Am I Sanitizing Properly?

I have done one batch and have my second batch in the primary. I had problems with my first batch, mostly due to being hit by Hurricane Ike and losing power for 17 days. The problem was with no AC the fermentation period was quite warm. I tasted it at 2 weeks and the beer was funky tasting but in previous posts many of you told me to be patient and let the beer sit in the bottle longer. I now understand I was jumping the gun.

You guys were right. The flavor is improving drastically from week to week. Although my plan was to not touch a bottle again until 6 weeks, I couldn’t stand the wait and have been testing a bottle or 2 every weekend. There is no doubt that the beer is definitely improving. In fact some bottles are down right awesome now at 5 weeks.

Here is my question; there is still an underlying bad taste that sort of tastes like the iodophor. It is a medicine like taste and very much reminds me of the smell of the iodophor. It is strong in some bottles and only slight in others. Could this taste actually have something to do with the warm fermentation or did I somehow get iodophor in there? The fact that is stronger in some bottles and weak in others makes me think it is due to the fermentation problems and may go away with more time.

I will continue to wait but I am concerned because if I did something wrong on the first batch I don’t want to repeat it on the second batch. In all cases, after soaking in iodophor, I rinsed with some pre-boiled water. Then I let everything drip dry as much as possible. Sometimes things may not have been completely dry but I wouldn’t think the minimal water beads would have iodophor flavor since I rinsed and those beads had to be mostly only H2O. Also, I think I was told that a little iodophor wouldn’t affect taste.

Dennis

A warm fermentation can lead to off flavors, some of which may smell medicinal. But it's possible you could have gotten an infection or maybe didn't rinse out the idiophor well enough.

I don't use idiophor, having instead chosen Star-San, which is a no-rinse sanitizer that does not affect the taste or quality of your beer. It's relatively inexpensive and one 5-gallon batch can be used across several brewing sessions. Many of the HBT'ers hear swear by it, but there are also a good share of people who use bleach, idiophor, heat, and other options (it's a very popular debate about which method is best).

I'd suggest trying Star-San. Not needing to rinse is a good thing. Just be advised that it isn't a cleaner, just a sanitizer. Anything that touches your post-boil wort and beer should be sanitized. A spray bottle of Star-San is a good idea too for spraying items that you can't fill with or dunk into the sanitizer.