6 brews in and not one have come out good.

[Darragh1980]

So I started homebrewing in the US and brought all my equipment over. My brews in the US were apparently excellent to the point where everyone was saying I should sell them. Here, I have not brewed one good beer. They all came out astringent, and an off flavor I cannot describe.

I mash in a 10gallon cooler and boil in a keggle. Although I only started using the keggle here. I wondered was there a weld in the keggle that gave the off flavor. I am not sure.
I know that in the US, I used to get yeast a bit fresher straight from the home brew store. I have ordered dry yeast this time to see if it makes a difference.

I am pretty strict in sanitizing, aerate the wort with a stone, keep my brews in a dark place in a stable temperature. I always use a starter on a stir plate. Use campden tablet to clean the water. I am pretty good a hitting mash temps and usually only boil the sparge water to 170F to rinse.
I love brewing beer but I am just about to give up if the next cuple of brews come out the same shitty way. It is disheartening to go from you should "open a brewery' to not even sharing my beers that are that bad. Not sure what to do. I feel like it is something so simple I am too stupid to realize. 

Do you guys use dry yeast or wet yeast?
Do you alter your water i any way?
Any ideas, tips?

Edit: The wort before fermentation tastes amazing.

[guest2162]

What is your water source?

[Darragh1980]

Eske Water supply Donegal Town.

[guest2162]

Do you have access to the water report? It sounds like the off flavours could be attributed to poor water... If you want to rule out water, you could try Tesco bottled water ... I use that and get good results with just tweaking the ph a little with lactic acid... it's on my list for 2020 to look into learning more about water chemistry!

[Darragh1980]

I do have it somewhere and I did a cuple experiments amending the water. It's pretty soft and I can make a great cup of tea with it. I have the Water chemistry book from John Palmer. I was thinking of buying some water from the shop aright. I am going to use dry yeast, use spriing water, and then brew in my old turkey fryer pot and see if each of those changes make a difference. If not, expect to see alot of equipment for sale in the forum. I appreciate the input buddy.

[Rafal]

Start with filtered tap water (even with brita filter if you're patient enough), also campden tablets or Sodium Metabisulphite should work.
90% that chlorine is your enemy.
Cheers

[guest2162]

Let us know how you get on as there's lots of knowledgeable folks on here who will help you get to the bottom of whatever the issue is. I can guarantee you won't need to sell your kit! ... it's one of the first places I check when I have issues as 'local' solutions can often be more pertinent than global ones!

[Darragh1980]

I definitely will!! Thanks all for the encouragement and advice.

[Pheeel]

I started brewing in Seattle and then came back to Dublin. Water def needs to be treated here. RO is def good place to start. I also use dry yeast 90% of the time. Notty for the win!

[CH]

Lots of potential issues generating astringency, you are an accomplished brewer but we all still learn every day something new.

Throw your eye over the following something's bound to jump out at you.

Avoid "over-milling" your grains. The grain kernel should be cracked open to expose the white starch inside but not crushed or milled to a fine flour.

When Sparging, watch your temperature and don't sparge with water hotter than 76°C. Also, don't over-sparge with too much water.
Try to stop the run-off when the specific gravity gets to 1.010. The mash pH is increasing during the sparge and beyond this SG, you run the chance of stripping too much astringency from the grain bed. If you are measuring the run-off pH, stop when the pH rises to about 5.8 to avoid beer astringency problems.

If you are adding fruit to your wort, never boil them. Instead, add the fruit to the primary or secondary fermenter.

Use a blow-off tube.   If you feel that allowing the krausen to fall back into the beer will negatively affect the flavor, attach a large diameter tube into the mouth of the fermenter to allow the krausen to "blow off" into a "catch" container.

Watch your mash pH.  If your mash pH tends to be greater than 5.6, try using a pH stabilizer like 5.2.

Make sure you don't allow the hot-break trub to get into the fermenter. Allow the cooled wort to settle prior to siphoning it to the primary fermenting vessel. 

[delzep]

You're too used to using imperial water. You need to use metric water on Ireland

[nigel_c]

If you are close to an active club you should join up. Someone might pick up the problem form a sample. It's easier to put your finger on it when you have a glass in front of you then trying to diagnose from a post.

