Have a question as this is the first time for me. I make a black ipa and it has a burnt flavor. At first I thought it was my heating element in my rims tube. Then when I went to my HBS to get more grain, I found that the scale doesn’t register until you get to 1#. I remember adding chocolate malt and the scale kept going to zero, this was before my primary grain. I think I had almost 1# when the recipe called for 8oz. If I had too much chocolate would it give the beer a burnt flavor?
Could you share your recipe, and then describe how the heating element is cleaned after use? I’m asking for more context, thanks.
Heating element always cleaned after use, but it was an el-cheapo. I’ve since purchased a stainless steel one. Here’s the recipe.
Scorching from an electric element will taste like ash tray. If you did not have a low density element that probably is the problem.
+1
I did this on a beer a couple years ago. Ended up with noticeable burnt “chuncks” floating around as well. The wort carbonized the element so badly that I nearly replaced it to avoid the cleanup. If you scorched it, you would know.
Have you successfully used the rims tube before?
I think 1# of chocolate malt in a 5G recipe could be perceived as a dark roasted coffee flavor. Depending on the intensity you may perceive that as burnt.
Even if you used a full pound of the chocolate, it would only account for about 6.2 % of your grist. Adding about 10.5% for the caramel malt you used means about 17% of your grist is dark grains.
Most of my stout recipes have about 15% dark grains in them including grains with Lovibond ratings higher than the crystal you used, and they taste good to me and some of my friends who like stouts.
If I bumped up my percentage of dark grains by another 2%, would it make my brew taste burned? I don’t know.
Yes, this batch number 15 or so on my rims setup.
Tough one. I asked about how often you have used your system because if the other 14 batches didn’t taste burnt it may be a recipe issue. But, the element hypothesis has merit too.
Good luck.