Similar off taste/smell in recent beers...

I have been brewing since July. But I have had a similiar taste in a few of the beers I have been brewing recently; the only smell I can describe it as is a permanent marker (eww).

At first I thought it was my beer lines or sanitation, but the one beer that has the smell this time is on tap next to one that has none at all. Then I thought it was extract brewing, but I have since moved to all grain and I have one batch that has the same smell. Then I though it was my lagering, but this time, my ale has the smell, while my lagered oktoberfest tastes great.

This leads me to believe that I have strained my yeast due to not making a starter and this has led to this weird smell. (I have since started to make a starter for every liquid yeast batch of mine and I see signs of fermenting in no time). All of my liquid yeast batches didn't start until 3 days after pitching.

Am I correct? Has anyone else had this weird smell?

what are your fermentation temps? how are you controlling oxidation? what kind of plastic is your lautering equipment made from?

Shoemaker said:

I have been brewing since July. But I have had a similiar taste in a few of the beers I have been brewing recently; the only smell I can describe it as is a permanent marker (eww).

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I haven't had that smell before but get all kinds of undesirable flavors with some recipes when I have not given the beer time to mature. What type of beers are they that you are having problems with? Without a lot of information on your particular situation, I'm throwing out a recent lesson re-learned.

JollyToper said:

I haven't had that smell before but get all kinds of undesirable flavors with some recipes when I have not given the beer time to mature. What type of beers are they that you are having problems with? Without a lot of information on your particular situation, I'm throwing out a recent lesson re-learned.

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It's not the lauter tun because like I said, I had this problem with extract batches as well.

I ferment at about 63 degrees. I highly doubt oxidation is the problem. I take a lot of care to avoid it.

I drink my beer about 4 weeks after brewing. Sometimes I transfer to secondary after 2 weeks (like lagers) but with ales, now I just leave them there for 4 weeks. I don't think this is the problem because whether I secondary or not, whether its an ale or lager, I have had this weird smell.

Shoemaker said:

It's not the lauter tun because like I said, I had this problem with extract batches as well.

I ferment at about 63 degrees. I highly doubt oxidation is the problem. I take a lot of care to avoid it.

I drink my beer about 4 weeks after brewing. Sometimes I transfer to secondary after 2 weeks (like lagers) but with ales, now I just leave them there for 4 weeks. I don't think this is the problem because whether I secondary or not, whether its an ale or lager, I have had this weird smell.

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I should also note that I smell this weird smell straight out of the primary fermentator. I know it gives off weird smells at this point, but it is the smell I later smell when its carbed and ready to go. I clean my carboys with oxyclean free, rinse them a million times, and rack my beer right onto starsan. I have glass and better bottle carboys, both weird smelling beers came from each. And have tried racking right onto starsan or rinsing it out. Again, doesn't matter.

Shoemaker said:

I should also note that I smell this weird smell straight out of the primary fermentator. I know it gives off weird smells at this point, but it is the smell I later smell when its carbed and ready to go. I clean my carboys with oxyclean free, rinse them a million times, and rack my beer right onto starsan. I have glass and better bottle carboys, both weird smelling beers came from each. And have tried racking right onto starsan or rinsing it out. Again, doesn't matter.

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I think I can pinpoint the problem now. The beer has the smell of phenols. I think this is the case because the smell is similiar to a belgian ale or weizen. I used white labs yeast but I didn't make a starter. Can this cause this off smell? And if not, am I getting bad vials of yeast from white labs?

it might be a non-food grade plastic somewhere. change anything that's plastic to something that's not especially if it come in contact with hot wort and see if the problem goes away.

you could try pitching 3ish vials of yeast if you think its an under pitch problem.

Sound to me like your yeast are consuming there selves (Autolysis). The first time that this happened to me was in my container for my blow off tube. Because it was a high gravity beer I kept it in the primary for four weeks without changing the liquid in my blow off container because it was sanitizing solution. When I entered my brew haus after the 4 weeks I noticed the "marker" smell. When I dumped out my blow off liquid I nearly puked! It smelled like a burning tire. The smell was so strong the fumes produced off flavors that emanated up my blow off tube to my beer. I now empty my blow off liquid every other day.

-Ed