how many have had off flavors from 5.2 ph stabilizer?

i bought this stuff last year. lately ive been noticing some off flavors in some beers (mostly lighter beers). i can best describe the taste to be soapy/salty. im guessing this 5.2 is the culprit. i never noticed it in my stouts or my rye ipa, but seems pretty evident in my hefe and even DIPA. basically im gonna trash this stuff and see if the problem goes away. just curious how many have noticed this problem with there beers and how many still use the stuff with no problems.

side note- i have a comp that im pouring a whole corny for and im stressing about the off flavor. just kegged the DIPA and will taste it in a few days, if i get that soap/salty taste im going to retract my entry from the comp...

I had some salty astringency when I tried it. I used it for a few batches, though, to to see if it was the stabilizer. It was.

From what I've read the 5.2 stabliizer just doesn't work all that well.

You're better off learning about true water chemistry and adjusting with some inexpensive salts (gypsum, epsom salts, canning salt (sodium chloride), calcium chloride) and lactic acid. You can pick them all up cheap at your LHBS.

Here are some free water calculators.

http://www.ezwatercalculator.com/

and

https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/

I have been using it with no problems as far as I can tell. I generally try to use it sparingly, like a teaspoon for 10lbs of grain, which is half the prescribed rate. But I use a mix of RO/Filtered and tap water so there's already some minerals in the h20 to help the grist move toward the right PH, and I just use this stuff to help it along. Please keep us posted of your results when you start leaving it out. This is definitely the first time I've read somebody having off-flavors from it.

Edit: Well now that Yooper has said it I'm concerned! Guess it's time to send my h20 samples to Ward Labs.

I have heard many people say the 5.2 stabilizer is just plain inefective. The only batch I have ever tried that the brewer used it, I could definitely taste a salty flavor that wouldn't hold up well in competition.

the only thing that might save this one is its a DIPA with over 100 IBU. Hopefully the hops will cover it up some. Either way, im trashing that ****. Not even sure why i started using it in the first place...

i used it with no bad effects, won 2nd place using it in an APA i entered in the world beer cup this yr. recently i started using just the individual salts and the EZ water calculator.

eastoak said:

i used it with no bad effects, won 2nd place using it in an APA i entered in the world beer cup this yr. recently i started using just the individual salts and the EZ water calculator.

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good to know. hopefully i can still enter the comp with the current batch. im ditchin the stuff for future batches though. grats on your win at world beer cup btw. i scored a 39 with my oatmeal stout, but didnt place...