frustration setting in - beer getting worse

I have found that as I acquired more equipment, the harder it is to keep it all sanitary. Step up all your sanitation and chemicals/procedures and see if that helps.

I kept the bandaid batch that drove me to this post for some reason. I began dumping it tonight and decided to give it one more taste. Low and behold the phenolic taste is now barely detectable, and overall quite drinkable. I have no clue what is going on, but I hope it is all done with. Needless to say I sealed the keg back up and to the kegerator it went

Is my logic ok here:

If the phenolic flavours decrease over time this indicates to me that it's something that the yeast is capable of cleaning, such as off flavours produced by fermentation temperature.

If it was TCP, the flavour compounds wouldn't be volatile and wouldn't decrease over time.

If it was due to a bacterial infection, the off flavours would probably increase over time as the bacteria multiplies.

Does this sound right?

I also went into a phase of bad batches and looked at all of my practices and the big one was yeast..either washed yeast..starters that sat too long before I used them..reusing yeast over several batches..I came to the conclusion that it saves money washing yeast..but I find a good fresh starter with fresh yeast was the only way to go. I could harvest and freeze..but I do not have the equipment time or money..I do not brew that often..so all my problems linked to the yeast..usually the case with most off flavors..bad aroma

kcinpdx said:

I kept the bandaid batch that drove me to this post for some reason. I began dumping it tonight and decided to give it one more taste. Low and behold the phenolic taste is now barely detectable, and overall quite drinkable. I have no clue what is going on, but I hope it is all done with. Needless to say I sealed the keg back up and to the kegerator it went

Click to expand...

Mine also improved with age..not as much as your but a little..yeast either what went into the fermentor or during fermentation..temps..too high? or maybe the temps bounced around alot and were not stable?

just some thoughts

To pile onto a huge thread already, I've been having problems too. I could attribute them to poor sanitation, old yeast banks (and not using a starter), and high ambient temps. I would like to move away from my current process and towards something more automated, more repeatable, less variables but...$.