3 bad batches in a short amount of time. Time to reassess.

[sleizure]

I'm in a low period right now, my past 3 kegs have been dumpers.

I have an Amber Ale that I brewed 01-15 which I was looking forward to tasting, instead, it was gag inducing tasting like metal, and acidic. I poured it and then put an Irish Red in the Kegerator to Chill, brewed 01-23. The next day it was 50% similar to the Amber with the metallic taste, retch inducing. I've yet to pour it. In the meantime I brewed a Centennial Blonde which came out amazing, and 3-4 other batches which have yet to be kegged yet. One of my fermenting batches a Brown Ale abruptly stopped fermenting so I took a reading, and I could get the off taste after sampling it. After 40 batches to have this happen all in a short amount of time is deflating and I have alot of variables that could be the cause.

Cleaning - Obviously - I do my best with a good scrub of carboys kegs and kettle. Maybe I need to do more.

Yeast - I've been recycling yeast since October on all my batches. Time to dump the yeasts and start with fresh packets and start the (re)cycle again.

Light - I decided to stop putting Tshirts on my carboys at some point in time. This is potentially an issue, even though there is little to no sunlight that reaches the room, it's still a variable.

Temperature - We had a cold snap over the past few weeks and temperatures have been 2-3deg higher in my office where the Carboys sit.

Keg Seals - Maybe I'm getting oxidized because of the keg seals. Maybe I should relubricate them. In fact maybe its time to also clean my lines after trying to drink these two bad batches in the past few days.

Water Quality - Maybe my water supply has changed bringing in the metallic taste. I haven't been as strict with campden tablets because I couldn't find them for a while. I've found them.

Maybe my wife - is throwing pennies into my beer in order for me to give her more attention as opposed to homebrewing.

One or all of the above - I see these all steps that I can improve on and get back on track here, as I seem to have deviated from being extra careful likely due to over confidence.

Anyways, just sharing my thoughts on an afternoon, guess I'll go get some commercial storebought now.

 

[madscientist451]

Maybe its time for fermentation temperature control?

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Gag-inducing metallic-acid taste.......that's a strong term. I'd say it's very unlikely to be an infection/contamination from visually clean equipment. It'd take a lot longer than six weeks for an infection to get that serious. Unless it is from the recycled yeast - that could be harbouring a large, viable population of something nasty. Start by getting some fresh yeast.

The other possibility is that the metallic taste is coming from (surprise surprise) some exposed metal. Stainless and brass are quite inert, but could your wort/beer be contacting some other metal, for example could you have a fitting that is chrome plated steel, that has had the chrome plating wear off in a patch? Or enamel coated metal that has lost the enamel coating?

Over carbonation can also lead to a metallic bite, but I wouldn't call it 'gag-inducing', but maybe you're just really sensitive to the taste - has anyone else tried this dumpable beer?

I'm not aware of oxidation causing metallic flavours, and generally doesn't make beer dumpable in six weeks.

 

[deadwolfbones]

Yeast and cleaning (both fermenter and beer line) would be the first two places I'd start. If that doesn't fix it, I'd look at the water.

What are you doing for cleaning right now? PBW? Star San? How are you cleaning the lines, and how often?

How many generations have the yeast been through?

 

[sleizure]

I'm in a furnished apartment right now so putting more equipment for a fermentation chamber out of the question - Moving into a forever home in a month and its in the cards. I am seeing 2-3 degrees temperature swing a day and because it's been so dang cold out room has been hovering at about 23 deg, hence removing the shirts from the carboy to not raise it up too too much.

My Nottingham seems clean based on the good batch that I had in the middle of these bad batches, so as deadwolfbones and gnomebrewer says, I'm going to focus on the yeast (with extra attention to the above steps I listed above anyways). For what its worth I'm using an Oxibased powder cleaner to cleanup after, and then StarSan for sanitization. Beer Lines i'm not cleaning enough - Only twice in 5 months. I'm still getting the taste before the beer lines (dipped a cup in keg before dumping, same taste).

My yeast is at generation 5 - so its time anyways to use new packets, it's just US-05, I may have gotten a bit carried away at trying to brew the cheapest beer I could.

We had a boil water advisory due to sediment over the past 8 weeks in my area as well as I'm going with straight tap water, letting it sit for 12 hours and (sometimes) dosing with campden. I plan on upping my game when I get into my new place with a RO kit but hold off on the DI.

The very last idea I have had is maybe my pallette has changed. The first batch, definitely bad, however the second my wife seemed to think that she would be able to drink it. For the sake of safety, I went out and bought her a bottle of wine.

 

[deadwolfbones]

I'm not sure if they're around in BC, but down here we have machines at the grocery store that will dispense filtered/RO water for around $0.35 per gallon. I use that and then dose with CaCl and gypsum. I've had great results. Something to consider, maybe?

Retch-inducing metallic taste sounds like more than a palate change.

 

[hopjuice_71]

Cool, another Island guy. I grew up in Comox and live in Victoria now. In general, water is unlikely to be a problem for us. Island water is about as close to RO as you can get out of a tap. it does tend to get treated with chloramine so campden is cheap insurance. That being said, as you mentioned, up-Island is prone to the swollen reservoirs and boil water advisories, so some other source of water may be a useful place to start for now, at least until this crazy weather is done with. Other than that, it sounds like an extra bout of cleaning/sanitation and, primarily, fresh yeast are in order.

