Infection causing off-flavor?

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I think you mentioned this soapy taste in a different thread, right?

The only place I have ever seen soapy tastes mentioned was on www.howtobrew.com. Palmer says that this can result from leaving the beer on the trub for too long. This can result in a break-down of the fatty acids in the trub, and you get fatty acid salt out of it. Fatty acid salt actually IS soap, so it's not just a soapy TASTE, but actually soap.

When did the soapy taste appear? Was it before or after bottling?

-walker
 
I did mention it in another thread which was then turned into a discussion about hops. :(

I sampled a bottle 10 days after bottling, it was still fairly flat but tasted fine. I then sampled another bottle 4 days later which had much better carbonation but a strong soapy taste. I've sampled another bottle since then and it had the soapy taste.

I don't have my notes in front of me but I don't believe the beer was on the trub for more than 10 days. Would siphoning too much trub into the secondary be just as bad as leaving it too long in the primary?
 
HurricaneFloyd said:
I did mention it in another thread which was then turned into a discussion about hops. :(

I sampled a bottle 10 days after bottling, it was still fairly flat but tasted fine. I then sampled another bottle 4 days later which had much better carbonation but a strong soapy taste. I've sampled another bottle since then and it had the soapy taste.

I don't have my notes in front of me but I don't believe the beer was on the trub for more than 10 days. Would siphoning too much trub into the secondary be just as bad as leaving it too long in the primary?

Well.. if the taste was not present at bottling time or in the first beer you sampled from the batch, then I don't think you have a problem with fatty acid salts. That should have been present by the time you bottled the batch and EVERY bottle would taste that way.

If you are sure the taste is in your beer itself (as opposed to soap in your glass or perhaps in *some* of the bottles you used), I don't know what to tell you, man...
 
Walker-san said:
...(as opposed to soap in your glass or perhaps in *some* of the bottles you used)...
I'd lean towards bottling procedure, as well. Has anybody else tasted these and confirmed the flavor? Did you sanitize your bottles in the dishwasher? I frequently do sanitize in the dishwasher, but I'm wondering if there might have been some residual soap in there that might have gotten on some of your bottles and not rinsed out.
 
First off, you shouldn't be using soap in your bottles. Rinse your bottles out good with hot water, then fill them with the sanitizing water from your bottling bucket (if you're using a no-rinse), let them sit for a while then set them upside-down to dry. If you're looking for a cheap bottling-tree or a bottle-scrubbing brush, look at baby-supply stores.

Second, it sounds like you're rushing to drink your beers. You said 10 days in a bottle (still not carbonated), then another 4 days, then a couple days later. That's only about 2 weeks. It usually takes that long to carbonate. I'd wait another 2-3 weeks after carbonation before making any judgements on the beer.

As for autolysis, I left a batch in the primary for almost four months. I thought it had gone bad when I sampled it 15 days after bottling, but a month later I learned that I was just impatient.
 
I never use soap when cleaning bottles. I use water/bleach if they have labels on them and then I soak all bottles in water/Star San and set them out to dry. I do not use the dishwasher.

After 14 days in the bottle, the carbonation was fine. I don't want to say it was at full carbonation but if it wasn't, it was pretty close.

No one else has tasted the beer yet, SWMBO doesn't like IPA's.
 
Cheesefood said:
As for autolysis, I left a batch in the primary for almost four months. I thought it had gone bad when I sampled it 15 days after bottling, but a month later I learned that I was just impatient.

Autolysis is something different than the breakdown of fatty acids and soapy taste that I was talking about. Autolysis creates a wretched burnt rubber flavor.

-walker
 
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