Band Aid Brew

Hi All

My attemt at a Duvel clone is in the secondary right now and smells overwhelmingly like band aids. Some references say it's a contamination and others say it's a yeast reaction to the chlorine based sanitiser in my fermenter, does anyone know specifically what the cause is?

Is there something I can add to help remove the smell and will it go away with age?
I'd hate to have to dump this brew

You said it yourself. But, just to reference, here it is from John J. Palmer's Book "How to Brew"...



Medicinal Smell


These flavors are often described as medicinal, Band Aid like, or spicy, like Cloves. The causes are various phenols that are initially produced by the yeast. Chlorophenols result from the reaction of Chlorine based sanitizers (Bleach) with phenol compunds and have very low taste threshholds. Rinsing with bottled water after sanitizing is the best way to prevent these flavors. Wild (gusher) yeasts can also produce these flavors.

Page 258, "How to Brew", John J Palmer


He makes no mention as far as removing the off flavors. Sorry I couldn't help, but you're right as far as what produced it. The good thing is that you have your finger on the problem and now you can rectify it in your next batch. Keep your head up and keep brewing.

The key here is that these could very well be "initial fermentation" off smells.

Do NOT toss this beer. See it through. If I gave in a pitched every batch that smelled "not right" early in the fermentation, I'd have tossed gallons of some of the best beer I've ever brewed.

See it through...and post the end results.

BierMuncher said:

The key here is that these could very well be "initial fermentation" off smells.

Do NOT toss this beer. See it through. If I gave in a pitched every batch that smelled "not right" early in the fermentation, I'd have tossed gallons of some of the best beer I've ever brewed.

See it through...and post the end results.

Click to expand...

Good Call Biermuncher.

Ok I'll bottle it and see how it is after a few months time. If it still tastes bad I'll just say I was pressure testing the bottles

I made a batch with two pounds of honey that fermented kind of warm and it too tasted a little like bandaids at first. Too many fusel alchohols produced by high ABV and high ferment temps. After 5 weeks in the bottles the bandaid flavor is going away and is pretty good beer. Not my best batch by any means, but I am glad I didn't dump it.