Help me diagnose this off-flavor

Yakima 728
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Coastarine

Coastarine

We get it, you hate BMC.
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This is my Irish red ale (link to recipe in signature)...
Coastarine said:
I'm drinking the first bottle of the second batch tonight and I am definitely tasting an off-flavor. I guess it would be more appropriate to call it an off-aroma. It isn't in the flavor at all, but if I let the glass sit for a while I can get a whiff of it. When I REALLY smell it is when I have a few sips and then burp. Yuck. I'm not sure if I should describe it as plasticy, metallic, or medicinal, but it's chemically. The beer has been bottled for 3 weeks now and kept at 70, but it has only been cold since this morning. Maybe more cold storage will clear it up. The brew tastes great but something carried in the CO2 is not good.

The first batch was my first brew ever and this is my 6th beer. First batch was super clean. Musta been beginner's luck.
Click to expand...
The differences between this batch and the first batch are...
-Used an IC instead of sink and ice water method
-brewed on a turkey fryer instead of stovetop
-used 4 oz of malto-dextrin
-bottled by adding sugar solution to each bottle and bottled directly from primary (no open bottling bucket)
-maybe a warmer fermentation (71 instead of 68)

Has anyone experienced an off-aroma like that? Any guesses as to what this is, what caused it, and if it might go away with aging?
 
I just thought of another thing, neither of these beers were aerated much at all before pitching. The first batch used danstar nottingham and the second batch used a dry yeast, but the name of which I can't think of right now.
 
Coastarine said:
I just thought of another thing, neither of these beers were aerated much at all before pitching. The first batch used danstar nottingham and the second batch used a dry yeast, but the name of which I can't think of right now.
Click to expand...

You don't really need to aerate with dry yeasts (according to the package).

I'm wondering if this EZ clean is chlorine based?
 
EZ clean is kinda like one-step I think.

so you bottled right from primary? it is overly yeasty maybe? yeast-bite off flavor?
 
1) If the room was 71, your wort temp was probably more like 75. That could produce some off flavor.

2) Maybe you got some wild yeast in there?

3) What kind of sugar did you use?

4) Maybe the I.C. had some nasty stuff hiding in there.

Just a few thoughts....
 
malkore said:
EZ clean is kinda like one-step I think.

so you bottled right from primary? it is overly yeasty maybe? yeast-bite off flavor?
Click to expand...
-I think so too
-Bottled from primary but not a yeast taste. The taste was fine, this is just in the aroma.

1) If the room was 71, your wort temp was probably more like 75. That could produce some off flavor.

2) Maybe you got some wild yeast in there?

3) What kind of sugar did you use?

4) Maybe the I.C. had some nasty stuff hiding in there.
Click to expand...
Wild yeast is a possibility. The temp is also a possibility. The sugar was all from LHBS (LME in the wort, malto-dextrin from LHBS, and priming sugar from LHBS) I cleaned and then put the IC in for the last 15 minutes of the boil to sanitize. One thing that did happen is I noticed a few drops leaking from the fitting on the IC into the wort. Tightened it down and it's doing better.

By the way I do appreciate all of your ideas on this.
 
Well my dad has had a couple now and does not smell or taste anything off. I only brought four with me to VA so I decided to wait a week till I taste another. (this wed)
 
Ok...I lied. I just talked to my dad and he swears he tastes nothing like what I describe, and since I'm going home next weekend and will be able to pick up more, I'm gonna try another. I'm hoping it was just that bottle. Here we go...*kahiss*...

Well, it's definitely still there. Maybe this isn't an off-flavor caused by something that doesn't belong, but just a bad taste from the beer.
 
Did you use the same pot the first and second times? The reason I ask is because you mentioned you used a sanitizer/cleaner that is slick, which means it's a base (probably a strong one). If you clean an aluminum pot with a basic solution, it will remove the aluminum oxide layer and give beer a metallic taste. Any chance it has something to do with the pot?
 
I would give the bottles a week or two more and see if the taste gets stronger. In that case it would most likely be an outside infection. In which case double check your process. I use bleach for anything not metal, and BTF for everything else that comes within 3 feet of my cooled wort. If you used an IC, that would be the first thing to check.

I have never used the cleaner your using, but after any sanitation I rinse two to three times with hot water to get rid of any tants. I have lately started to use Oxyclean and I am very happy with it, cheap and works great.

Otherwise, it could just be minor things like you got the grains too hot, different yeast producing something you don't like, or your nose is just getting too picky. :p Hopefully its as minor as that.

Best of luck.
 
Kauai_Kahuna said:
I would give the bottles a week or two more and see if the taste gets stronger. In that case it would most likely be an outside infection. In which case double check your process. I use bleach for anything not metal, and BTF for everything else that comes within 3 feet of my cooled wort. If you used an IC, that would be the first thing to check.

I have never used the cleaner your using, but after any sanitation I rinse two to three times with hot water to get rid of any tants. I have lately started to use Oxyclean and I am very happy with it, cheap and works great.

Otherwise, it could just be minor things like you got the grains too hot, different yeast producing something you don't like, or your nose is just getting too picky. :p Hopefully its as minor as that.

Best of luck.
Click to expand...

I never rinse after sanitizing since easy clean is no-rinse and you don't know what might be living in the rinsing water. I use an instant read probe thermometer to continuously monitor my steeping temp, I keep it in a 5 degree range. I might just have to get this beer onto a few more palates and see if it isn't just something I don't like in it.
 
Newest theories:

The first is a two parter. The first part is the fact that I did not realize how important a really vigorous rolling boil was, and we've been just getting it to barely a boil. The second part is the fact that sanitizing the IC in the boiling wort kills the boil for about 4 minutes. Maybe this is DMS?

The second theory is that our bottles weren't really clean. My dad took a close look as he was cleaning the latest batch of bottles and realized that the jet washer wasn't doing as good a job as we thought. There was still some nasty in there. I keep telling him to soak in oxy-clean but he hasn't gone for it yet.
 
could be the bottles, the jet washer should really be for rinsing. You should soak in a cleaner (I use oxyclean all the time) and scrub with a brush, then rinse with jet. leave on the drying rack until dry and store upside-down. Then sanitize just before bottling. That should cure any of your botle cleansing issues.
 
Well I found out today that I leave for Pensacola on Friday, so it's time for me to get my own set up and from here on out I brew alone. I'm switching to AG too.:rockin:
 
The result of the beer that the one link pointed too was dismal. It still tastes like band aids, although it did mellow out a tad. I know in that case it wasnt the bottles since i could smell/taste it as i was bottling.
 
Was it the first time you used the IC. I just bought one and he told me to wash it thoroughly before using the first time or else it will impart a metallic taste.

Side note - I always rinse bottles right after use and then just need to sanitize them. I also never drink from the bottles and always pour the tasty yeast into my glass. A quick rinse and shake and there is no debris in the bottom.
 

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