So I'm pretty new to homebrewing, I've done 4 BIAB batches. In all of my batches (IPA & NE style IPA) I run into this same problem. My last batch (Fort Point clone) I hit my gravity numbers and while checking my FG @ day 6 the beer was a beautiful hazy gold color, very hoppy and tasted awesome! 2 days later I double checked the gravity and it was stable so I bottled it up. After 14 days of bottle conditioning I crack one open. The beer is a little bit darker than my last gravity reading was and there's not much of a hop presence. This is only a 5.76% beer and all I can really smell is alcohol, no hops whatsoever. Alcohol taste is pretty strong too. This was a 3 gallon batch with a 4.5 oz dry hop so it should have a pretty damn hoppy nose/taste. I did some researching, does this sound like a fusel alcohol issue? Would this type of off flavor only become noticeable after bottling? Like I said, right up to bottling day this looked/tasted great. Like a flat Fort Point. FYI, I haven't really been able to fully control my fermentation temp. I have an old mini fridge that quit working. I put my beer in there along with a few ice packs. Ambient temp stayed ~ 68-70 during fermentation. Could this have something to do with it? Possibly got too warm? Used 1318 yeast if that matters.
The darkening of the beer sounds like oxidation could be the culprit. Oxidation will destroy any hop flavor too. It could also be a water issue. What do you know about the water you're using? The hot alcohol flavors sound like fusels. Since your mini fridge isn't working properly, I would look into the swamp cooler method for keeping your beers cooler during fermentation. You say the temperature was 68-70. Was that the ambient temperature or the temperature of the beer? If it was the ambient temperature the beer could be up to 10ยบ warmer, and that would definitely cause some fusels with that strain. Try to keep the beer at the lower end of the recommended temperature range at least for the first 48 hours of your fermentation. That should clear up your fusel problem.
Using RO water and added a little gypsum and Cacl. Yes, that was ambient temp. I purchased the Inkbird temp control and found a nice kegerator. Just brewed another batch yesterday so I'll have true temp control on this batch. This will also be my first kegged batch. Hopefully with those two additions it'll come out a little bit better.
Wash my bottles in dish washer. High temp with no detergent. Sanitized bottles, siphon hose and bottle wand. Used sugar tablets so I could siphon straight from fermenter without transferring to bottling bucket (hoping to lower risk of oxidation...). Filled bottles capping each one immediately after filling. Stored in dark closet at ~ 72-75 degrees
So if this is an oxidation problem, hopefully kegging will help... Since I'll be kegging for the first time in a week or so, any suggestions on how to fill a keg properly would be appreciated! I've researched it a little bit. sounds like cold crash for 24 hrs or so. Purge the keg. Is this done by simply filling keg with CO2 and bleeding it off a few times? Then siphon beer into keg and purge again?
Please describe how the beer transfer goes, For example, is there any splashing when transferring the beer into the bottles? Are there any bubbles inside the transfer tube? Do you use an auto-siphon? There are probably a few more specific questions that I should be asking but I suspect you get the gist of this. Cheers!
That is my process in a nut shell. Sanatize, purge, fill, purge. I usually fill with starsan and push a couple gallons through the tap line as well. I could never bottle without having oxidation issues no matter what I tried. After a week they always turned grey and lost hop aroma. Kegging completely eliminated this issue as well as saves me an hour of time.
Yes, auto siphon. Noticed some bubbles running through the line while filling the first bottle, didn't notice any after that. Maybe a couple bubbles in some of the bottles but nothing crazy. Now that I have the ability to keg, I'm not so worried about bottling, lol. I was just trying to figure out what was causing this. If it's oxidation, hopefully kegging will help
Purging and venting an empty keg a few times wastes much more CO2 (and is less effective) than if you fill up the keg with sanitized solution and push it out with a low psi of CO2.
@Cane80 If you have the ability, I'd recommend trying to do a closed transfer from the fermenter to the keg. That can help cut down on possible oxidation as well.
If the oxidation is due to less than optimum transferring that switching from bottles to kegs is not the 'solution'. If you have the ability to conduct a closed CO2 transfer to the keg that would be an improvement. Cheers!
