drummerboyas157

Recipes 

So I brewed my first beer it was an Old west Kit from my LHBS I dont know what the ingredients were i only know it had Wyeast 2308. I let it sit for 3-4 weeks in primary and its been bottles for about a month now. It looks great! But it has a strange taste I am hoping will go away. It was supposed to be an Oktoberfest.

It had the taste since i started testing it before being bottled and still has it. Its kind of a bitter plastic taste I guess. I just tried a Kamboucha the other night and it had the same strange flavor. Its very strong when you burp. Anyways I was just seeing if anyone had any ideas on what would be causing it I know theres not much you can probably tell me with out an ingredient list.

I have bottled a stout since then and about to bottle a cider, both taste great before i bottled without a hint of the strange taste from the Oktoberfest.

jonmohno

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Thats weird if it has a taste like kombucha i brew and harvest it bi-weekly and it is influenced with wild yeast.
Is it a plastic band-aide taste. Look ito John Palmers How to brew online he has taste descriptions. This sounds like what you are describing.But without knowing more its hard to pinpoint a strange flavor.

drummerboyas157

Recipes 

So a year or so down the road and a couple batches done. So far they have all still had this taste a little. The first one I did was the strongest, and I couldnt even drink it. then next few were subtle and I only noticed it when I burped. I took a break for a while because I was discouraged and I just made a new brew a couple days ago.

So I hope this one turns out good, but as I think about i dont know why it will be any different. If it ends up with the same taste what do I do? I tasted another persons homebrew today with the same taste. But they say its not normal.

Anyway how do I solve this problem? What steps can I take to eliminate factors. Maybe next time I will use bottled water instead of boiled tap. I use B Brite cleaner which just says rinse with cold water after you sanitize. I wonder if I havent rinsed as much as I should.

What should I do not to waste further batches?

drummerboyas157

Recipes 

Also I ferment at room temp of 68 that might be on a little high end but the other choice is the garage and it gets really cold in the winter time

eastoak

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are you brewing all grain or extract?

drummerboyas157

Recipes 

Its extract with some steeping grains that i kept 155-160

DarthMalt

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Is your water from a well or is it municipal?

drummerboyas157

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municipal. I have boiled all of it from the tap

prpromin

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Your problem might be with the yeast and temp. 2308 is a lager yeast. According to the Wyeast website, 48-56 degrees is optimal, so a higher temp would throw off all sorts of odd flavors. My guess is too high of temp for fermentation.

drummerboyas157

Recipes 

I have done a few since then and I don't think that they were lager yeast right now I have a German ale yeast in my caramel cream ale batch, so I hope that it works out! But that's funny that one was a lager yeast the instructions were still for ale...dang box kits. That was the only box kit I have tried so far.