Christophrawr
Well-Known Member
Hello troubleshooters!
Since I began homebrewing a year ago I've constantly been at war with Ethyl Acetate. At least I believe it's Ethyl Acetate. Once I built my fermentation chamber it significantly helped reduce the solvent off flavor in my finished product. However it still creeps up on me in a small noticeable amount here and there so I'm thinking it's somewhere in my brewing practice that I'm failing. Something I'm missing. Here is my process; I hope you can help me pin point possible causes in my practice so I can attempt different things until I start producing constantly clean ales.
1 gallon BIAB small batch brewing.
Constant 72% efficiency.
-Set up my table with all equipment and plastic storage bin filled with fresh Star San solution.
-I toss my funnel, blow off tube, carboy cap, yeast pack, scissors into the Star San bin. I lay my 1 gallon glass carboy on it’s side in the bin and let it fill up till it stays on it’s side. I will constantly roll the carboy to coat all surfaces with Star San during the brew day.
-Measure out my water salts and add to kettle while heating it to my desired temp.
-I mill my grain and dough in once at my desired temp in a 4 gallon SS kettle.
-During the mash I measure out my hops and twiddle my thumbs.
-After 60 minutes I’ll mash out then pull the grain bag squeezing as much out as I can.
-Once my Avantco IC3500 Induction Burner gets my wort boiling I throw in my bittering hops and start the timer.
-At 10 minutes left in the boil, or whenever I remember sometimes running to the burner with a minute left, I put my Bayou Classic 12" Thermometer and SS spoon in the wort to sterilize them.
-Cut the power at end of boil. I drilled a tiny hole in the kettle lid that my thermometer perfectly fits through. It attaches to the handle of my kettle lid so I can adjust how deep it goes into the pot. I put the lid on the kettle and slide the thermometer through the hole. Leaving the spoon in the pot sticking out between the lid and kettle.
-Transfer the pot to kitchen sink where I give it an ice bath to cool the wort. Every 2 minutes or so I’ll lift the lid and give it a real good vigorous stir (minimal splashing, just a strong whirlpool) With a 1 gallon batch and my ground water being really cold it takes about 15-20 minutes to get to 66F.
-Once I’m at pitching temp I’ll take my sanitized 1 gallon glass carboy and funnel and pour the wort into it then sanitize a piece of tinfoil and cover the top.
-I measure out half a pack of dry yeast (or use the last half of an open pack) which should be a big healthy over pitch for 1 gallon. I pitch the yeast, put the foil back on and shake it as hard as I can for 1-2 minutes. Maybe I should first shake it crazy hard for 2 minutes, let it sit until the foam disappears, and pour the dry yeast on top of the wort without shaking it after?
-I’ll fill a cup with Star San solution and take my 3/8 tube and cap out of the solution and assemble my blow off tube set up. I’ll spray Star San on the cap area again and then put a layer of saran wrap around the cap to ensure an airtight seal.
-I’ll put this into my fermentation chamber and hold it at 66F for the entire 3 weeks I let the carboy sit. After the first week I’ll switch the tube for an airlock. I may dry hop after 2.5 weeks, a few days before bottling. When switching to airlock or dry hopping I’ll spray the carboy and drown it in Star San before and after.
-After 3 weeks I’ll prepare a fresh bin of Star San and toss in the mini auto siphon, the 3/8 racking tube, the wine thief, some caps and even submerse all the bottles I’ll be using. I have a 2 gallon food grade bucket with lid and spigot at the bottom. I will roll the bucket around in the Star San coating everything and run half a bucket of Star San through the spigot as well. I boil the water and dextrose for my desired volume of carbonation and put it into the bottling bucket. I’ll take a hydrometer reading using a wine thief and always taste it – sometimes I can already taste a smidge of the solvent off flavor at this point. I siphon the beer to the bucket and try my best to avoid having it stall, sometimes it will stall and I have to repump it and causing some bubbles in the bucket. After gently mixing the beer and dextrose I put the spigot directly in the bottle and angle it so the beer runs down the side of the bottle. Then cap it.
-After bottling I’ll use oxyclean in the carboy (and always use it in a bottle after drinking a homebrew) then after the oxyclean I’ll do a weak bleach solution to nuke the carboy (and bottles) before putting into storage. I rinse it really well no worries there. All my stuff is cleaned well before going into storage for their next use.
So what can I do differently? Thanks for your time and help. I just want to make 100% clean beer so I can move on from this war. I’ve mostly made saisons and pale ales, simple recipes to focus on my practice and making as clean a base beer as possible. One of the few beers I’ve done that I couldn’t perceive the off flavor was a coffee oatmeal stout but probably cause of the dark grains masking the minimal presence of the off flavor.
