I'm confused

Brewing Processes
21

you’ve got a puzzler here. at those temps you shouldn’t get a lot of fusels or higher alcohols. for the future you might try to cool it just a bit more before pitching your yeast. the ferm temp has a tendency to rise over the ambient temp. sounds like this wasn’t the problem here, but still.

on fermenting in the keg… no difference as far as the carbonation is concerned, though it is harder to control in getting a desired specific level of carbonation. you do end up with more trub in your keg, but that’s usually not much of a problem. folks that do it regularly generally cut a bit off the dip tube to better insure that the trub is left behind. but as Denny points out, carbonation is carbonation. you’re going to need a tank & regulator to serve the beer anyhow, so it seems better to me to take advantage of the ttank to get your beer carbonated exactly to the level you like.

22

I understand the concept of CO2 being CO2. My concern is that I over carbed the Tripel, is it possible to over carb naturally? or does the beer hit some sort of equilibrium and stop carbing?

23

The only other thing I can think of is that I may not have cleared the keg of O2.

24

It sure is possible. If you give it too much sugar it will over carb. In a keg, not such a big deal, you bleed a little off and your good to go. in a bottle… BOOM. well, potentially at least.

Could it be an issue of stressed yeast?

25

Ya know, a strong beer takes a little time to mellow out.  Sometimes when they are young you can get a solventy type flavor that dissipates in a few weeks.  You don’t taste it in the bottled beer because they were bottle-conditioned - a bit sweeter when young from the sugar, but when carbonated the bottles have been aged a bit longer than what you have in the keg.  Does that make any sense?

26

Yes, it does. I’m sorry to keep asking questions, because I’ve already tossed a tripel due to this off flavour, I really need to solve this.

When I first kegged it, it tasted bloody amazing, Now, it tastes mediocre.

27

It’s much harder to accurately control the carb level via priming than it is through force carbing.

28

That would have a completely different effect than what you described.

29

What sort of effect would it have?

30

Most Tripels are highly carbonated, so I can’t believe that too much carbonation is causing the problem.

One thing about kegging is that you get all the yeast and hop sediment in the first pours, while when bottling it stays at the bottom.  Are you sure this harshness isn’t something that is just less noticeable in warm or flat beer?

31

Oxidized beer (what you’d get if you didn’t purge the O2) can taste cardboardy, kind of flat (flavor, not carbonation), maybe a bit like sherry, or have weird caramel flavors to it.

32

Oxidation from poor handling can lend a wet cardboard or staleness in the malt profile. Sometimes it can also be a sherry like flavor. This can be mitigated by purging the keg of O2 with CO2 prior to kegging.

I didn’t see you mention whether you made a starter or did you use dry yeast. Also for future reference, I recommend pitching a few degrees lower than 68F for most ales.

33

Now that is an interesting thought, although, the first few pours of it in the keg I thought were bloody amazing. It’s only after it sat for about a week, at 11 psi @34F that I noticed this harsh flavour. I de-carbed it and some of the original flavour came back.

what carb vol. should a Tripel have at 34F

34

[quote]I didn’t see you mention whether you made a starter or did you use dry yeast. Also for future reference, I recommend pitching a few degrees lower than 68F for most ales.
[/quote]

I Used a Wyeast smack pack and dry yeast

I actually had a discussion about this before pitching which is here:

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=6319.0;topicseen

I’ll take the advice about under 68 into consideration next time.

35

Having reread the discussion about on the other thread, I’m beginning to wonder if the yeast (ab)use didn’t have something to do with this. Although, the last time I made a Tripel and kegged it I only used dry yeast, and it ended up tasting the same.

I’m almost sure it has something to do with the CO2. Although I am wondering about the first pour, I’m taking small samples every few days to see if there are any changes.

Also, when you guys carb a corney. Do you connect to the serve connector to cause the bubbles to move up thru the beer, or not. I haven’t done this, but I’ve been reading about it being the preference at various places on the internet.

36

Also, when you guys carb a corney. Do you connect to the serve connector to cause the bubbles to move up thru the beer, or not. I haven’t done this, but I’ve been reading about it being the preference at various places on the internet.

[/quote]

You can do that, I don’t.  Connecting to the gas and gently shaking will give you the same effect and you don’t have to worry about changing your disconnects.

37

Curious as to what dry yeast you would use on a Tripel…

38

I’ve done it both ways and it makes absolutely no difference.

39

I force carbonate from the top but it shouldn’t make any difference where you force in the CO2 other than some agitation of the liquid when forcing directly into the liquid.

CO2 is CO2 no matter how you slice it.  :slight_smile:

40

Fixed it :wink:  Physics says it will make a slight difference.  You could also sub in the word practical, appreciable, significant, real, or run it through a thesaurus if you’re bored. ;D