Off flavors . Options for a newbie ..

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duffstuff

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Hi there , I posted a few days ago about letting my fermentng temp rocket from the mid 70s o mid 80s while away over a weekend ... I was eight days into fermenting an extract amber ale ... With cal ale yeast..

Im a few day before bottling and I tasted a hydrometer reading and there was a definite band aid taste from the beer.. I wonder is there anything I can do before bottle to reduce any off tastes that might be in it. ??
Thanks for any help , much appreciated !
Worried second time brewer .
 
Best bet is to bottle it and let it rest for a while. Age mellows flavors, so possibly that band-aid taste might subside enough for you to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
 
I've been fortunate enough to avoid the band aid flavor - but from what I've read I think that's more attributable to either heavy chlorine content or bleach, and there's not much to do about it. Some cleaners, sadly, tend to cause that if they're not rinsed well enough - what are you using for cleaning?
 
I would recommend giving the beer about 3 weeks in the primary. This beer might just be young, so give it adequate time for the yeast to finish and clean up. As the other poster stated, chlorine, either from your water or a cleanser, could lead to this flavor, http://morebeer.com/content/homebrew-off-flavors.

Did you use a chlorine based cleanser and/or sanitizer? I personally don't like the chlorine based cleaners as you have to rinse them heavily to get rid of the chlorine. Because they're cheap and come in little packets, many starter homebrew kits come with it. I would recommend using oxiclean free or PBW as your cleanser and starsan for your sanitizer. They're much better products to work with.
 
Sounds like a sanitation problem more than anything else to me. Band-aid flavors can come from cleaners, like the poster above said, or from wild yeast.

I'm not sure there's much you can do, other than to bottle it and cold-condition it (i.e. let it age in a fridge).
 
I have been using washing up liquid . I'm living in Korea so I'm not really sure what is really in it but it's not chlorine or bleach based...
I sanitize with iodine so maybe I was a bit generous with that??
Others than that I think I was pretty clean and cannot think of any other reason for off FLAVORS other than the temp spike I mentioned earlier .. Thanks for the help .
 
I'm sure it will taste fine. You're tasting it far too early to be able to judge anything about the flavor. Let it sit 3 weeks in primary and another 3-4 in bottles and I bet that flavor will dissipate. If not, age it a little longer....
 
Mojzis said:
I'm sure it will taste fine. You're tasting it far too early to be able to judge anything about the flavor. Let it sit 3 weeks in primary and another 3-4 in bottles and I bet that flavor will dissipate. If not, age it a little longer....
Click to expand...

I don't think it'll taste fine at all. If it tastes like band-aids now, it won't improve and in fact may get worse. Young beer should taste like flat beer. Aging may smooth out some of the rough flavors, but aging won't fix something that is really bad.

I am speaking from experience- I currently have my first 10 gallon batch of band-aid beer. :( Unfortunately, while aging does help mellow many problems it just can't fix chlorophenols or other phenols.
 
Yooper said:
I don't think it'll taste fine at all. If it tastes like band-aids now, it won't improve and in fact may get worse. Young beer should taste like flat beer. Aging may smooth out some of the rough flavors, but aging won't fix something that is really bad.

I am speaking from experience- I currently have my first 10 gallon batch of band-aid beer. :( Unfortunately, while aging does help mellow many problems it just can't fix chlorophenols or other phenols.
Click to expand...

+1. I had a batch not too long ago turn out with the bandaid flavor. I drank the last bottle of it probably about 4 months after bottling and it wasnt any better :( and like Yooper said, chlorophenols and phenols dont clean up.
 
as a florida brewer who once struggled with fermentation temps, the best advice i can give you is to embrace your mistakes.

i predict your beer is gonna taste banana/bubblegum-esque.

print out some banana/bubblegum beer labels, and attach 'em to your bottles. your uninformed brewing friends will think you're a genius and master brewmaster.

...just make sure you get your temps under control for next batch.
 
Live and learn. Either too hot or chlorine, that flavor it not likely to go away. If you are curious, hang on to it for a couple of weeks and see what happens.

In the meantime I highly encourage you to try again and this time keep the temps down into the mid 60s if you can.
 
Thanks for all the advice. Yeah I'm eager to get going again. This was my second on the same recipe and the first seems to e great... Two weeks in the bottle this Friday so I think I'll celebrate with a few haha.. Loving the hobby and this forum ...full of great info and helpful people. Thanks again for everything ..
 
FYI, if it's really band-aid flavors, a warm ferment (particulary high temperatures 8 days into fermentation) is not the culprit. Chlorine had to get into the mix somewhere to cause that particular off-flafor. If if did not come from your cleaner, then possibly it came straight from your water supply. Does your drinking water taste or smell of chlorine?
 