Since I began homebrewing a year ago I've constantly been at war with Ethyl Acetate. At least I believe it's Ethyl Acetate. Once I built my fermentation chamber it significantly helped reduce the solvent off flavor in my finished product. However it still creeps up on me in a small noticeable amount here and there so I'm thinking it's somewhere in my brewing practice that I'm failing. Something I'm missing. Here is my process; I hope you can help me pin point possible causes in my practice so I can attempt different things until I start producing constantly clean ales.
1 gallon BIAB small batch brewing.
Constant 72% efficiency.
-Set up my table with all equipment and plastic storage bin filled with fresh Star San solution.
-I toss my funnel, blow off tube, carboy cap, yeast pack, scissors into the Star San bin. I lay my 1 gallon glass carboy on it’s side in the bin and let it fill up till it stays on it’s side. I will constantly roll the carboy to coat all surfaces with Star San during the brew day.
-Measure out my water salts and add to kettle while heating it to my desired temp.
-I mill my grain and dough in once at my desired temp in a 4 gallon SS kettle.
-During the mash I measure out my hops and twiddle my thumbs.
-After 60 minutes I’ll mash out then pull the grain bag squeezing as much out as I can.
-Once my Avantco IC3500 Induction Burner gets my wort boiling I throw in my bittering hops and start the timer.
-At 10 minutes left in the boil, or whenever I remember sometimes running to the burner with a minute left, I put my Bayou Classic 12" Thermometer and SS spoon in the wort to sterilize them.
-Cut the power at end of boil. I drilled a tiny hole in the kettle lid that my thermometer perfectly fits through. It attaches to the handle of my kettle lid so I can adjust how deep it goes into the pot. I put the lid on the kettle and slide the thermometer through the hole. Leaving the spoon in the pot sticking out between the lid and kettle.
-Transfer the pot to kitchen sink where I give it an ice bath to cool the wort. Every 2 minutes or so I’ll lift the lid and give it a real good vigorous stir (minimal splashing, just a strong whirlpool) With a 1 gallon batch and my ground water being really cold it takes about 15-20 minutes to get to 66F.
-Once I’m at pitching temp I’ll take my sanitized 1 gallon glass carboy and funnel and pour the wort into it then sanitize a piece of tinfoil and cover the top.
-I measure out half a pack of dry yeast (or use the last half of an open pack) which should be a big healthy over pitch for 1 gallon. I pitch the yeast, put the foil back on and shake it as hard as I can for 1-2 minutes. Maybe I should first shake it crazy hard for 2 minutes, let it sit until the foam disappears, and pour the dry yeast on top of the wort without shaking it after?
-I’ll fill a cup with Star San solution and take my 3/8 tube and cap out of the solution and assemble my blow off tube set up. I’ll spray Star San on the cap area again and then put a layer of saran wrap around the cap to ensure an airtight seal.
-I’ll put this into my fermentation chamber and hold it at 66F for the entire 3 weeks I let the carboy sit. After the first week I’ll switch the tube for an airlock. I may dry hop after 2.5 weeks, a few days before bottling. When switching to airlock or dry hopping I’ll spray the carboy and drown it in Star San before and after.
-After 3 weeks I’ll prepare a fresh bin of Star San and toss in the mini auto siphon, the 3/8 racking tube, the wine thief, some caps and even submerse all the bottles I’ll be using. I have a 2 gallon food grade bucket with lid and spigot at the bottom. I will roll the bucket around in the Star San coating everything and run half a bucket of Star San through the spigot as well. I boil the water and dextrose for my desired volume of carbonation and put it into the bottling bucket. I’ll take a hydrometer reading using a wine thief and always taste it – sometimes I can already taste a smidge of the solvent off flavor at this point. I siphon the beer to the bucket and try my best to avoid having it stall, sometimes it will stall and I have to repump it and causing some bubbles in the bucket. After gently mixing the beer and dextrose I put the spigot directly in the bottle and angle it so the beer runs down the side of the bottle. Then cap it.
-After bottling I’ll use oxyclean in the carboy (and always use it in a bottle after drinking a homebrew) then after the oxyclean I’ll do a weak bleach solution to nuke the carboy (and bottles) before putting into storage. I rinse it really well no worries there. All my stuff is cleaned well before going into storage for their next use.
So what can I do differently? Thanks for your time and help. I just want to make 100% clean beer so I can move on from this war. I’ve mostly made saisons and pale ales, simple recipes to focus on my practice and making as clean a base beer as possible. One of the few beers I’ve done that I couldn’t perceive the off flavor was a coffee oatmeal stout but probably cause of the dark grains masking the minimal presence of the off flavor.