aspirin tasting homebrew

I think I have finally ruined a batch. Fortunately, it was only a 2.8 gal batch. It is a watermelon wheat beer in which I used 5lbs of watermelon, frozen and then thawed, in the fermenter. When I first tried a bottle after about 1.5 weeks the watermelon flavor was there and meshed nicely with the wheat. However there was this medicinal uncoated aspirin taste, slightly, but noticeably there on the finish. I was hoping it was just yeast bite but each successive bottle I have tried has only gotten worse.

Some questions.

Do you think this is from the watermelon? I never had a contamination before (and I have done a Mango IPA the same way as this watermelon beer) and the watermelon seems to be the most likely culprit.

Has anyone here ever had this same taste in their beer? and if so, what did you deem the culprit to be?

Is there anything I can do to save it? Heat it, freeze it, let it sit for 6 months? Barring all that is there something I can add to the beer to counteract the taste? I have tried OJ and grenadine, both to no avail.

Thanks!

That is not a flavor I recognize, unless by Aspirin you mean medicinal. From John Palmer's How to Brew - By John Palmer website:

"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."

Sounds like fermentation temps- what temperature are you fermenting your beer?

I was thinking fermentation temps or sanitation.

In addition to fermentation temps what are you using to sanitize?

Fermentation temps were right at 70 or below the whole time and I use the star san no rinse stuff. Both of those variables have been exactly the same with each batch and all have turned out well. My strong guess is the watermelon.

The only thing to do, I think, is to wait on it for several months. I've heard many people say that they've had batches that were undrinkable at the beginning and after 4-5 months they were great. I know this is not likely, but I've got the space so why not? The only question then would be fridge or room temp. My bet is fridge.

Room temp,my beers ive used cinnimon,pumpkin,or other things have gotten better.You could put some in the fridge to see the difference though. I always go with time if mine dont seem to taste right yet. Although im talking flavors,so unless you had water or sanitizer issues then that is different.

amcclai7 said:

I've heard many people say that they've had batches that were undrinkable at the beginning and after 4-5 months they were great.

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Those are the people you don't take brewing advice from.


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I don't know. This forum https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/never-dump-your-beer-success-story-191824/ is filled with story after story of bad beer turning good, or at least drinkable, over time. Just search, "don't dump your beer" and dozens of threads come up. I've also had many brewers in person tell me the same thing. My idea is just that, I've got the room why not give it a shot?

If its undrinkable at first you have major adjustments to make.

I have had a couple that I deemed undrinkable that did get better with age. Those however were due to an over powering adjunct such as too much coriander. So if it is the watermelon there is a chance it may mellow and become more drinkable but it will likely never taste awesome. Another I let mellow stayed awful. It tasted just like you were sucking on a bandaid. This is the first one I took the advice of the the link you posted above and let it mellow trying it over the course of 14 months. After 14 months it still tasted like you were sucking on a fresh bandaid.

amcclai7 said:

My idea is just that, I've got the room why not give it a shot?

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No harm, no foul. Go for it!

Would tannin be the flavor you're trying to describe?

amcclai7 said:

I don't know.

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I do, beers don't go from undrinkable to "great". Certainly some styles benefit from aging, but they don't start out horrible tasting. It's possible to age out some off flavors due to brewing mistakes, I suppose, but it will never be a great beer.

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wildwest450 said:

I do, beers don't go from undrinkable to "great". Certainly some styles benefit from aging, but they don't start out horrible tasting. It's possible to age out some off flavors due to brewing mistakes, I suppose, but it will never be a great beer.

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I'm not sure, my belgian strong dark (around 9.2%) was so damn alcohol hot (just hot, no fusels or anything) out of the 6 week primary that I would have called it undrinkable, but I knew it just needed age. Obviously all the base flavors and important bits were there, already though. After another 2 months, it was fantastic. I think the threshold for undrinkable probably varies a lot from person to person.

Ravenshead said:

Would tannin be the flavor you're trying to describe?

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Most definitely not. By tannin I assume you mean a similar flavor to what a harsh red wine has. Harsh, biting, astringent, etc. This tastes exactly, and I mean exactly, like an uncoated aspirin. The initial flavor of the beer is pretty good which is what makes me want to give it a shot with aging, but on the finish you get the distinct taste of putting an uncoated pill on the back of your tongue.

Also, I realize the chance of it aging into a great beer is very slim, I'm just hoping for drinkability.

Toga said:

I have had a couple that I deemed undrinkable that did get better with age. Those however were due to an over powering adjunct such as too much coriander. So if it is the watermelon there is a chance it may mellow and become more drinkable but it will likely never taste awesome. Another I let mellow stayed awful. It tasted just like you were sucking on a bandaid. This is the first one I took the advice of the the link you posted above and let it mellow trying it over the course of 14 months. After 14 months it still tasted like you were sucking on a fresh bandaid.

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Toga, this is what I'm afraid of. When you say band-aid I and say aspirin, I think we may mean the same/similar thing. I don't know if aging will help, but I'm willing to try.

Did you ever figure out what the culprit was in your case?

I used to chew up my aspirin or use Goody's headache powders, and I associate aspirin with tasting metallic.

That's what I meant though I was thinking of strong tea more than red wine. I've always thought of aspirin as astringent. The other flavor that comes to mind is paper but that would require oxidation and I doubt that's an issue here.

I don't know if I could associate aspirin with band-aid but that's just me.

Resurrecting an old thread here. I did follow my own advice here and let the beer age, mostly at room temp. I tried at most one bottle per month. For the first couple of months there was little improvement. Around month 4 the aspirin was slowly starting to fade. I then completely forgot about them. Around 7-8 months after the original brewday I popped one open. Fantastic!! The watermelon flavor had obviously faded considerably but the aspirin was gone! It had a lovely blend of flavors (none were really identifiable as watermelon but I'm sure it added something) and one of my more discerning friends compared to a low ABV Delirium Tremens.

DON'T DUMP YOUR BEER!!