Chemical Taste in Blonde Ale

I only have a hand full of brews under my belt, but I small extract batch of BM Centennial Blonde Ale in my Mr. Beer LBK.

I modified the extract version for 2 gallons.
http://hopville.com/recipe/1675718

It fermented for 3 weeks at 64f. I was lazy and didnt check the FG. It was really clear before I bottled it. Bottled for 2 weeks, it seems mostly carbonated, but taste like cleaning chemicals. Now that I think back about it, I tried it a few times before I bottled it, and it has a very similar taste but I just figured it was the green/warm/un-carbonated taste.

I use dawn dish soap (1-2 small drops) to clean out the primary and use star-sans for all my sanitation needs.

Never had a beer taste like this yet, I will let it set for a couple more weeks before I try it again, I am guessing its just not ready, but wanted to make sure I didn't do anything wrong.

I doubt the off flavor came from the dish soap but you really shouldn't ever use dish soap for cleaning anything brew-related. Detergents breakdown the proteins responsible for things like head retention and body. Even a few small drops can have a negative impact. StarSan has always been sufficient for me.

Anyways... Your off flavor is most likely related to yeast stress. 64f doesn't sound too hot so maybe a case of under pitching? Give your beer another couple of weeks though and see if the flavor doesn't go away. Be patient.

PhelanKA7 said:

I doubt the off flavor came from the dish soap but you really shouldn't ever use dish soap for cleaning anything brew-related. Detergents breakdown the proteins responsible for things like head retention and body. Even a few small drops can have a negative impact. StarSan has always been sufficient for me.

Anyways... Your off flavor is most likely related to yeast stress. 64f doesn't sound too hot so maybe a case of under pitching? Give your beer another couple of weeks though and see if the flavor doesn't go away. Be patient.

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It could have been under pitched, I used US-05, it was half a pack left over from a previous brew, I never measured so I may have used to much the first brew.

tonyscha said:

It could have been under pitched, I used US-05, it was half a pack left over from a previous brew, I never measured so I may have used to much the first brew.

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Hmm, could be. The packets are good for 5 gallons but I would still use a whole packet even if you're doing a 2 gallon batch, just to be safe.

Did you perhaps carbonate the bottles in too cold of a room?

I recently did that and the bottles had a slight alcohol finish, I moved the bottles to a warmer room for 2 weeks and now that taste is gone and they taste great.

Here's a good document to refer to for diagnosing issues with off flavors:
http://www.kroc.org/Links/TroubleshootingGuide.htm

Palmer's book says soapy flavors can result from being in the primary too long after fermentation is complete where a soap is created by fatty acids in the trub breaking down.

Although in your case it doesn't sound like you were in the primary for very long at all, unless for some reason your primary completed very quickly.

Does it taste like soap or cleaning chemicals i.e. like a plastic, band-aid flavor? To me soap and chemicals have two different tastes.

I think despite what it could be the best solution is to wait longer than two weeks in the bottle before evaluating the beer...

kwingert said:

Does it taste like soap or cleaning chemicals i.e. like a plastic, band-aid flavor? To me soap and chemicals have two different tastes.

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It taste like a cleaning chemical, like lemon pine-sol. I have read a few post about a band-aid flavor, but I dont think its that. Anyway I am going to wait at least two weeks before I try again.

tonyscha said:

It taste like a cleaning chemical, like lemon pine-sol. I have read a few post about a band-aid flavor, but I dont think its that. Anyway I am going to wait at least two weeks before I try again.

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That sounds an awful lot like chlorophenols- from chlorine in the brewing water. Is that possible?

Yooper said:

That sounds an awful lot like chlorophenols- from chlorine in the brewing water. Is that possible?

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Nothing more then standard tap water. I have made a Mr. Beer Blonde ale before, and it didn't have this kind of taste.

Did you run the water through a charcoal filter or use campden tablets? If you didn't remove the chlorine or chloromine from the water you can get chlorophenols like Yooper said.

kwingert said:

Did you run the water through a charcoal filter or use campden tablets? If you didn't remove the chlorine or chloromine from the water you can get chlorophenols like Yooper said.

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No I dont filter my water at all, previous beers have tasted fine.

Anyway after 2 weeks, this beer taste much better, I am guessing if I let it cold crash for more then 24 hours it would help mellow out the taste.

Now its time to HAHB