Prague that tasted like a weak, grainy, beery salsa, so hints of capsicum and tomato flavours going in to the keg but came out a month later almost like manna from heaven. Some flavours we are stuck with though, sounds like soapy is one unfortunately. Don't panic though, learn from these experiences!

[mayersbrew]

I was thinking, you may have had a problem having it in the greenhouse with the sun damaging it. Beer of any kind comes in brown or green glass bottles to protect it from UV rays. Did you have the FV covered / protected from the sun ?

[john_drummer]

sun, in Yorkshire, in January? he he he

the greenhouse roof is opaque polycarbonate, and it's overshadowed by a gurt big cherry laurel tree, but I guess some sunlight could've got at it. unfortunately it's the only space I've got at the moment where the temp is sort of suitable for lagering in the winter months.
I might have another go next winter when I've cleared out the shed, but in the meantime it's Coopers kit lagers and BIAB ales

[mayersbrew]

Get yoursef a old fridge from freecycle or ebay and put it in there to lager (one without a freezer box), thats what I did. I have only been doing kits but getting the gear together to take the plunge into BIAB.