 

[RM-MN]

Temperature - We had a cold snap over the past few weeks and temperatures have been 2-3deg higher in my office where the Carboys sit.

If your office is comfortable for you to work in, it is too warm for the yeast to work in. A nice temperature controlled freezer or refrigerator would be ideal but not critical. A tub of water to set your carboy in with frozen bottles of water to drop in will work too but will need a bit more tending. That temperature needs to be controlled for the first 2 or 3 days after which you can let it naturally rise to your comfortable temperture.

Yeast - I've been recycling yeast since October on all my batches. Time to dump the yeasts and start with fresh packets and start the (re)cycle again.

Yeast is a pretty cheap part of a batch of beer. Yes, it is time to start over and maybe use fresh packets for the next several beers as you sort out the cause.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

Boy, dry yeast packets are pretty damn cheap. No way I'd bother trying to reuse them unless I was brewing a really big beer where I needed a nice yeast cake to get through it.

Most metallic tastes I've run into have been infections, but they usually take quite awhile to get gag-worthy.

 

[Dland]

I had the same exact taste symptoms when I was making ale last summer. I had to go to store bought for the first time in a couple of years, 7 ten gallon batches in a row dumped down my gravel driveway. The krausen pretty much looked normal, but more foamy.

Since I'm kind of stubborn, I cranked one out every week, bad one after bad, making changes, adjustments, cleaning and sanitizing a little more each time.

Pretty sure it was some sort of acid producing bacteria that would take over the fermentation shortly after yeast had started.

It may have started in my plate cooler after one time I forgot the tube screen in BK, and some trub clogged cooler to the point regular sanitation regime did not work. I baked and flushed cooler fairly early on, but infection probably spread to other equipment.

What I did to finally solve it:

Take apart and super sanitize all valves, quick connectors, etc. Take out and sanitize or replace valve seals and O rings. Same with kegs, their O rings, dip tubes and poppets.

Replace all process/transfer tubing with new silicon, and any distribution lines in contact w infected beer. If you are brewing with any plastic vessels, I'd consider replacing them too.

Make sure wort cooler is clear of any debris and sanitize thoroughly.

Always heat water for caustic cleaning step well above 160F.

It has been around 15 batches since then, all good, and I went back to regular caustic/acid sanitizing regime, except I make sure water for caustic batch is very hot.

Brew on, and best of luck.

 

[WestMichBrewer]

I'm in a low period right now, my past 3 kegs have been dumpers.

Cleaning - Obviously - I do my best with a good scrub of carboys kegs and kettle. Maybe I need to do more.

Yeast - I've been recycling yeast since October on all my batches. Time to dump the yeasts and start with fresh packets and start the (re)cycle again.

Light - I decided to stop putting Tshirts on my carboys at some point in time. This is potentially an issue, even though there is little to no sunlight that reaches the room, it's still a variable.

Temperature - We had a cold snap over the past few weeks and temperatures have been 2-3deg higher in my office where the Carboys sit.

Keg Seals - Maybe I'm getting oxidized because of the keg seals. Maybe I should relubricate them. In fact maybe its time to also clean my lines after trying to drink these two bad batches in the past few days.

Water Quality - Maybe my water supply has changed bringing in the metallic taste. I haven't been as strict with campden tablets because I couldn't find them for a while. I've found them.

Maybe my wife - is throwing pennies into my beer in order for me to give her more attention as opposed to homebrewing.

One or all of the above - I see these all steps that I can improve on and get back on track here, as I seem to have deviated from being extra careful likely due to over confidence.

Anyways, just sharing my thoughts on an afternoon, guess I'll go get some commercial storebought now.

Carboy Cleaning - probably not it. I get by without your issues by soaking with OxyClean for a day and then the standard carb brush.
Light - Doubt it. I don't do anything special here.
Temp - could be, but I've never gotten "metallic" from that.
Seals - Yeah, clean and relube. Can't hurt. I do that with every kegging.
Lines - I don't clean my lines all that often, maybe every other keg (3 gallon), but if you haven't done so in a while, time to put some PBW through there.
Water - Possible. I use grocery store RO water with a little filtered tap water in the sparge.
Wife Sabotage - Sounds possible but seems as though you'd notice the pennies at some point.

 

[kevin58]

The only time I got a metallic taste was before I knew about passivation. I used a new pick up tube in my boil kettle that I had made from copper plumbing pipe and fittings I bought at Home Depot. It made my beer taste like sucking on copper pennies.

Clean everything. Replace things like tubing and seals.

Best of luck.

 

[sleizure]

I've been undergoing a good clean of everything, lots of deep soaking yet I believe I do know the culprit now - its the yeast. Sure my original theories could have some sort of impact but I believe in my non scientific opinion (It tastes good / it tastes like death) every beer that has gone sideways (now 3 kegs) is related to the US05 that I've been recycling. I had a taste out of an IPA that I did up with a fresh package of US04 and also two sips out of fermenting blonde ales (recycled nottingham) and they are coming out just fine. I'll know for sure in a few weeks when all is said and done, but at least I'm getting a good cleaning and realigning myself with better practices. To be continued.

 

[isomerization]

I’m case it wasn’t reinforced enough, if you are having any issues AT ALL, do not repitch your yeast. Guaranteed to make your beer continue to get worse. Pitch fresh yeast, especially if it’s dry yeast, until you’re back on your game (if not longer).