I'm currently drinking out of my 3rd batch. So far I've tasted cardboard a little bit every one. I am using siphoning hoses and bottling cane, no secondary. I just have been getting northern brewer kits and throwing them in 6 gallon primary 3 weeks and bottle 3 more. I was vigourously stirring in sink cooling with ice baths, could this be the problem? Any tips or troubleshooting would be great, thanks.
Until you have the ability to purge/use kegs about the only things you can do to prevent oxidation is work on your siphoning/autosiphoning technique, be gentle when moving fermenters/bottling and/or get a fermenter with a spigot.
If you are vigorously stirring while the wort is still hot then you may be experiencing hot-side aeration. In general, you should never be vigorously stirring the wort except when it has cooled and you're trying to oxygenate it. At all other times (during the boil, while cooling, fermenting, bottling, etc.) you should be gentle to avoid oxidation.
HSA is something I do not worry much about. Any O2 on the cold side after fermentation is bad news. Do not splash. When you rack the beer, have a racking hose that goes to the bottom of the vessel. Start to fill with the vessel at an angle so that you can get the end of the hose submerged quickly.
I'm worried about this too. When I bottle my beer the bottle wand creates like a tiny head on the beer. This is from when I first start filling the bottle before the tip of the bottle wand is submerged. Should I be worried or looking to by a different bottle wand?
If you have foam from the residual CO2 in the beer, that is good. Production breweries cap on foam. Try and tilt the bottle just a little so you get the tip of the wand submerged as quick as you can.
Soo when I got into brewing I went to a little "how to brew" hands on seminar at a LHBS, and the guy stirred the shit out of the hot wort while cooling the batch in an ice bath. Every single beer I tasted that day that was brewed either by the teacher or his proteges all had oxidized flavors. Having read how to brew prior to this class I thought it was strange. At the time I was using ice baths to cool my wort. My first batch was a no stir, the second batch was stirred vigorously. Well, my second batch tasted like oxidized shit. Moral of the story? Pony up and get a wort chiller.
Well, oxidation is the most likely source of a cardboard-like flavor. (The next most likely is probably stale extract, but we can probably assume NB's extract is reasonably fresh. You're not storing it for a long time before brewing are you? A couple days is fine, but longer than that it should probably be refrigerated.) Assuming oxidation is the problem, we should look at the points where that's most likely to occur. Hot side aeration (HSA) is oxidation that occurs before the wort is cooled. It's a little controversial: some people (like me) tend to believe it is not a problem in a homebrewing situation, others take great care to avoid it. Regardless, it's a good idea not to take unnecessary chances: when you stir your wort during the cooling phase, try to do it gently, without splashing. You're not racking, so no problem there. Are you dry hopping? You can get some oxidation there if you're not careful, which is why some guys say you should add the dry hops while fermentation is still active (say, with 10-20% of your gravity points to go). But as long as you're reasonably gentle in adding the hops, you're probably OK. Bottling is the time of biggest risk. Assuming you're transferring to a bottling bucket, you need to make sure the beer is flowing slowly at first, not splashing into the bucket. (You can speed it up once there's some fluid in there and the end of the tubing is submerged, but go slow at first.) Once it's in there, add your priming sugar and stir very slowly and carefully. As you fill the bottles, again, make sure the beer is flowing slowly so that it's not splashing as it enters the bottle. A little foam is OK, but it shouldn't be getting a head on it right away. Regulate the speed by adjusting the spigot and/or adjusting the height of the bottle in relation to the bottling bucket. Cap ASAP. Some people like the 02 absording caps--some say those caps also absorb hop aroma. I don't use 'em, but your results may vary. So... unless you get the ability to purge your bottles with C02, that's about all you can do. My guess is that just by being a little more careful, you'll be fine next time.
I'm not convinced stirring while cooling will cause oxidation. Otherwise all those professional breweries who add a butt ton of hops and whirlpool for an hour after flameout would be in trouble. Personally, I would look elsewhere in your process.
Ok, thanks for the tips, I think I may know where part of the problem lies now from reading these. My siphoning hose kinda floats up with the beer while transfering to bottling bucket, I'll make sure I correct that next bottling day. I may look into skipping the bucket all together if possible, are there not little sugar tabs that you drop in each bottle and then just siphon directly on top? As far as the kits freshness goes, I've ordered 11 so far, 3 with my equipment and two orders of 4 and I've been brewing weekly, so I guess that last recipe is sitting around about a month. I have refridgerated the hops and yeast, should the whole kit go in?
I'd say after you're done fermenting, just try to be swift about your packaging process. You don't want to gargle your beer around the neck of the siphon, you don't want to splash, and you want to get the process done. Don't rush, but don't walk away from your bottling bucket. Stir gently if you need to when adding your priming sugar. Again don't splash. Cap off your beers and then clean up.
