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Contents:
  Re: "fading taste" and re: "Old Ale Query" (Timothy C. Phillips)

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Date: Thu, 4 May 89 18:33:33 PDT
From: tcp at esl.ESL.COM (Timothy C. Phillips)
Subject: Re: "fading taste" and re: "Old Ale Query"

Two questions dear to my palate have come up recently:

First of all, David Benjamin writes:

>I've just brewed my first batch of beer.....
>it tastes almost like water by the time it gets to the back of the tongue

I also have noticed this in my first couple of extract brews (I began
brewing four months ago).  I noted the reply from florianb about using
gypsum, and will try this in the future.  Prior to this, however, I
was told by my local homebrew shop to add malto-dextrin (i.e. nonfer-
mentable sugar).  I haven't personally verified this approach yet.
Does this also work?  What are some other thoughts on how to fix the
fading taste?

Secondly, Andy Newman writes:

>Well...on Monday I bottled the stuff.  If had fermented to completion.
>The hydrometer was stable at 1.020 (o.g. was 1.058) and the fast bulk
>of the yeast had settled out.  Out of curiosity I tasted some of the
>green beer still in the fermentor.  It was INCREDIBLY bitter and ...

I just brewed a batch of Edme Strong Ale that had very similar qualities
at bottling time.  O.g. was 1.060 and f.g. was 1.017.  I have tasted my
other beers at bottling; they were flat and yeasty, of course, but they
were at least drinkable.  This stuff was well beyond what I could stomach,
and in general I like bitter (hey, I even chew my aspirin without water!).
Frankly, I am scared to open a bottle of this stuff (it has been in bot-
tles for a week now).  Will aging help that much?  I am asking both for
curiosity's sake and for a friend that will be brew the same can of 
strong ale in about a week.  Further comments will be greatly appreciated!

-Timothy C. Phillips

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