Band Aid Taste / Yeast

Tony · 01-29-2006, 07:27 PM

There has been much debate over the "Band-Aid" odor/flavor in many infected batches from a great many people. And so far I have had to dump one last summer because of that exact problem. It was said that this problem comes from bacterial contamination, or from not rinsing your equipment thoroughly after sanitizing with bleach. Also, phenols can be leached from the grain husks by overcrushing or oversparging your malt. So...lets see, I have never used bleach to clean or sanitize, I dont over crush or over sparge, and for the life of me, I could not figure out my problem with this batch.

I brewed this batch in the middle of the summer, and had ordered all my grains and yeast, both from California. I used WYeast 1056, like I had previously, and have since. My brew method was the exact same as I do every time, and am an indoor brewer.

That said, now I want to move on to my discovery today. I had split the batch of yeast, and forgot that I had stashed it away in the back of my small fridge. I was going to use it, but forgot it was even in there. So, I pulled it out to see if it was still good, and make a starter out of it. But, when I unscrewed the lid on the mason jar...BAM...Band-Aid!!!!!! Yup, the yeast was the culprit. It had the exact same odor.

All I can figure is that the yeast went bad somehow, either in mid summer transit from the west coast to east coast, or was bad to begin with. I know WYeast is based in Oregon, and White Labs is based in California, but all I can figure is that when my LHBS orders yeast, it must be in bulk and cold packed.

Either way, in my own un-orthadox way, I proved to myself that yeast can be the culprit for the Band-Aid smelling infection.

**david_42** · 01-29-2006, 08:45 PM

Contamination can happen anywhere in the process, from the smackpac to the bottle.

Tony · 01-29-2006, 09:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by david_42

Contamination can happen anywhere in the process, from the smackpac to the bottle.

Yeah, thats pretty much a given. But rather than just being okay thinking that, I would rather be able to track down where the contamination came from.

**StinkyVp** · 12-22-2011, 12:19 AM

I used dry lager yeast that was over a year out of date and I have a slight bandaid taste. All of my other beers were made with fresh ale yeast and were fine.

I'm going with Tony's yeast theory.

**Poobah58** · 12-22-2011, 01:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StinkyVp

I used dry lager yeast that was over a year out of date and I have a slight bandaid taste. All of my other beers were made with fresh ale yeast and were fine.

I'm going with Tony's yeast theory.

six years later?