Odd Flavor in Munich Helles

[Ryush806]

I just pulled the first few pints off of my Munich Helles. It's a good beer but it has an odd taste. It's kind of a bitter taste in the center of the tongue. Maybe a little grainy as well. My first though was astringency but it doesn't have that puckering quality that I normally associate with it. Any idea what this "flavor" is and where it came from? I didn't have any grain carry over into the kettle. My mash temp was 154. I didn't monitor the pH this time but I usually do and it's normally fine with this sort of grain bill. I batch sparged and the runnings were at 1.015. Recipe was :

10# Pilsner
12 oz Munich
4 oz Melanoiden
2 oz Hallertau 60 min
Southern German Lager WLP838

Total boil was 90 min due to the Pilsner

Fermented for 12 days at 50, couple days at 68 for diacetyl rest, lagered for 4 weeks at 33.

 

[Ryush806]

Bump. Anybody?

 

[Yooper]

Can you tell me about your water chemistry? the only thing I can think of is having some alkalinity or high sulfate with the noble hops that might be causing that.

 

[Ryush806]

Can you tell me about your water chemistry? the only thing I can think of is having some alkalinity or high sulfate with the noble hops that might be causing that.

This was brewed up at my dad's house which is in a different city than I live in so I don't know the actual water profile. Beer brewed up there tastes good and with a similar grain bill the pH has been fine so I didn't bother measuring it this time.

You might be right about the noble hops interacting with sulfate. We've been thinking about sending off some water for a while now. I guess we better. For some reason the city either doesn't have the mineral report or we haven't talked to the right person yet...