I used to be a religious extract brewer and I always had that ball point pen flavor in my beer. I switched to all-grain and that went away. I no longer have the time for all-grain brewing and am going back to extract. I am afraid of getting that ball point pen flavor back. Here is what I am now able to do and hope that one of these will solve that problem. Do you extract brewers have that same problem or have you had that problem and solved it?
I will now:
1. full wort boil rather than high gravity boils.
2. use a plate chiller rather than pouring 3 gallons of cold water into my primary.
3. ferment at a controlled temp in a ferm fridge rather than the t shirt in a tub of water with a fan technique.
4. keg rather than bottle.
Will any of this help my beer? I've had some AMAZING extract beers and mine never were. My all grain beers were all pretty good. No off flavors and I drank them before they oxidized. I'll take any tips!
Socal