Beer Forum

How are you cleaning prior to sanitizing? If you gear is not clean you could have something hiding out somewhere the StarSan is missing.

If you're in B'ham, AL, PM me and I'll hook you up with the local brewers. Two very active clubs (I participate in both).

Any updates on this subject? I can tell you my recent experience. I have been struggleing with this for a looooong time (nearly 100 batches). I have very consistently been getting a slight dry or tart flavor; kind of like aspirin. The flavor seems to develop near the end of my primary fermentation (2-3 weeks). I stopped doing secondaries a long time ago based on advice from the BN. I decided to take a hydro sample from a keg that I already carbonated and was sitting in the fridge for a month and still had a distinct tartness. I left the sample out in a glass on the counter for about 4 hrs in an attempt to remove the carbonation. When I tasted the sample after leaving it out at room temp, I was surprised to find that the tartness was gone! I am now experimenting with leaving the kegs at room temp for a while before chilling. I am also going back to doing secondaries. That seems to be helping out so far. Not sure if this relates to your experiences. Just thought I would throw it out there.

Teachme, I think this is definitely a case for trying to find an experienced brewer or beer judge in your area who can help you diagnose the flavor and do some educated guessing from there as to where it's coming from. It's hard to say just from your description because one person's "tart" can be another person's "sharp" or outright "sour". Also, if it is a sanitation issue there will probably be some other flavors and aromas that will make it fairly obvious to an experienced beer taster that it's caused by contamination and not water.