Tannins in Dry Malt Extract?

[Thunder_Chicken]

I made a batch of BierMuncher's Centennial Blonde using the extract recipe, partial boil. It has 3 weeks in the primary, 4 weeks in the bottle right now. It is pretty good except there is a somewhat heavy tannin flavor and I don't have a good explanation as to why it is there. It is not hoppy bitterness, definitely a husky tannin flavor.

The only grains involved are a 30 minute steep of carapils, and my steep was at about 150F so I have a hard time believing that tannin extraction from that is the issue.

Is it possible that they had a bad day at the maltster, and the DME got some tannin? Has anyone had this occur before?

This will age out so I am not overly concerned, but my other batches of CB have been excellent, and I brewed the batches the same way each time. It's a dirt easy recipe so I don't know how I could have screwed it up.

 

[unionrdr]

I've never gotten tannins from extract before. Are you sure you read the temp right?

 

[ACbrewer]

was it just malt extract? or did you have some steeping grains of your own?

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

I've never gotten tannins from extract before. Are you sure you read the temp right?

Pretty sure. My thermometer is calibrated and according to my notes I hit my temperature of 150F without problem. It was a simple 30 minute steep with the flame off.

was it just malt extract? or did you have some steeping grains of your own?

The recipe uses 1 lb carapils, 5 lbs of extra light DME. I do a partial boil. I steep the carapils in about 1.5 gallons of water for 30 minutes at 150F, then remove them, boil, add hops (the hop schedule is modified slightly to account for the partial boil gravity to get the right IBUs). At the end of the boil I have a bit over a gallon of wort. I dissolve the DME in the wort at flameout, then chill it, and add the mixture to 4 gallons of chilled make-up water in the fermenter.

I'm wondering it it is a water issue, but I haven't had this problem with my previous batches and the 1 gallon of wort is the only tap water I use. The 4 gallons of make-up is store-bought bottled water.

 

[cosmo]

Pretty sure. My thermometer is calibrated and according to my notes I hit my temperature of 150F without problem. It was a simple 30 minute steep with the flame off.



The recipe uses 1 lb carapils, 5 lbs of extra light DME. I do a partial boil. I steep the carapils in about 1.5 gallons of water for 30 minutes at 150F, then remove them, boil, add hops (the hop schedule is modified slightly to account for the partial boil gravity to get the right IBUs). At the end of the boil I have a bit over a gallon of wort. I dissolve the DME in the wort at flameout, then chill it, and add the mixture to 4 gallons of chilled make-up water in the fermenter.

I'm wondering it it is a water issue, but I haven't had this problem with my previous batches and the 1 gallon of wort is the only tap water I use. The 4 gallons of make-up is store-bought bottled water.

It sounds like you may be using too much water for one pound of steeping grain. That much water may have a significant amount of alkalinity which may prevent the grains from lowering the pH to below 5.6. A high pH will cause tannins to be extracted from the husks. I would recommend using about 1.5 to 2 qts. water per pound of grain. If your alkalinity is very high, you may even try mixing part distilled water with your tap water. Bottled spring water may or may not have high alkalinity, so that may not be any better than your tap.

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

I thought the grain/water ratio was only relevant for mashing. I can try a steep in 2 qts of bottled water then add the remainder of the gallon to the boil.