Ok, so I'm drinking my porter (oatmeal/chili/carob + kit). There are a couple of problems that I've noticed. In both of the batches (this and the IPA before it) I have almost no carbonation. I figure that this may be a problem of temp. in the fermenting. I have since bought a fridge just for brewing. But with this porter, I've noticed that the first half of the glass tastes...watery. Not watery, but just not much flavor. There is almost a soapy kind of taste to it sometimes. But this isn't with all of the bottles, just some. Are there any other factors I could be missing besides having unstable fermentation/conditioning temps?

Oh, and since I've moved out of range of a local homebrewing company, can anyone recommend an affordable and reliable online source?

Dont know if beer is same but in wine low ph will give you a soapy flavor. http://www.rebelbrewer.com has pretty reasonable prices.

Check out this link for off flavors http://www.bjcp.org/docs/Beer_faults.pdf. I don't see "soapy" on there specifically, but maybe another forum member can Identify the possible source.

Fermentation temps are definitely important. I have had my own recent issues with off flavors in that area that I have hopefully corrected. I would venture to speculate that it could have something to do with your sanitation procedure if you are only getting it in some of your bottles.

As far as the carbonation goes, how long are you letting your bottles sit before you open one up. I know it's hard to wait, but I am giving my 4 weeks to carbonate and I have been very happy with my results. I boil a cup of water with 5 oz. of dextrose for 5 minutes for a 5 gallon batch. Then I add to my bottling bucket before I transfer so it mixes well.

The combination of the soapy off flavor combined with little or no carbonation could be the result of some type of contamination/infection.

I second Miguelito, we need more information. What temperature is the room your fermenting in. Does this room experience heat fluctuations greater the 10 or so degrees throughout the day? How long are you letting your beer ferment in primary? How much primer are you using when you bottle? Are you matching your target gravities?

There's alot that can influence your beers flavors, so the more info we have the better.

As to the beer being watery on top.

I had a batch of rootbeer do this to me in the bottling bucket. Half the bottles were watery, and half were straight syrup. I've never had this problem with beer though so I don't know what's causing your issues. In fact it seems strange that a beer would seperate like this. Can you give me a rundown of what you do when you brew the batch? Maybe the answer lies there.

+1 on more info. How much priming sugar? How big of a batch of beer? How long conditioning in bottles? What temp are you conditioning at? You shouldn't be putting bottles that are still conditioning in the fridge. That watery taste could be lack of carbonation? I know that flat beer tasted pretty watery to me.

Best of luck!

Cheers,
Dave

I'll plagiarize from another forum:

dparsons wrote:
From:
http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html

Soapy
Soapy flavors can caused by not washing your glass very well, but they can also be produced by the fermentation conditions. If you leave the beer in the primary fermentor for a relatively long period of time after primary fermentation is over ("long" depends on the style and other fermentation factors), soapy flavors can result from the breakdown of fatty acids in the trub. Soap is, by definition, the salt of a fatty acid; so you are literally tasting soap.

Do you rack to secondary? And leave the trub?

Cheers,
Dave

Ok so here's the roundown on how I brewed this batch. Everything that isn't heated gets cleaned and rinsed with the regular dishes. They are then soaked in B-Brite sanitizing solution. Since this was a beer kit, I followed the directions with some variations. I steeped rolled oats before I added my malts and threw in 10 dried chilipeppers right away. So for the last few minutes I threw in some carob. I then dipped the kettle in ice water to cool it down to about 70 degrees, threw in the yeast and set it to ferment. It sat in primary the carboy for 3 to 4 weeks on the cake, and was then transfered to the secondary vessel for another 4 weeks. Primary fermentation had slowed way down after 3 days. I then used a bottle washer to clean the bottles and b-brite to sanitize them. I let them sit for another week and a half and put them in a fridge.

I follow the directions on priming the beer. I think it's 5oz of sugar in half a cup of water. I only use distiled water. At the time I had no way to control fermentation temps and the room could fluctuate anywhere from 68 degrees to 75+ if it was too hot outside. The batch is 5 gallons.

You need 2 weeks minimum usually to get carbed beer. Sometimes 3 or 4. And they need to be around 70. If they are in the fridge too early the yeast will drop out and it will not finish carbonating. Flat beer can have some odd flavors so that might be it.
I would put them back to 70 for a couple more weeks.
I know the taste from flat to carbed beer is amazingly different sometimes.

I agree 100% with jeepguy.
Take those bottles out of the fridge and let them sit at around 70 degrees for another couple weeks. That should solve your carbonation issue.
After they're carbonated, give them another taste. That may clear up your flavor issues as well. I find that most of my homebrews taste astoundingly different from uncarbed to carbonated.
Let us know how they taste!

Cheers,
Dave

Never had Bought a samual adams boston lager. It taste exactly like one of my beers that I used .5 oz Magnam hop for 60 min and .5 oz for 30 min then glacier for 15 min. My wife says it taste soapy both of them. I think overdoing the citris flavor might cause that. When I eat lemons I eat the whole thing, If i dont get enough lemon with the rine it will taste the same way. Some might be confusing the flavor. So I think maybe samual adams and I may have overdid it but since I like the strong citris finish it never dawned on me till she said something now I can taste it.

One final thought. Insufficient rinsing of your sanitizer can cause both off flavors and also carbonation problems. If you let them sit at room temp longer and they don't carb. properly I would look into this. The other possibility is infection in the bottles. That's the only other way that your beer should be different from one bottle to another. Be sure to "rouse" your priming solution into the beer before bottling. Also i'm not sure that b-brite is the best choice for a sanitizer. I always just use it as a cleanser and then use easy-clean (hp carelson) as a sanitizer. Does anyone else use B-brite to sanitize? I seem to recall that they recomend rinsing it with cold water as apposed to hot. Another possible problem.