My input though. Dry yeast is a great way of getting consistency. Takes the guesswork out of starters and ruling out another possible variable.
Mash ph & spare water ph could be an issue. Proper ph of sparse water will stop you pulling any unwanted astringency from the grains.
Hop freshness might add to it.
Water profile. If you are brewing with water out of balance it may come across as over bitter/ astringent.
Is it one particular style you are brewing? Your water may be good for one style and not others.

Post any more details you can. We can fix this.

[Darragh1980]

This is great advice. Thamks amillion for your input. I will take these into my next brew. Over milling grains could be the one. I just got a new roller and I will adjust it to a wider setting.
Will also sparge with water around the 165F mark to be sure. PH is something I need to pay more attention to. I have the meter and all. I sometimes fret to make sure I don't lose heat when I mash in and don't spend enough time on it.
I have never racked the beer, instead just firing it in the glass carboy after whirlpool. According to Brulosophy and his xbeermnts, trub doesn't matter but why take a chance I suppose.

Lots of potential issues generating astringency, you are an accomplished brewer but we all still learn every day something new.

Throw your eye over the following something's bound to jump out at you.

Avoid "over-milling" your grains. The grain kernel should be cracked open to expose the white starch inside but not crushed or milled to a fine flour.

When Sparging, watch your temperature and don't sparge with water hotter than 76°C. Also, don't over-sparge with too much water.
Try to stop the run-off when the specific gravity gets to 1.010. The mash pH is increasing during the sparge and beyond this SG, you run the chance of stripping too much astringency from the grain bed. If you are measuring the run-off pH, stop when the pH rises to about 5.8 to avoid beer astringency problems.

If you are adding fruit to your wort, never boil them. Instead, add the fruit to the primary or secondary fermenter.

Use a blow-off tube.   If you feel that allowing the krausen to fall back into the beer will negatively affect the flavor, attach a large diameter tube into the mouth of the fermenter to allow the krausen to "blow off" into a "catch" container.

Watch your mash pH.  If your mash pH tends to be greater than 5.6, try using a pH stabilizer like 5.2.

Make sure you don't allow the hot-break trub to get into the fermenter. Allow the cooled wort to settle prior to siphoning it to the primary fermenting vessel.

[Darragh1980]

Na it's a few beers, red ale, heffeweizen, cream ale, stout, 10% pumpkin ales. All came out dirty as ya can imagine. Alot of people telling me to watch the PH so I will focus on that next cuple of brews. I have an abasaloute tonne of things thanks to you all to focus on fixing. Someties when you are tryi9ng to fix the problem, you focus on the probem too much and your head gets melted. This little thread really helped me clear the head and focus on solutions. I am very grateful to you all. I will definitely report back when it goes well. One thing I realised is that my igloo cooler mashtuns spigot cannot be removed and could be giving off brett aromas and tastes. I have a sanke, false bottom and a pick up tube that I am going to leave to the engineer down the road to build a new mash tun.
However, all these tips are solid as hell and the encouragement has set me going in to the new year happier than any previous years. I am very grateful to you all.

If you are close to an active club you should join up. Someone might pick up the problem form a sample. It's easier to put your finger on it when you have a glass in front of you then trying to diagnose from a post.

My input though. Dry yeast is a great way of getting consistency. Takes the guesswork out of starters and ruling out another possible variable.
Mash ph & spare water ph could be an issue. Proper ph of sparse water will stop you pulling any unwanted astringency from the grains.
Hop freshness might add to it.
Water profile. If you are brewing with water out of balance it may come across as over bitter/ astringent.
Is it one particular style you are brewing? Your water may be good for one style and not others.

Post any more details you can. We can fix this.

[johnrm]

You say you use Camden to clean your water. It popped up recently where someone was putting these into the beer before adding yeast which resulted in undrinkable beer.

Dosage should be 1 tablet per 10G about 12hrs before your brew, loose fitting lid.
Minimise splashing when transferring. Make sure all liquor is treated, try not to use tap water on brewday.