Does your homebrew taste like homebrew, not professional beer? Are you looking for some help?
We understand how it feels when you don’t get the right flavor after putting in so much effort. That’s why we’ve come up with some amazing tips to help you eliminate the homebrew taste.
Besides, you’ll also learn about the things that make your beer off-flavor. Let’s get started!
What Makes Your Beer Taste Like “Homebrew”?
Before jumping on the tips, you need to know why your efforts are unsuccessful. Here are a few reasons.
1. Your Beer Has Too Much Diacetyl
Does your homebrew taste like butter? Or a buttered popcorn? Diacetyl is the culprit.
Oh, diacetyl! Sounds so sciency. Right? Don’t worry. Let us explain to you what it is!
Fermentation is the major step of the brewing process. It’s carried out by yeast.
Diacetyl is a by-product of the process and gives the beer an off-flavor buttery taste. Of course! Your guests will not like the buttery homebrew.
You’ll have to remove the diacetyl from the drink to give it the commercial beer-like taste.
2. Dimethyl Sulfide (DMS) is Also a Culprit
Dimethyl Sulfide (DMS) is another chemical compound you are unaware of. Right?
Well! DMS is a compound present in barley. When you are malting the barley, it’s given out.
You being unaware of the compound, keep the process going. Do you know how it affects the taste of your homebrew?
If you make beer often, you must have faced the corn-like taste multiple times. That source of the corn-like taste you were always figuring out was because of DMS.
If you want the right flavor of the homebrew, you must have to eliminate DMS from it.
3. You Must Be Using Sucrose
Many home brewers use sucrose to prime the beer. Do you also use it in your homebrew?
If yes, it’s the biggest mistake you are making. High-sugar beer is bland and thin.
To get the characteristic beer flavor, avoid adding sucrose.
4. Yeast is Not Pitched Properly
The initial stages of beer production include malting and mashing. The liquid obtained during these processes is called wort and has complex sugar.
These sugars are broken down into simple ones during fermentation by adding yeast. Improper pitching of yeast also disturbs the taste of the beer.
Therefore, you must add active yeast cells in the right amount to start proper fermentation.
5. Improper Aeration Also Gives Off-flavors
For fermentation, you must add live yeast cells. Inside the fermentation tank, the cells grow and increase in number.
To keep the cells alive, proper aeration is required. If not done so, the cells die before completing the process, giving off-flavors to your drink.
6. The Water You Are Using is of Bad Quality
The problem can be with the water. Yes, Let’s face it!
In most areas, the water is hard or chlorinated. When you use such water in beer production, the taste is compromised.
7 Guaranteed Tips to Get Rid of “Homebrew” Taste
Ready for the tips that would help you get the right flavored beer? Let’s go then!
1. Heating the Beer Before Bottling
Are you looking for a solution to the buttery-tasting homebrew? The solution is simple, Diacetyl rest.
No! No! You don’t need to search for it on a new tab. Here’s the answer.
Diacetyl rest is a process in which the yeast cells mop up the maximum amount of the chemical from the wort. When the fermentation ends and the beer is ready to be bottled, heat it to about 150-160 degrees Fahrenheit.
Afterward, you have to cool it to 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Doing this aids the yeast in absorbing diacetyl from the liquor.
Note: Keep the beer on diacetyl rest for 1 to 2 days for the best results.
2. Hard Boiling and Immediately Chilling the Beer
Remember, we talked about DMS earlier in the article. Hard boiling of the barley malt helps you remove the compound from the beer. DMS is a volatile compound; when you boil the malt for 90 minutes, it evaporates.
One thing you need to remember while boiling is not covering the utensil. If done so, the compound will not leave the wort.
Instead, it will condense and drip back into the malt. Hence, not losing the corny taste and aroma.
After giving a nice boil to the subject, what do to next? Immediate chilling is what you need.
In this way, no more DMS will be produced in the wort. The ultimate result? A flavorful beer that you can enjoy with your friends!
3. Using Dextrose Instead of Sucrose
Adding sugar to homebrew is not a good idea. If it’s a must, go for dextrose. It gives much better results than sucrose.
4. Adding the Right Amount of Yeast
The right amount of yeast does the real magic to the beer. You must add a lot of yeast to the wort to get a good beer.
One drawback is that buying so much yeast will cause you a lot of money. But wait! You don’t need to worry about your budget.
Here’s an alternative solution for you!
Make a yeast starter. It will save you some bucks.
5. Using Better Quality Water
The quality of water has a great impact on beer flavor. Don’t use hard tap water to make homebrew.
Water softened using a water softener is also not a good option. Instead, use naturally soft water with neutral pH that is free of chlorine.
6. Properly Cleaning and Sanitizing the Utensils
Though it’s the last tip but the most important one. Before starting the process, clean and sanitize all the utensils well.
It ensures that there’s not a single bacterial cell on the utensils that can grow in the fermentation mix.
Conclusion
Making homebrew is pretty easy if you know how to do it correctly.
You and many other brewers complain about the homebrew not tasting like commercial beer.
You guys are not following the right method. Follow the tips mentioned above and prepare to brew beer like the pros.
