can I fix an oversparged brew?

I've been a batch sparger for many years, but after moving from propane to electric, the new rig can also fly sparge, so I've been trying that.

The first two beers came out with a permanent haze, despite using isinglass finings and cold conditioning, and there is a noticeable astringency - it tastes a bit like iced tea. I'm guessing I have oversparged - final runnings were 1.004 and the sparge liquor was 82C, which I now know to be way too high.

Is there anything I can do to improve the flavor or remove the tannins? The beer is a Bass ale clone, and London Pride clone.

Edit: as brewchez suggests, I'll be fixing my process - I've calibrated the RTDs so sparge temp should now be correct, and I've got a refractometer and pH meter to monitor the sparge. But is there anything I can do to improve these 20 gallons of beer? How about gelatin, will that strip out some tannins?

Topic sparge homebrew

Category Mac

1
answered at

Tanins bind to protein, and gelatin is derived from collagen which is a protein. It is logical that the addition of gelatin bound the tanins and deposited them in the trub.

1
answered at

I agree with brewchez's comment about fixing the process, and that should be done to avoid recurrence of the problem. For me, I will go back to batch sparging. However, before dumping 10 gallons of tea-beer, I wanted to find out if I could remove some of the astringency. And it seems you can.

I used gelatin to clear the beer in one of the kegs, and left the other keg alone as a control. After a week, the astringency was greatly reduced in the gelatined keg, but not so in the other keg. The astringency is not 100% gone - it's there if you look for it - but it's below some of the other flavors. The beer is now enjoyable.

1
answered at

Not really. Its best to focus your energy on fixing your process and brew again. Fixing a single beer is usually not effectively possible. Giving up one batch and fixing the process "fixes" all your future batches.

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