Just dumped my first batch and Im not happy!

Well we just bottled our first batch of beer. It was a Witbier extract and Im not sure what the hell we did wrong. It smelled like a band aid and tasted like soap. Any ideas as to what we did wrong? We pitched a bit hot around 78 degrees and used local tap water with 1 step as the sanitizer.

I'd rather be brewing!

On Deck: Notta
Primary: American Cream Ale (Extract)
Secondary: Notta
(Recently) Bottled: Witbeir (Extract), Irish Red Ale (Extract)

I cannot guarantee you this is what's wrong, but "soapy" and "wet cardboard" flavors typically come from 1) poor sanitizing, or more often 2) aerating the beer too much upon bottling.
Did you move the beer while it was fermenting?
How did you fill your bottles?

What do you consider to much aerating? We may have moved it to the secondary a bit early (while still fermenting) and we used 1 step for sanitizing which Im not sure works that well but thats what we had. Other than that we have done the same exact thing on the second batch and it doesnt taste anything like it.

Did you use bleach at all during any cleaning?

Nope

It could have been that snot-rocket you shot into your fermenter....

But in all seriousness, at what points did you aerate your wort? + at what temperatures was this done. When bottling, did you place your wand at the bottom or just siphon in from the top letting it splash into the bottle? If you give a more detailed description it might be easier to find the culprit. You also could have gotten extremely unlucky and got an infection through something that you couldn't necessarily prevent.

Best,
Saintdog

No snot rockets and we used a syphon with wand and we put it in the bottom of the bottle and let it fill to the top and then pulled out and capped. We aerated the wort while it was a bit high, around 78 degrees. We were excited, LOL!

We have came to the conclusion that its was a combination of the chlorine in the tap water, the temp of the yeast pitch and the sanitizer. Does that sound right?

Maybe. If you drink your tap water, it's usually okay to brew with.
I'm not saying filtered isn't better.

If you pitched yeast below 80*, it should be okay. It would only ferment aggressively. That is, unless the yeast directions state to specifically pitch below 75*.

One-step sanitizer should not have played any negative role in this.

Your pitch temp was definitely a little high. How was your boil? Did you get a really good roiling boil. My first batch sounds alot like yours and it tasted like dirty socks. I determined it was my boil. From there I always used two burners on the stove and got alot stronger boil and alot better beer.

Then whats the issue? We cant seem to figure it out either. Im just going to simply blame it on my wife!

Band-aid is almost certainly from chlorine in the water.

Try getting some powdered ascorbic acid (vitamin C).

Add about 1/4 tsp to your water about 30-40 minutes before you bring it to a boil. Campden tablets also work.

jcotner45 said:

Well we just bottled our first batch of beer. It was a Witbier extract and Im not sure what the hell we did wrong. It smelled like a band aid and tasted like soap. Any ideas as to what we did wrong? We pitched a bit hot around 78 degrees and used local tap water with 1 step as the sanitizer.

I'd rather be brewing!

On Deck: Notta
Primary: American Cream Ale (Extract)
Secondary: Notta
(Recently) Bottled: Witbeir (Extract), Irish Red Ale (Extract)

Click to expand...

band-aid = likely because of phenols. often caused by bleach, but that isn't your case... maybe a wild yeast got in there.

soapy taste is sometimes associated with leaving the beer in primary for too long - the trub starts to break down. how long was it in primary?

Um, I thought band-aid/cardboard was from oxidation? did you move the fermentation vessel while it was doing its thing? racking to secondary could cause that maybe? pitching hot should cause fusels and esters that taste like cheap tequila ive heard.

As far as soapy.... did you wash ANYTHING with dish soap or the like EVER?

Cardboard flavors are from oxidation.

Band-aid is phenols, by far the most likely of which is chlorophenol.

How to Brew - By John Palmer - Common Off-Flavors

Really? Only time I got band-aid flavor was from the one infection that I have ever had. I brewed several batches with the exact same water and all of them were great. When I got that off flavor, my fermentation with notty never took off, and I repitched, but it was too late.

sweetcell said:

band-aid = likely because of phenols. often caused by bleach, but that isn't your case... maybe a wild yeast got in there.

soapy taste is sometimes associated with leaving the beer in primary for too long - the trub starts to break down. how long was it in primary?

Click to expand...

I only left the wort in the primary for about 6 days. I was actually worried that it wasnt long enough. The funny thing is that my second batch was done exactly the same, no changes and it taste pretty good so far.