Soapy IPA

I kegged 10 gallons of IPA a few days ago and it's tasting mighty soapy. I copied the all-grain recipe from Northern Brewer. I didn't think I left it in the primary too long, and didn't use a secondary. I rinsed the kegs well after oxyclean and used starsan without rinsing.

Any idea where the soapyness would have come from?

Palmer says:

How to Brew said:

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Soapy
Soapy flavors can caused by not washing your glass very well, but they can also be produced by the fermentation conditions. If you leave the beer in the primary fermentor for a relatively long period of time after primary fermentation is over ("long" depends on the style and other fermentation factors), soapy flavors can result from the breakdown of fatty acids in the trub. Soap is, by definition, the salt of a fatty acid; so you are literally tasting soap.[/FONT]

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Did you have a long primary time?

EDIT: whoops... did not see your comment about "not having a long primary time". My bad. I'll STFU now.
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No, thanks for asking. I don't think it's the glasses because I washed them very well, and I don't think it was a long primary time because I waited only a couple days after no airlock activity.

Hard to tell. I had a soapy beer once, but it was in the primary 6 weeks. The soapiness did diminish to barely noticeable by 8 weeks after transferring out of the primary - so not all hope is lost.

did you pitch onto a cake? I'd think that if that was the case, your chances of autolysis would increase...

Also, could it be old/stale crystal malt?

I didn't pitch onto yeast cakes. I was thinking it might be an issue with my carboys not being completely clean. I had cleaned them with sand and oxyclean to get everything nice and clean. I rinsed them very well and had them full of Starsan foam up till filling. I'm not sure what's going on. I also don't think it was a grain issue because I got the grain from a shop that has high turnover.

ombre, did you leave it in a keg at room temperature during that 8 weeks out of the primary, or did you rack to a secondary, ...?

I've read soapy flavour can come from a low level of sulphate ions in the water coupled with high levels of bitterness, is that a possibility?

My second batch tasted soapy. It was a screwup beer. OG was 1.041 and the IBU's were 72 with all Columbus. At the time I understood this soapy flavor as over hopping a thin, weak beer.

The sulfate concept is interesting. My water has 2ppm, which would certainly be low for aggressive hopping.

If you've got some gypsum on hand dissolve a some in a bit of water and add drop by drop to a glass of beer and see if that helps it.

I don't know if this has the same affect as adding the gypsum before the boil and ferment though.

This is mellowing out a bit, but still too soapy to drink.

I've had this problem twice in a row now, with an Amber and an Irish Red. I've ruled out old ingreditents and the use of soap (didn't use any), and I switched to cleaning with B-Brite, rinsing, and sanitizing w/ StarSan. Almost 2 months in the bottle and my latest batch still has the soap taste, although the amber did mellow a bit. I had planned on drinking this by turkey-day, but at this point I'm hoping it will at least be ready for the new year

What's the hop schedule? You may be tasting raw hops right now . I'll bet the flavor will improve with age. I don't care what other people say, IPA's need plenty of time to age properly and carbonate throughly. Leave it alone for 4-6 weeks. Regardless of what you may have have read, strong IPA's need time to to mellow and age. be patient. RDWHAHB

* .5 oz. Summit (60 min)
* 0.5 oz. Kent Goldings (30 min)
* 1 oz. Kent Goldings (15 min)
* 0.5 oz. Kent Goldings (1 min)

I copied Northern Brewer's "India Pale Ale" recipe. Would you leave it at room temperature? I've already kegged it and force carbonated, and it's in the keezer right now.

I would just leave where it is for 4 weeks.

Hasn't changed much since leaving it at about 60 for a couple weeks. Still tastes pretty soapy.

I have a Mild that I'm getting soapy-ish flavors with. It was my first extract batch in years, so my process was very different than usual, which makes it hard to pinpoint where I might have had an issue. It definitely wasn't a long primary. It could be low sulfate, my sulfate is less than 5ppm, but I expected to get some sulfate from the extract.

The Mild obviously isn't hopped very high, but I also used EKG, so we may have a common thread there. I'm going to try to add some gypsum to a pint and see if that helps out.

doggage said:

Hasn't changed much since leaving it at about 60 for a couple weeks. Still tastes pretty soapy.

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This is perhaps not your situation, but I have a soapy ESB right now. It is the second half of a 10 gallon batch. It sat for nine weeks in primary while I drank the first half, which incidentally had little or no soapy flavor. I don't think it is over-hopped because I used homegrown hops that turned out to be way lower AA, aroma, and flavor than the commercial offereings. I could have used 50% more hops.

Before I knew about the soapy taste, I washed and repitched 24 fl oz of the yeast cake (Wyeast 1099 Whitbread, 4th generation) into a 1.072 IPA. I worry know that I have propagated the soap to the IPA. I won't let it sit long before kegging this time, so I'll know in a copule of weeks if the soapy flavor propagated to the next batch.

I think you left it on primary for too long Quaffer. That can cause a soapy taste.

doggage said:

I think you left it on primary for too long Quaffer. That can cause a soapy taste.

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Yes, I think that is the case. However, after drinking several glasses from the keg, the beer cleared and the soapy taste disappeared. It looks like just the yeast tasted like soap, not the cleared beer.