Fixing tannic / astringent beer?

[phasedweasel]

Hey all. I recently made a small beer from the second runnings of a higher gravity main batch. I know I sparged hot, but it was apparently too hot, or just too much sparging for the poor grains. I now have a ~4% abv small beer that is distinctly astringent. I was wondering if any of you had an astringent beer which improved with age? Did you age it at ambient temps for a few months, or refrigerate it for an extended period of time? I was thinking that cold storage may help, as during the cold storage of a lager (and other beers) polyphenols clump up and fall out, and tannins are a type of polyphenol.

 

[Oldsock]

You might try a fining agent. I haven't used Polyclar, but it is supposed to help drop tannins out. I have even heard anecdotal reports that gelatin can help.

 

[phasedweasel]

Thanks, if I get desperate I might dump them all back into a secondary with gelatin. I know polyphenols / tannins bind to proteins, gelatin especially, and drop out.

 

[hukdizzle]

You might try a fining agent. I haven't used Polyclar, but it is supposed to help drop tannins out. I have even heard anecdotal reports that gelatin can help.

+1 on the fining agent, should take care of most of it.

Do you use a pH buffer or adjust your water at all? What temperature was your sparge water? I am curious as to what happened. Sounds like the pH got out of whack or the temp got too high on the sparge.

 

[phasedweasel]

I was not adjusting my water at the time I made this beer. The Durham, NC water is quite soft, everything is under 20 ppm except sulfates, around 57. I had no problems with this water brewing basically an all pilsener Belgian blonde previously. However, after two sparges I'm betting the grain lost all ability to sufficiently acidify the malt. It's also quite likely I sparged too hot as well, strike water could have gotten above 180° because I was getting a bit sloppy, it was my first double mash. Since I discovered the horrors of tannin extraction I've started modifying my mash with calcium chloride and gypsum, and I ensure the sparge water is never above 170°.