Solvent-like taste

I brewed a AHS Fat Tire Clone LME Extract.

I used Wyeast 1272. Ferment at 62 degrees for 6 weeks in primary. I would have bottled at 4 weeks but I didn't have enough bottles.

Bottled condition for 3 weeks at about 67 degrees.

I am very careful with cleaning and sanitizing. I probably over sanitize to be safe.

My bottling process - soak in sun oxygen cleaner w/ water to remove labels. Rinse well with water. Soaked for about 20+ minutes in Star San solution.

I tried one today and there was a light solvent-like taste to the beer. I know my ferment temperature was right on. What else could be causing this? Is it still Green?

Generally, those "solvent" flavors are due to infection, but can be from chlorine in the brewing water or cleaner if not rinsed, and oxidation with high fermentation temperatures. Since it's not high fermentation temperatures, I'd consider it likely to be from infection or from chlorine.

I used spring water from the store, so the water is fine. I did my bottling process different before and didn't have any problems. I would get a white film from the oxygen cleaner and soaked the bottles in a vinegar/water solution to remove this. I then rinsed really well, placed them in the dishwasher. Ran one normal wash cycle (without soap) and sanitize cycle.

This time, I just used the star san solution to remove the white film and use it as the sanitizer. Do you think maybe the star san didn't remove all the white film from the cleaner? Or could Star San (I didn't rinse) cause this?

hawkeyes said:

[...]Or could Star San (I didn't rinse) cause this?

Click to expand...

That's the one thing you can be sure didn't cause a solvent taste...

Cheers!

Solvent taste is also caused by plastic leaching into the beer. If you have hot wort ever touching non-food safe plastic, it can cause off flavors (most plastics are rated for temps 140-150 F). I have heard of people getting the solvent taste from using vinyl tubing to transfer wort from their mash tun to kettle. I recently just bought some high temp tubing to avoid this problem.

I wanted to add. I tasted this prior to bottling, I did not notice any solvent-like taste. I also tried one a week after bottling and didn't notice anything. After 3 weeks out, is where I notice the solvent-like taste. Do you think the infection was picked up in the bottling process?

I didn't notice any off flavors when I used vinyl tubing from the plumbing department, but I heard some people did. I'd rather just spend 5 bucks on high temp tubing and not risk it. If you didn't notice until after bottling, it is most likely an infection. I would just let it age for a bit and try it on a weekly basis. The off flavors may subside with age. Good luck and Cheers.

I think might have found the problem. The Sun Oxygen cleaner leaves a really bad white film on the bottles, I didn't notice this with the name brand oxiclean. Since I was soaking these in Star San to remove the film and sanitize. The Film had to of been mixed in with the Star San Solution. So I suspect that a bit of this oxygen cleaner found its way into the bottles. This is first time I bottled this way, and never experienced anything like it. I will go back to my old bottling process with some tweaks.