Tannin extraction???

[beerdrinker]

Just tasted my 3rd AG and it has a harsh bitter taste to it im thinking its a tannin related thing. The bitter aftertaste kind of hangs around for a while,it was an amarillo ale which tasted better(less harshly bitter)out of the primary before i dry hopped with 15g amarillo in the secondary. I accidently added a few extra litres of sparge water,something like 21L to 7.5kg of grain.Hope this batch isnt ruined

[lethaldog]

21 litres to 7.5kg of grain is certainly not overkill, what temp was the sparge water?

Its also good to have a refractometer on hand so you can test the gravity of the runoff, you would want to stop sparging ( or alot of ppl do) when you get down around 1.010 on the hydro or about 2.5 brix on the refracto

[beerdrinker]

My sparge water was 75C. My last AG had a similar bitterness prob but no way near as severe? could my water be the prob?i also stirred the mash heavily after adding the sparge. cheers

[lethaldog]

I think that you may find that your efficiency is the problem, what efficiency are you expecting when adding your amount of hops, if your efficiency is down on what you expect then this can have a big effect on the bitterness of your brew..

Size of the boil will have an effect though but i imagine that you know how much you are boiling within reason..

[beerdrinker]

Thanks mate! i didnt think about efficiency? set it as 75% with beersmith but didnt take a post boil reading,preboil was about 1.030 and around 35L could be the hops! Was thinking pH or the water profile? cheers

[beerdrinker]

Is tasting quite nice now! still a bit of a lingering bitterness but not bad,has changed a lot in a couple of weeks!

[beerdrinker]

My first AG helles is at 1.026 after 6 days and tasting awesome had an OG of around 1.046. No sign of astringency! not sure if the 5.2 or the dilution with half RO water helped? Still a long way to go but tasting very promising!!! Gonna start 60L batches and keg it if this turns out great