MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
I've done a few brew from kits, most have a constistent sour/bitter taste, which I kid myself I can tolerate, but I'd like to sort. One exception is a fruit beer that's 1 year bottled.
I use soft (Edinburgh) water, no issues in the brewing process, kits are decent ones. I'm hoping the issue is a straightforward one...
Any ideas?
Are you using 1 or 2 tin kits? Are you adding your own sugar?
cleaning thoroughly? Tried coopers kits? The Mexican lager kit I've brewed (and am drinking a few pints of right now), is absolutely spot on. Commercial quality.
sour or bitter? both? vinegary or astringent? cleaning and sanitizing everything that touches the beer at every stage is paramount, bottle caps, stirring spoons etc...there is such a thing as sugar bite when using kits that tell you to put sucrose in (household sugar) try same amount of spray malt instead, much better taste
Mostly 2 can kits,I think I've used both spray malt and sugar, no difference. I am diligent with sterilizing. Hard to describe the taste! Not vinegary.
Transferring to secondary fermentation too early?
I don't think so lerk, what would that do?
this thread is useless without a taste, send us a bottle....
I might take a bottle into my homebrew shop and ask...I have issues sealing a King keg they sold me also...
are you bottling? I found a massive improvement in flavour when I started using those sugar tablets instead of a teaspoon of sugar for secondary fermentation. MASSIVE. Plus the amount of fizz is now perfect every time.
If it helps, (it won't), I can now brew beer quite well. The neighbours, who all mysteriously appear to end up with bottles of it, all come back and ask for some more. On the other hand my wine is absolutely awful. Tastes like vinegar every time, even after leaving it long time. No idea what i'm doing wrong.
I was wondering if maybe if the brew was still very lively, could it be consuming the secondary sugars too quickly leaving no sweetness...
I've had the opposite where it took ages to burn through and clarify resulting in a very sweet tasting brew - in fact that ended up down the drain!
Along the same lines, are you keeping the brew cool enough for secondary fermentation?
If you have to use sugar then make sure it is not normal granulated sugar. Use brewing sugar or spray malt.
Clean everything well...this doesn't sound like the problem though
Wait until the fermentation is complete...
Give it time to condition...I only use bottles and leave these in a cool garage for a couple of months at least.
Don't expect it to taste exactly like supermarket beer...homebrew kits are easy but they can tend to have a bit of a homebrew 'tang' to them. You may have better results with 'all grain' brewing.
Also, steady temperatures can make a difference...Hope it's still drinkable anyway 🙂
Cheers all. Gravity never gets quite where it should before secondary, but it has well stopped by then. Yes its conditioned. I heard of tablets you add to the water?
Those brews of mine which have tasted slightly sour have coincided with those which fermented through in warmer seasons and the airlock bubbled away frenetically. I try to brew only in autumn/winter/spring now as I don't have the space for a brew fridge to regulate the temperature.
That's only one of the things it could be down to though!