Batches Are Like Night and Day! No Twang!

Thought that I would share a story about some obvious but maybe overlooked information to new brewers.

I just drew a pint of a beer from a batch that just finished carbing. I have brewed this same recipe before with the same brewing process and the beer tasted decent (IMO) but was not close to being great; however, on this last batch I pitched two vials of White Labs yeast as recommended by an online yeast calculator instead of 1 vial per White Labs instructions for beers under 1.070 OG.

Holy hell, the two batches are like night and day.

I always assumed (maybe a bit ignorantly) that one vial was good for all batches that were under 1.060-1.070 OG. To be honest, when I was researching on how to brew 90% of sources told me that 1 pack/vial was good for OG's under 1.060. Two books on my desk right now and the instructions from White Labs tell me 1 vial is good for smaller beers. The more that I dug around, I found that even 1.050 OG needs a larger pitch: 2 vials or a starter. So I tried it on this last batch and it blows my mind how big of a difference the beers are. Absolutely no twang or harsh finish. Maybe a beer judge might be able to dissect it and find some things wrong with it, but when comparing the properly pitched batch to the previous 1 vial pitched batches the, properly pitched batch easily takes the gold.

The recipe that I made was 1.050 OG, so I thought 1 vial and good to go. The previous batches didn't come out bad; I could definitely taste some "twang" or some subtle harshness in the finish, but otherwise it wasn't horrible. Definitely drinkable and not disgusting. Other people liked it as well (or maybe they didn't have the heart to tell me that it was bad). But the recent batch puts those other ones to shame.

It's amazing how much of a difference that a proper pitch makes, even fora "small" beer. Sorry if I am rambling but this is like an freakin epiphany to me and I needed to get this out.

On another note, first all grain BIAB batch is scheduled for tomorrow. My starter is underway =) Wish me luck.

Congrats! Controlling fermentation is one of the best things you can do to make better beer.

thatjonguy said:

Congrats! Controlling fermentation is one of the best things you can do to make better beer.

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This is the single best thing you can do for your beer. Pitching enough healthy yeast - and one step better - controlling the temperature of fermentation - will make huge vertical leaps in quality. There have been best of show award winning beers from extract - brewed with proper fermentation.

I find it interesting that you mention "no more twang". Late extract additions usually take care of that. Not to impune your work. On my light hybrid lagerv2,I used one vial of WL029 yeast in a wort of OG 1.055 @ 64F.
Worked quite well,& after 6 weeks in the bottle with a week fridge time,the flavor was like Heineken without the skunking.
Now,I used the same yeast for the dark version,but made a starter for that one. I have to admit it was a bit cleaner & more balanced tasting. And like many dark beers,it was a lower OG than the light version. So this notion def has it's merits,yeast instructions aside...

And now to save yourself another $8.00, I suggest looking into making yeast starters

I found 3 distinct thins improved my beers greatly

1) Late DME additions
2) Full boil
3) Yeast starters

Have fun
Rick

Definitely look into yeast starters. I just started making starters and my beer has improved drastically. Also a little DME costs much less than 2 or 3 vials of yeast.

The starter for my batch today is already underway. Using starters from now on and never looking back.

As others have said make a starter and it really helps.

The two bet things you can do for you brew quality is to pitch enough healthy yeast, and control fermentation temperature. Do those and you will make good beer.

Interesting. Would you say that twang was almost metallic tasting? My buddy and I have been having that same problem, and I wonder if that's the issue...

m0nkeybl1tz said:

Interesting. Would you say that twang was almost metallic tasting? My buddy and I have been having that same problem, and I wonder if that's the issue...

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I think the "twang" flavor comes from LME carmalization during the 60 min boil, hense why most people do late LME or DME additions. But pitching enough yeast and controlling temps improves flavor as well.

You get twang moreso from LME as compared to DME in the boil. But late extraxct additions def help the LME stay lighter colored & cleaner.