Dealing with bad beer...an experiment in not killing myself

So, I have had several batches - far more than I would like to admit - turn out badly. I mean undrinkable because of a bandaid like medicinal quality that kills any hop aroma or bitterness. These beers finish sweet even if they are at desired FG. These beers all taste the same - even when they are fermented at different temps or with different yeast. Even giant hop bombs that should be close to 100 IBU taste sweet and malty even with mash temps in the low 150 148 range.


I grind my grain in the garage - so I started doing so outside. Still not better.
I replaced all my fermenters and bleached the crap out of my fermentation freezer. still no fix.


I started trying to fix this by bleaching/vinegaring my carboys and replacing all plastic parts/hoses. I got a good batch here and there and continued to be frustrated. I thought it might be my plate chiller - I recirculate boiling wort through it for at least 15 minutes every boil and clean it out afterwards - I even started baking it. Still no 100% fix.



I am drinking a big double stout that turned out great, but in the tap next to it is a maibock that tastes like absolute sh^t. I have about a 30 percent success rate and this is simply unacceptable.

I was so convinced I had an infection- But I then started looking at my water.
I have a cistern which is usually full of nice clean rain water but at times is filled with water we get from the local water supplier - which happens to use chloramines. I believe that while my water tastes fine it is ruining my beer - and today I brewed a batch of Cascade Munich smash to prove that idea.

I added camden powder to my mash, sparge, and any water that touched my equipment. I starsan sprayed and covered in foam everything in my garage. The plate chiller was heated in the oven at 350 degrees earlier this morning and then had boiling wort recirculated through it for at least 30 minutes.

It is in the fermentation chamber now - I will give it a week and then if FG is there and everything has cleared out I will taste it and rack to keg. If it doesn't taste like problem beer I will rejoice and do my happy dance. If it doesn't work I will be buying some spring water and trying to brew at a friends house to see if the problem is environmental.


I make a lot of skeeter pee/lemon wine. I use the same fermentation vessels that I do for beer. I assume that if these batches are turning out fine that the chloramine in the water is interacting with the grain and making bad things happen.

I am slightly tipsy on this stout and am rambling so I will check back in when I keg/dump this batch

have you tried buying/making RO water? i use an RV filter i bought on amazon for $20 or so and it works great.

eastoak said:

have you tried buying/making RO water? i use an RV filter i bought on amazon for $20 or so and it works great.

Click to expand...

My water supply is run through a uv filter and a carbon filter - I don't think that the cheaper filters are RO

I will be buying a full batch worth of RO water if this batch doesn't turn out properly.

If it's not chemical contamination and it's not your process than your water is all that's left. Good luck! I have used nothing but my well water and so far I have not made a bad batch. :fingerscrossed:

runningweird said:

I have about a 30 percent success rate and this is simply unacceptable.

If it doesn't taste like problem beer I will rejoice and do my happy dance.

Click to expand...

BUT...

What if this next batch is a "30 percent success" beer???

I had one batch of beer come out with a strong band aid flavor. I had used DME, i think it was due to a shortened boil time.

Never had the problem with LME, or All grain. All equipment was the same.

neko said:

BUT...

What if this next batch is a "30 percent success" beer???

Click to expand...

Then I won't know will I?!

If it turns out well I will brew another when I keg it to see if the second batch turns out well.

if both are good I will conclude that i might have fixed the problem.

Get rid of the bleach. get some Star-San. Phenols usually come from chlorine.

Wynne-R said:

Get rid of the bleach. get some Star-San. Phenols usually come from chlorine.

Click to expand...

I use star san religiously. The bleached items were all rinsed with hot water and cleaned thoroughly after an oxyclean bath.

I might make an ro batch before the other one is done just to see what happens...

Wynne-R said:

Get rid of the bleach. get some Star-San. Phenols usually come from chlorine.

Click to expand...

+1

Starsan is much simpler than bleach, no worries about rinsing it well enough like bleach.


From John Palmer's How to Brew

Medicinal
These flavors are often described as mediciney, Band-Aid™ like, or can be spicy like cloves. The cause are various phenols which are initially produced by the yeast. Chlorophenols result from the reaction of chlorine-based sanitizers (bleach) with phenol compounds and have very low taste thresholds. Rinsing with boiled water after sanitizing is the best way to prevent these flavors.

Click to expand...

Fermentation is going strong - no off aromas - strong cascade hop presence coming out of the airlock.

sad side note: hydrometer I ordered through an amazon brewing vendor(Midwest Homebrewing and Winemaking supplies) arrived shattered. Returned it but now I need to know if I should gamble on ordering from them again or from another place.

Racked to keg today - dry hopped with two ounces of cascade and an ounce of amarillo(which I got from Yooper in a hop exchange).

Tasted very nice at kegging but I can never tell what green beer will taste like once it carbonates up.

Another week and I should be able to find out if the campden tablets did the trick.

I think your idea to simplify things is a great idea, but I would take it further. If I had this problem, I would go back to an extract kit with store-bought water and slowly start adding in my own processes until I was back to all-grain with my own cultured yeast.

Hopefully it is the water, because that is the easiest thing to fix!

so the campden tablets must have worked. I dried hopped it with an ounce of amarillo I got from yoop and 2 ounces of cascade hops I had in my freezer.

I tried a few glasses of this and was happy, but I brought the entire 5 gallon keg to a trail runners club party and about 3 gallons is gone. Along with some Zombie dust clone and dead guy clone(again from Yooper) I was quite the hit.

I used a 20 ounce paintball tank and a co 2 go converter to dispense this. 3.99 to fill the tank seems well worth it.

So, I will be brewing a scotch ale this week and time will tell if the Chloramines are the main problem.

Caveat - i am at about a 6 out of 10 on the drunk scale as I type this.

Chloramine was my problem as well. I noticed a marked improvement in my beers after starting to use Campden tablets.

an update: Since adding campden tablets to my water I have had zero evidence of that medicinal aroma/flavor. My beers are turning out fantastically well and I have yet to have one give any inclination of going back to the old ruinous smell.

Givwe it more time. One week? Let that stuff sit for a while in the fermenter.