odd taste to all my kit beers

[neil2345]

hi all, i have now done 4 kits all of wich had an odd funny taste at the back of the tongue and didn't taste 'fresh' like you would with a comercial beer, ive tried scammonden dark, norfolk nog, wherry with T58 yeast- (not recommended) and fixby gold, all quite different beers but all had the same odd taste. i thought perhaps was the cleaner so tried iodophor but still the same, doesn't go away with storage and conditioning.
do i have to go all grain to get a good beer without that funny taste??
thanks.

[MightyMouth]

From what I read this is referred to as HBT or Home Brew Taste. Do you use a Campden tablet in your brew water to get rid of the chloramine? If not that might be what you are tasting.

[neil2345]

yes sorry forgot to mention that i use a campden tablet dissolved in the brew water.-
i think it is the home brew taste, does it go away with all grain brew? or is it related to plastic fermenters or homebrew cleaners??
thanks

[MickyD]

I don't know if it would go away with all grain as its probably the actual water your using. It would probably be much better with AG though due to the processes in AG.

My water here has a very strong Chlorine smell to the tap water as it comes out of the tap, and using Campden tablets only reduced the taste slightly.

I have made a Brewers Choice Old Ale (thanks for the advice on this one everybody) using 5ltr bottles of Spring Water from JS, and although it is only 2/3 weeks in the bottle I am fighting to keep my hands off of it.

There is no odd taste at all. The Christmas beers and Pilsner listed in my signature are also made with this water and THB flavour isn't there...at all !

If Campden treatment isnt working I would try the spring water option.

[neil2345]

thanks for the info, i tend to bottle by transfer from FV to a bottling bucket via a tube as per your instructions, then into bottles with a bottling stick, i kegged one beer and it tastes the same. the water from the tap is filtered through a supply filter and the water doesn't have a strong chlorine taste, its quite nice fresh water, ill try bottled water next time to see if that helps, thanks.#

[MightyMouth]

Could you describe the odd taste in more detail? It might give someone more idea what it is. You said the taste doesnt go away with conditioning, how long did you leave them to condition?

[neil2345]

its hard to describe the taste, not tcp or antiseptic, seems to be almost a lack of freshness to the beer and a twang or sharp metal taste, each time ihave a new beer from the kit its there like a theme. the shortest time conditioning was 2w , longest about 10w for scammonden and nog, still the same taste, but perhaps better the longer its left.

[razzrockbolt]

i too have a twang to the after taste of all the kits I brew. I must admit that the beer doesn't generally get conditioned for very long.

[neil2345]

thanks for help, i am on mains water- northumberland water, via plastic pipe, but i do know there is a short black iron pipe manifold where the water supply is split between the 2 houses. . the water comes into the garage on mdpe mains pipe and goes straight to cold taps and hot water is from non vented stainless system, the water tastes fine from the tap.
i will try the dry packs as you suggest, i was going all grain but it would be very disapointing to end up withthe same twang in the beer if it was due to my water, thanks.

[StrangeBrew]

DaaB, do you think there is a possibility of this 'metalic twang' being caused by the kit lme being stored in a can and the lack of twang with the Brewers Choice kits is simply because the dme is bagged?

Hope that makes sense?!

[HantsGaz]

Just going back to the water thread - I've just used JS 5 litre spring water for my current brew (Muntons Imperial Stout) so it will be interesting to see if this has any noticeable HBT. One other good thing about the 5 litre water bottles is that if you pour them from a good height the water aerates the wort really well.

I like the idea about the metal can giving the strange taste to the beer too, as commercial beer can often taste a bit metallic out of the can....

[sparky Paul]

do you think there is a possibility of this 'metalic twang' being caused by the kit lme being stored in a can

It shouldn't be the case, as no metal comes into contact with the contents of a can. The steel cans and closures used for malt extracts are laquered internally, and unless the contents are highly acidic, the laquer is pretty inert, more or less indefinitely.

The problem is more likely to be oxidisation, as DaaB says. You will notice that cans are never completely full anyway, there is always a little air at the top (called the headspace) to allow for expansion of the contents during processing.

[StrangeBrew]

do you think there is a possibility of this 'metalic twang' being caused by the kit lme being stored in a can

It shouldn't be the case, as no metal comes into contact with the contents of a can. The steel cans and closures used for malt extracts are laquered internally, and unless the contents are highly acidic, the laquer is pretty inert, more or less indefinitely.

The problem is more likely to be oxidisation, as DaaB says. You will notice that cans are never completely full anyway, there is always a little air at the top (called the headspace) to allow for expansion of the contents during processing.

Maybe food grade plastic vacuum packaging would work better, as long as it allowed for expansion/settlement?!