Not just a panicked "did I ruin it?" post

So I brewed a partial mash porter with cinnamon & peaches almost 2 months ago. Going into primary it smelled like peach cobbler; after 2 weeks it went into secondary with the same smell. Today, I finally decided to bottle it. I'm sick b/c it now smells rubbery...and I've read dozens of posts about a faint band-aid smell as well as Palmer's phenols and wild yeast...but THIS is industrial-grade rubber!!!

Then to make it worse, I decided to check my primary where my Simcoe XPA has been 4weeks on the yeast after a vigorous fermentation. Same smell, same taste.

I'm so disgusted &disappointed I don't know what to do. I bottled both batches & have made my sacrifices to the gods of yeast. But after 12 batches without a single problem and basically buying stock in StarSan b/c I sanitize like a fiend, I am bummed.

So I've popped a home brew and am hoping someone has some insights. While I'd love to know what went wrong, I'm more interested in any thoughts on a fix.

Cheers for all the help so far. Here's hoping time will help!

How do you treat your tubing? I had an infection linger for a few batches that really discouraged me, got new tubes and it seemed to fix the issue. Now I sanitize the crap out of the tubing before and after using it.

My beers always seemed great until they'd been bottled for a little while.

hummm...maybe some smells that got stuck in the plastic in a plastic fermentor , i had some plastic fermentors that after a while they would hold a smell from old batches then switched to glass but i dont know if thats it might be a wild yeast or old yeast cake but dot know if thats long enough for that

Thanks for the thoughts. I was thinking tubing as well b/c I just started using a counterflow heat exchange setup the batch prior to the rubber tire brews. Maybe I spazzed on that. But here's something odd: I was cleaning up after bottling and opened my StarSan to sanitize, only to find that IT SMELLED JUST LIKE RUBBER, LIKE MY BEER! My wife said it was the same smell, too!

Can StarSan go bad in heat/sunlight?

Could the fermentation temperatures have been high? I had a batch or two ruined by a heat wave.

wait, this IS another panicked "did i ruin it" post. lol.

Are you mixing your starsan with actual measurements, or just guessing?

did you use bleach, c-brite, or any other chlorine based cleaner on the tubing/fermenters/etc.? could it be your water?

Water is good and no bleach. It's possible that ferm temps got up to 72 or so, but I didn't think that would create this sort of pronounced smell/taste. Guess I'll get new tubing, new StarSan, and sanitize everything again and hope for the best. Thanks for the input, all!

eastoak said:

wait, this IS another panicked "did i ruin it" post. lol.

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Heh, I think you're right. Last night I thought, hey, my case is special...now it just looks like I panicked. Ack.

It was the unmixed bottle. I'm headed to the LHBS later to compare, but I think my StarSan has turned yellowish.

I just came across a post about autolysis causing a burnt rubber smell, but my pitching temps were 70 & 72 degrees, respectively, and the fermenters sit in a closet that stays between 68 & 70 degrees.

Piratwolf said:

I just came across a post about autolysis causing a burnt rubber smell, but my pitching temps were 70 & 72 degrees, respectively, and the fermenters sit in a closet that stays between 68 & 70 degrees.

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I think the general consensus here is that autolysis is just a bogeyman for homebrewers. It's not an issue we really need to be concerned with.

Good to know! Thank you!

Piratwolf said:

Good to know! Thank you!

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Just did a little more looking. Palmer talks about moving beer off the yeast cake and into a secondary as a preventative measure against autolysis in How To Brew. This is the only condition under which I've seen autolysis being brought up as an issue. That said, the general consensus here is that leaving it on the yeast cake is a good thing, and secondary is only necessary for dry hopping, adding fruit, etc. IIRC, Palmer has changed his opinion on the issue and that his original warnings were more a hold-over from days when the yeast used in homebrewing was very poor.

Part of me wants to pour out the beer, but part of me wants to see what wil happen. Have you heard of this rubbery smell aging out? The hops of the pale ale seem unlikely to outlast the rubber...maybe toss that & let the porter ride?

It sounds like a fermentation temp issue. I had the same, slightly rubbery, medicinal off flavor in my first 5 batches. I started making yeast starters, and fermenting in the low 60s and the went away.

If this is the case all my beers aged the flavors out so if it is unbearable for you, bury these beers in a closet and forget about them for a while!

Ninja Edit after seeing your latest post: My first 4 batches were: Golden IPA, Kolsch, Raspberry Pale ale, lady liberty pale ale. All had a rubbery off flavor from yeast stress, all of them aged the flavors out!

Thanks, Germelli1! I appreciate the vote of confidence. I think I'm gonna look for a used fridge to control temps more exactly. Cheers!