bw7hb
Active Member
Well, I've done about 15 brews now, all extract brews, and only about 4 of them have been successful, the remaining ones with this acetaldehyde problem or similar. So I guess I'm somewhat "experienced" but obviously doing something fundamentally wrong still.If you’re a somewhat experienced brewer( don’t take that any type of way, I don’t know you personal so I’m just stateibg generally) and under stand the need for a healthy fermentation and implemented that in your practices, and you don’t have the issue with any other beer style than NEIPAS or hoppy beer styles, I would almost guarantee to you that it’s an oxidation issue. Hoppy styles are notoriously susceptible to oxidation due to how easy the excess polyphenols from the hops oxidize. It can turn to apple cider/sherry wine sweetness and stale the hops completely. I ran into this issue for half a year until Justin from Sloop Brewing was kind enough to try a few of my beers and help me improve on my process. They all started out ok, then would get cider lik and drop in overall hop flavor/aroma.
A lot of ppl use 04 without an issue so it’s extremely hard for me to believe after multiple attempts with the same yeast (multiple different growth generations from the supplier) that it keeps happening. I would think it’s a process issue.
Regarding what you mention about hoppy beers - the last few attempts have had this acetaldehyde issue before any dry hops have been added (and there are none added before fermentation except for what's in the extract kits, which isn't much) so it's nothing to do hops. I've decided not to dry hop until fermentation is 100% complete, so I can make sure I'm not just wasting my hops by throwing them into apple juice. Also I think the hops have been confusing the off flavors in the past. I am using some wheat extract (about 1/4 of the total malt), maybe this is more susceptible to oxidation?
My current thought is that the acetaldehyde detected after a week in the primary was caused by a fermentation issue or infection, then the sherry aroma detected a week later on the second sample was caused by oxidation from when I took the lid off for the first sample. I think I'm going to leave it another week or so and see what happens to it, whether it gets worse etc.
Also I'm going to start a new batch using a completely different extract kit, in my stainless pressure fermenter (easier to clean and no chance of oxidation). Hopefully I can get a few decent batches under my belt and rule out some massive sanitation issue as the cause.
It's a 21 liter beer and the fermenter I believe is around 25 liter total capacity. Fairly standard setup.what size fermenter are you using?
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