Help finding the off flavor culprit...

So I got an off flavor in my first AG batch - kind of medicinally and flat tasting. Brewed 2 weeks ago and racked to the secondary yesterday. Sanitized with iodine and rinsed everything off well with hot water. Did have a little krausen come through the airlock at the beginning as well. I also noticed that in my cooler MLT - one of my hose clamps on the braided line was oxidized - thought I bought all stainless - I guess not. Could the oxidation of the clamp cause the flavor? Any suggestions?

Here's the recipe:

5 lb domestic 2 row
3 lb domestic pale
1.5 lb 12 l crystal
0.5 lb cararoma

don't rember the amount of hops but I used northern brewer and strisselspalt.

pitched s-04 whitbread

added 1/2 lb dark candi syrup due to only 50% efficiency in the mash.

impossible to tell with the information you provided. What did your mash schedule look like? How about your OG? 50% efficiency is pretty low which may have lead to a pretty "thin" brew... I'm not sure 1/2lb of candi syrup would have helped the situation all that much. A better options would have been to add some DME to get it to the proper OG.

They're phenols, but they would either come from the specific strain of yeast or:




Description: "Band-Aid" like flavor or aroma, that can also present itself as medicine-like or clovey. Chlorophenols resemble the aforementioned taste descriptors combined with bleach. Phenols are usually part of the flavor profile in Belgians and Wheat beers however.

Cause: Bacterial Contamination can be responsible, or not rinsing your equipment thoroughly after sanitizing with bleach is another culprit. Also, phenols can be leached from the grain husks by overcrushing or oversparging your malt.

Remedy: Good sanitation once again is key. Make sure to always rinse your equipment thoroughly if you sanitize with bleach or a bleach-based sanitizer. Be more cognizant of grain crushing and sparging methods.

What makes you think you have an off flavor, outside of tasting un-completely fermented, un-carbonated, un-conditioned and basically un-finished beer? Medicinally and flat is what I would expect going into secondary.

Seriously, you won't be able to tell if you have any "off" flavors until your beer has been bottled or kegged for at the very least two weeks.

I'll second COLObrewer's remarks, until your beer is finished and carbed, it doesn't taste anything like it WILL.

Now the phenolics you're getting, if you are still getting them after the beer is done, are the like "band-aid" or "hospital floor"? If so, it is likely an infection.

Some people refer to a soapy bitterness as "medicinal". Occasionally if your beer is left in primary too long, the proteins can break down and produce a soapy-like character.

Oxidation isn't going to be your culprit - oxidation usually produces either a sherry-like flavor, or something that tastes like envelope glue.

Allright - I'll be waiting to see how she pours out before I start freaking. For the mash scheduled I followed the step infusion mash schedule in "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing" - I botched it by not letting the sparge water sit long enough. Doh!