Chlorophenol

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brausawyer

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G'day Mates,

So I have a slight problem that is noticeable in all of my beers. I get a slight "plastic"aroma and flavour and its very frustrating. I feel it could be one of two things:

1. Chlorine in my water
2. Using too much starsan or PBW

Has anyone experienced this and figured it out? I am working on the two issues now and some light shed on this would be great!
 
Chlorine is a distinct possibility. I sincerely doubt too much starsan or PBW would be the problem unless you so excessively overdid it that it defies all logic. If anything, I would consider a sanitation issue or fermentation temps as possible culprits as well.
 
You don't pull your water through a garden hose by any chance, do you?

If the flavor is coming from Chlorine or Chloramine, you can put 1/4 crushed campden tablet per 5 gallons of your brewing water to get rid of it.
 
No straight from the tap. I have heard John Palmer using campden tablets as well,so glad that was mentioned. Good thought on fermentation temp too.

pS How well would a mini fridge work as a fermentation control apparatus?
 
Mini fridges work great. Just use a temp controller (not the dial on the fridge) to control temps.
 
G'day Mates,

So I have a slight problem that is noticeable in all of my beers. I get a slight "plastic"aroma and flavour and its very frustrating. I feel it could be one of two things:

1. Chlorine in my water
2. Using too much starsan or PBW

Has anyone experienced this and figured it out? I am working on the two issues now and some light shed on this would be great!

What BigB said. The most likely causes are a contamination issue and/or a temperature problem during fermentation.
 
?? He's using unfiltered tap water. The most likely answer is chlorine. Look up the water report for your district. Check the chlorine levels and if they are using chloromines. If no chloromines, then bring all of your water up to a boil and let it cool to the temp you need for brewing. That will get rid of the chlorine and should get rid of the plastic flavor. If nothing else, it will rule out chlorine as a cause. Even if your water report reads low on chlorine, it will vary a lot day to day.
 
Another option to rule out chlorine/chloramines is to use filtered water and see if it makes a difference. If not, sanitation/infection, sanitizer, or things like hoses leeching flavor into the water might be the cause.
 
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