Problems With Home-Brewed Beer
Beer fans who have trouble finding rare imports sometimes brew their own beers. And, years ago, some did illegally because of bans on alcohol. Home brewing has remained popular despite the wide availability of imports and esoteric styles in most cities. The results can be good, and even better than what is available in your supermarket. Often, though, the beer that many home brewers produce isn't perfect, especially when a brewer first starts out. These imperfections are due to some common problems. Does this Spark an idea?
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Off Taste: Sanitation
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Beer that tastes like cabbage or latex, or even spoiled, is likely contaminated. When making beer, the unfermented liquid, known as wort, is basically a petri dish. With proper sterilization, brewers can ensure the yeast is the dominant microorganism in the wort. Yeast makes alcohol, and makes beer taste like beer. But anywhere yeast can grow, microorganisms and bacteria can grow, too. These germs make beer taste like cabbage or band aids. There's no way to fix this problem after it occurs. Spill the beer, and remember to properly sanitize the equipment next time.
Off Taste: Ageing
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Beer that tastes like a skunk could be old, or damaged by sunlight. Use brown, not green bottles to protect against this. A green apple taste could be a sign of contamination in some styles, but in others it could be a sign the beer is too young. Good research, time, and proper sanitation are the cure for this problem. Beer that tastes like sulfur could suffer from poor sanitation, but a sulfur taste may also be the result of beer that sat on yeast for too long during primary fermentation.
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Cloudy Beer
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The beer we buy in the stores is usually light-colored and translucent. Many homebrewers produce a brew that has the consistency, at its worst, of unfiltered apple cider. The cause of cloudy beer is suspended particles. Excess particles of yeast, or hops, may travel with the wort when moved to a secondary fermenter. Some additives, like Irish Moss or Isinglass, can make these particles aggregate one another. They become too heavy to remain suspended in beer and settle to the bottom. Boiling wort for a longer period of time, about 90 minutes, may also help break long-strand proteins, and make them more digestible to yeast.
Too Bubbly: Over-Carbonated
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When bottling beer, most people add a small amount of priming sugar to the bottle. The sugar "wakes up" the dormant yeast and gives it something to eat. The result is carbon dioxide which, in a sealed bottle, carbonates beer. You'll know when you have added too much sugar, as every bottle will foam upon opening, and the poured beer will have more head than liquid. The amount of sugar used in bottling may vary according to the style (some beers favor heavy carbonation) and temperature of the beer. Prevent this by closely following priming charts at the Brew Library, brewery.org or contained in most homebrew manuals. Properly measure the sugar placed in each bottle.
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References
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