Dry Finish

[JJDMusic]

I recently made a Brown Porter. It taste great but it has an undesirable dry finish to it. It is a very woody finish. Is there something I could add to the recipe or do differently during my brew process to change this one characteristic.

Caramel Nut Brown Porter

Ingredients

8 lbs. German Pilsner Malt
3 lbs. Crystal 60L
1 ½ lbs. Special B
1 lb. Victory
1 lb. Munich
½ lb. Flakey Barley
2 oz. Willamette Leaf Hops
1 oz. Northern Brewer Leaf Hops
1 pkg. Wyeast American Ale 1056

60 minutes add 1 oz. Northern Brewer Leaf Hops.
15 minutes add 1 oz. Willamette Leaf Hops.
0 minutes add 1 oz. Willamette Leaf Hops.

[markaberrant]

I can't imagine 3lbs of crystal and 1.5 lbs of special B tasting very good... that could be the problem, although I wouldn't think of this causing a woody/dry finish... I think it would be cloyingly sweet more than anything.

[beerking]

Your recipe looks fine, I doubt that is the source. I do think you have too much crystal for the style, IMHO, but I strongly doubt that has anything to do with the flavor you are referring to.
You describe the flavor as "dry" and "very woody." It sounds to me like you may have an astringent beer. Astringent is the same as tannic, which is the flavor of extremely strong black tea. It produces a drying, puckering bitter character in the mouth.
Astringency is most likely caused by allowing the sparge pH to get above 7.0, or letting the grains get above 170F (either by heating, or by addition of excessively hot sparge water).
Do you know what your sparge temp was, and what the sparge water temp was? What about the pH?
You can also get astringency if you boil the grains.

[JJDMusic]

I use a Cooler as a mash tun. The water temp is 168 for the mash, after stiring it holds at about 150. The temp is 186 for the sparge, after stiring it settles at 170. Should I drop the temps and stir faster?

P.S. For those who think this recipe is wierd. Try it. The closest comericial match is Rogue Hazelnut Brown. Mine has a sweet caramel nose which quickly turns into a nut flavor. And I am trying to fix the aftertaste which is not bad but would be better off without the dry feeling.

[markaberrant]

Rogue uses lots of crystal malt too, so your comparison makes sense.

My original comments were based on recipe-analysis, not tasting. Don't be afraid to step outside of "normal" parameters. And the most important thing is whether it tastes good to you.

Any thoughts about your brewing water? But if it was the water, I'm guessing most batches would taste this way.

[JJDMusic]

I have hard water. So I use a PUR water filter on my sink to cancel that out.

[dparsons]

I have hard water. So I use a PUR water filter on my sink to cancel that out.

That will get a few things out, but you will still have hard, alkaline water. Test your water. Check your city's water report. Water quality and pH will affect your resulting beer.

I use filtered water for Stouts (mine is fairly hard and alkaline too) and reverse osmosis for Pilsners. I don't have anything that is problematic, mostly just pH, but there are things that will give beer problems. I also add a couple minerals back in.

[Dangerous Beans]

What pH do you want your water to be at?

[darylM]

You want your mash pH to be around 5.3. The water ph will vary according to the style you want to make. Darker grains make a mash that is more acidic, lighter grains make for a higher pH.

[dparsons]

Basically for lighter colored beers, having the water start at a pH of 6.8-7.0 is pretty good. For dark beer a pH in the mid to upper 7's works well. You can adjust a bit after mashing in.