Yooper said:
I don't think it'll taste fine at all. If it tastes like band-aids now, it won't improve and in fact may get worse. Young beer should taste like flat beer. Aging may smooth out some of the rough flavors, but aging won't fix something that is really bad.

I am speaking from experience- I currently have my first 10 gallon batch of band-aid beer. :( Unfortunately, while aging does help mellow many problems it just can't fix chlorophenols or other phenols.
Click to expand...

a6ladd said:
+1. I had a batch not too long ago turn out with the bandaid flavor. I drank the last bottle of it probably about 4 months after bottling and it wasnt any better :( and like Yooper said, chlorophenols and phenols dont clean up.
Click to expand...

Is the culprit chlorinated water? Or high temps?

Still, I wouldn't dump it. You never know, maybe its not the band aid flavor, maybe its something similar. I would bottle like normal and down the road try one out. Unless a few cases of bottles sitting in the basement are going to bother you....

And if it still tastes like crap, you can be hardcore and drink it anyway :rockin:
 
stratslinger said:
FYI, if it's really band-aid flavors, a warm ferment (particulary high temperatures 8 days into fermentation) is not the culprit. Chlorine had to get into the mix somewhere to cause that particular off-flafor. If if did not come from your cleaner, then possibly it came straight from your water supply. Does your drinking water taste or smell of chlorine?
Click to expand...

In my case, I can guarantee you that there is absolutely not a hint of chlorine or chloramines in my brew. Not a chance.

but I have a band-aid beer right now. Mine happened to have come from a contaminated yeast starter/harvested yeast, but coupled with 75 degrees (although WLP001 can go to 75 degrees without too much problem) gave me band-aids.

It commonly comes from chloramines or chlorine in the brewing water (making chlorophenols) but phenols can also come from high fermentation temperatures as well as bacterial contamination.

I've had LOTS of people say that high temperatures don't matter much for a few yeast strains (certain Belgian strains, as an example) but I've judged lots of band-aid/phenolic beers that got those off flavors simply from a too-high fermentation temperature. Stressed yeast can (and does) create phenols.
 
It could be the water im not really sure... Also the cleaner may have chlorine in it but it's all in Korean do I can't read it that well .. I was using half water from the tap and bottled water to add to my partial boil. I'm going to chalk it down to learning experience. I'll go easy on the cleaning products and use all bottle water for the next one and see how it comes out.... There is no chance of me dumping it though. I'll let it sit unroll everything else is drank and if it's that bad it will just motivate me to do better haha..

Can't thank you all enough for the info , very new to brewing and it's great to have such help to stop me worrying , I have been brewing the same day I bottle so the fermenter is never empty so I'm my haste after the first batch I could have done something wrong. Going again this Saturday so I'll try bring my A game ..
Thanks again
 
duffstuff said:
It could be the water im not really sure... Also the cleaner may have chlorine in it but it's all in Korean do I can't read it that well .. I was using half water from the tap and bottled water to add to my partial boil. I'm going to chalk it down to learning experience. I'll go easy on the cleaning products and use all bottle water for the next one and see how it comes out.... There is no chance of me dumping it though. I'll let it sit unroll everything else is drank and if it's that bad it will just motivate me to do better haha..

Can't thank you all enough for the info , very new to brewing and it's great to have such help to stop me worrying , I have been brewing the same day I bottle so the fermenter is never empty so I'm my haste after the first batch I could have done something wrong. Going again this Saturday so I'll try bring my A game ..
Thanks again
Click to expand...

Idk if you can but try to order star san, and used bottled water until you get your water figured out.

Goodluck,
 
If you *think* there is a chance you have chlorines in your water, a 1/4 crush campden tablet will fix it up before you brew. It neutralizes the chlorines.

If you can get some, it's VERy easy to use.
 
Stressed yeast can (and does) create phenols.
Click to expand...

I agree with Yooper on this one. I recently had two beers with phenols in a row. I determined that they were from stressed yeast. I had harvested yeast stored in mason jars that I had been using for a while with no problem until these two. Then I realized that the dates on the jars were about 9 months old! My next batch, I stepped up a starter 4 times on a stir plate to ensure the yeast regained as much vitality as possible. That batch turned out fantastic. All of the yeast was originally harvested from the same batch. The age and handing of the yeast made a huge difference. BTW I have no chlorine either. Well water and use PBW and starsan. YMMV. This is just my experience.
 
Korea is a great country with friendly people and awesome food. I can understand why you'd home brew though. Hite and Cass have to be some of the worst beers I've ever tasted.
 
Thanks for all the help.. I won't lie some of the answers are going over my head.. All the names of the tastes are confusing, but fear not , I'm gonna study up and figure it all out. Next batch is saturday so I'll use bottled water and try to sanitize properly and hope it goes well........ And your right Korea is an amazing place and it wi be even better enjoyed with a nice homebrew.... Thank you again
 

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