Bandaid/medicinal flavor

All right I have done 2 extract and 1 all grain. One extract(belgian) and 1 all grain(pale ale) both have the same bandaid type flavor. I used starsan on everything. The extract did have a long lag time(no starter),about 36 hours. The second bubbling in 8 hours(used starter). The extract i did topup with tap water(unboiled). The allgrain no topup. I am using city water so I am thinking chlorine/chloramine could be a problem.
What do you guys think. I am wanting to do another brew this week. But not sure what todo. I am going to try campden tablets,I think, to combat chlorine.

sounds like you're on the right track

update when you brew again with the campden and let us know if the taste persists.

Chlorine/chloramine IS the culprit.

Been there, done that... Try using bottled water for your next batch and see what the difference is.
Worked for me.

Now I run a charcoal filter.

http://www.kroc.org/Links/TroubleshootingGuide.htm

Look under Phenolic and you should find your answer and solutions.

I have the same problem with a Trappist I brewed. It is quite bandaidy and has many flavors that haven't blended at all yet. It's bottled a week and there's quite a bandaid flavor and aroma. I used the same water and basically the same technique as others, which did not turn out this way. Could it be the wlp500?

kroach01 said:

I have the same problem with a Trappist I brewed. It is quite bandaidy and has many flavors that haven't blended at all yet. It's bottled a week and there's quite a bandaid flavor and aroma. I used the same water and basically the same technique as others, which did not turn out this way. Could it be the wlp500?

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My first beer was a Trappist dubble and it was kind of the same with wlp500. Bandaidy/alchohol/bleh. It was in primary for 60 days so I don't think there was a problem with that and no infection to been seen. As they aged in the bottle I found that they were getting better from the top down. 3 weeks in the bottle and the top 4 swigs tasted really good, beyond that the rest of the bottle was terrible. It took 2 1/2 months but they eventually aged all the way down to be very decent beers. Giver some time and hopefully it will turn.

It is the water.

Seems everyone thinks it is water related. What should be my next steps. BTW my mash PH was between 5.5-6.0. I have picked up the campden tablets. From what I have read they will remove the chlorine/chloramine. My other option is to use well water from my inlaws as well as buying RO water, although I like the free water options better,

redfox97 said:

Seems everyone thinks it is water related. What should be my next steps. BTW my mash PH was between 5.5-6.0. I have picked up the campden tablets. From what I have read they will remove the chlorine/chloramine. My other option is to use well water from my inlaws as well as buying RO water, although I like the free water options better,

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Well water can be iffy so it may or may not be an option, I would recommend a water analysis first or you may have different issues. PH should be lower as well

I boil my tap water before brewing with it to remove chlorine.

I use a charcoal filter to get rid of the chlorine and seems to work out great. I just use an RV filter attached to my outside spigot. Make sure you DONT use a garden hose but rather a drinking water hose used for RV's. No leeching...

I had the same problem for awhile. I got a water report from the city and also sent away for a thorough analysis. I decided the culprit must be chloramine (does not boil off like chlorine). I've been treating every 5g w/ 1 campden tab, then let it sit overnight and have not had issues for many batches.

mayflychucker said:

I've been treating every 5g w/ 1 campden tab, then let it sit overnight and have not had issues for many batches.

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Whoa! I also had this problem and started using campden. My bottle says 1 tablet treats 20 gallons, so I use half a tab for each batch. Since I'm doing all grain, I end up using around 8.5 gallons total.

Trokair said:

My first beer was a Trappist dubble and it was kind of the same with wlp500. Bandaidy/alchohol/bleh. It was in primary for 60 days so I don't think there was a problem with that and no infection to been seen. As they aged in the bottle I found that they were getting better from the top down. 3 weeks in the bottle and the top 4 swigs tasted really good, beyond that the rest of the bottle was terrible. It took 2 1/2 months but they eventually aged all the way down to be very decent beers. Giver some time and hopefully it will turn.

Click to expand...

Thanks man, will do!

imrook said:

Whoa! I also had this problem and started using campden. My bottle says 1 tablet treats 20 gallons, so I use half a tab for each batch. Since I'm doing all grain, I end up using around 8.5 gallons total.

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Yeah, I started with 1/4 crushed tab per 5g, but still had off-flavors, so went to 1/2 tab. It still wasn't totally gone. I did some research and found that JP has seen no ill-effects from using up to 1 tab:5g, so that's what I do. It's a cheap and easy fix.