On Wed, Jan 05, 2005 at 07:48:26PM +0100, Mette Lolk wrote:
> Jeg er ret nystartet som håndbrygger. Jeg har lavet to bryg (min første
> pilsner og min første ale). Begge fik en grim "kemisk" bismag (nærmest af
> medicin) og er nu hældt i vasken.
Ouch, that hurts.
> Jeg har selv en teori om, at det er en afsmag fra min gæringsspand, det er
> en plasttank købt hos brygladen. Gæringsspanden lugtede allerede da jeg fik
> den kraftigt af plast. Jeg gjorde den grundigt rent med kogende vand.
> Jeg har ikke en chiller, og jeg tror måske det kan være problemet, for
> bryggen er jo meget varm, når den hældes på plasttanken. Og derpå står den
> ca. 6 timer inden temperaturen er kommet så langt ned, at gæren kan
> tilsættes. Jeg tænker derfor, at den varme urt står og får afsmag fra
> tanken mens den køler. Men altså, er der nogen som har prøvet noget
> lignende eller har en idé om, hvad der kan være galt?
I don't think those buckets are to blame. I have a few of them myself,
and they should be of food-grade plastic - that should be safe up to
(almost?) boiling point.
This is easy to test: Pour some boiling water in your bucket, let it
cool down the way you cool your beer, and taste that water. Does it have
the same off-flavour?
I suspect more you have an infection. I have had troubles with something
similar, awful chemical off-taste. One way to be sure is to wait a few
days or weeks, and see if the taste gets worse. If it does, then it is
an infection growing in your beer. if not, then it may (or may not) be
of chemical nature.
It is *not* good to wait 6 hours for the beer to cool down. If any
bacteria gets in during that time, it will have wonderful time to
establish a colony there before you pitch the yeast.
I don't have a fancy chiller either, I just put my bucket inside an even
bigger bucket filled with cold water. The trick there is to keep some
water flowing into the outer bucket, to make sure there is circulation,
and to bring in more cold. I use a large waste basket, about 100 liters.
I put a few bricks in the bottom for my fermenter to stand on, although
that is not strictly necessary. And water up to the edge.
Another thing you can do to reduce chances of infection is to use more
yeast. Best would be to make a good strong starter, (a liter box of
apple juice is a well-known starting culture, readily delivered in
sterilized container. Just pour yourself a glass, dump the yeast in, and
wait a day or three. Keep it in a plastic bag (but don't close that too
tight, it will produce lots of CO2).
And, be more careful with your hygiene. Boiling water is good, but in
this case I would use some strong chemicals, just to be sure. Bleach
("klorin") in decent solution overnight to remove any signs of dirt,
rinse well, and then iodophor to kill what is left of microbes. Don't
rinse, but let it drip dry upside down, just in case your tap water
isn't clean enough (has happened before).
If you add water to the beer after boiling it, use only water you have
boiled (and cooled down).
If possible, get someone experienced to look over your shoulder and to
point out details you may have missed. At the same time you will get
lots of practical advice and horror stories ;-)
Good luck with it! Don't let the first bad experiences scare you off a
good hobby.
Remember
sooner or later
it will be beer anyway
-H
--
Heikki Levanto "In Murphy We Turst" heikki (at) lsd (dot) dk
