Second batch in a row with an off taste

So I just took a gravity of my brown ale. It's in primary and I'm just trying to determine if it's finished fermenting. Here's my frustration:

This is my second all grain batch in a row that has tasted chemically and smells like isopropyl alcohol. After my last IPA had this prob I used campden tab thinking it was the chlorine in the city water. My first 2 all grain batches (APA and winter warmer) were great...now this twice in a row.

Anyone have any thoughts on what might be going on?

Not sure, but this might be worth a read:

http://brulosophy.com/2014/11/13/problem-identification-or-helping-a-buddy-stay-in-the-hobby/

I'll take all my equipment apart tomorrow and see what I find

Let us know how it goes!

What is your fermentation temperature? Could be fermenting too hot. Shoot for low to mid 60s F.

Temps have been between 68-70

Is there a resource that tells me what temps certain types of yeast need?

fd4413 said:

Is there a resource that tells me what temps certain types of yeast need?

Click to expand...

The yeast company websites are good for this

http://www.whitelabs.com/yeast

Good question... I think it's kind of just tribal knowledge for the most part. Brewing Classic Styles might be a good place to start. In general, I find it best always to ferment colder than anyone else does. If everyone is fermenting at 68 F, try a couple degrees cooler at 66 F. Actually in the case of ales, I find most ales turn out best in the low 60s. You can still make good stuff at 70 F but it might give you headaches or worse. And lagers, pitch those in the 40s and allow to rise slowly to low 50s after several days to a week. Those are some pretty good rules of thumb. Special cases would be for German hefeweizens and Belgian ales, which often are best started in the upper 60s and allowed to rise to low 70s. Best rule of thumb I can give you is to never exceed about 73 F, and that's really pushing it even on the German and Belgian ales. That's been my experience.

Personally, I don't worry much about tastes in the fermenter. There are so many flavors that come and go with time. I get strong smells of acetaldehyde while fermenting but it almost always ages out. Once it's a few weeks in the bottle, then the flavors really matter.

Are you using any acidulated malt? I tried that in a few batches based on the primer article, but the beers basically came out sour and didn't age out, so I stopped that practice.