Hey fellows!
So I measured the density of the last batch and although it was good I wasn't happy at all: that damn smokey taste was back again...
Somewhere between desperation and frustration I registered myself on a german homebrew forum and asked for help. When I described the taste they told me about autolysis and other stuff.
I obviously underestimated trub filtering for example. In almost every homebrew tutorial they say to make a whirlpool to get the hop out of the juice, which I solved by putting the hop in some kind of sock. For me, the hot trub was just the rest of the hop pellets and I didn't pay attention to filtering after boiling. Well, seems pretty wrong, theres all kind of stuff in that trub, gotta filter that...
Another thing is temperature control. Everywhere they speak of my temperature sensor as a self correcting precise piece of equipment. Yesterday I compared it with the digital thermometer of my cooler and was shocked: up to 8°C of difference!
To prevent autolysis further, they told me to aerate my wort when putting the yeast in it to support its growing, that's why I ordered an aquarium sterile air pump.
And one guy bets on letting the machines cover open to let bad aromas go away.
They also said it may be due to my hoses and joints and all the stuff not made for what I do with so I made a test run, boiled water in my machine and tasted it before and after pumping it trough my circuit. That's not the problem.
After all that mess I tweaked a lot on my process. I changed the recipe to get closer to the temperatures, I will try a filter, I'll let open the cover, I'll aerate and I'll hope one more time...
Wish me luck!
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