Could my yeast be causing a medicinal taste?

[Brewmoor]

I cleaned and sanitized some baby food jars and rinse a yeast cake a few months ago. Since then my last three beers have had a medicinal taste. After looking though posts and searching google, the closet desctription I can come up with is a band aid flavor or Phenol.

I never considered the yeast after reading about the causes of this taste. I changed all my sanitation practices and was very careful during my process and my last beer still has the flavor. I now realize after changing some of my processes that the only thing left that all three have in common is the yeast I used. I opened that last bottle I have of it and tasted and smelled it last night. It does have hint of the smell and flavor I am getting in my beers.

I plan to brew this weekend and I have two packets of Muntons Dry active brewing yeast. I have never used dry yeast. Is this a safe bet for being positive I am not using infected yeast? Anything else I should consider?

 

[wyzazz]

How old/young is the beer? How old is the yeast? Are you making starters with the yeast? What kind of water are you using to brew with?

 

[Brewmoor]

The oldest beer is about 2 1/2 months old a brown ale.

Next one is about 2 months old IPA dry hopped and the third is young, only about 6 weeks.

I use my municipal water. Which I had them send me a report and had others look over it with me. Everything is in acceptable ranges. I do make yeast starters with DME with the proper process.

The yeast is old. It is about 5 months old in sealed jars that were put directly into the refrigerator after sanitizing the jars and washing the yeast. The original beer the yeast cake came from was an IPA with california ale yeast. I don't remember that beer having any off flavors but it was dry hopped and had oak chips in it.

 

[wyzazz]

Oak huh? I'd bet that's what you're tasting.

 

[remilard]

You'll get a bunch of people telling you that this is "fine" but storing yeast under beer for 5 months is definitely not a best practice.

 

[wyzazz]

If the yeast is washed well I don't see a problem, but that's just me. How strong is that phenolic taste? Does it get stronger as the beer ages?

 

[soonami]

You really shouldn't reuse yeast from hoppier/dry hopped beers. The hop residues just stick to the yeast cell walls and stay.

Phenol flavor can be anything from clove to camphor-like, but if there is free chlorine in your water, that can take something spicy like that and turn it medicinal really quickly.

Also, I would consider fermenting at a lower temperature to limit the production of phenols in the first place that could taint your beer.

 

[Brewmoor]

I have tried fermenting at a lower temp with my last batch and the flavor is not as bad but still smells more like band aids then beer.

The phenol tastes seems to get a bit weaker with age but not much. I think I am just getting used to it.

I am going to try using dry yeast on my next batch as an experiment. I am going to use the same pale ale recipe as my last batch and compare. As I said in my first post. I tasted the little bit of beer that settled out in the jars and it has a bit of the funky taste and smell. So I opened all of the other jars and tested. All but one had the funk.

I really hope it is the yeast. I a tired of trying to figure this out. Also drinking not so good beer is getting old.

 

[bellyboy2]

I have been struggling with the same 'band-aid' aroma and taste on 3 consecutive batches. Like you all used harvested and washed yeast. Since then I have 4 batches in a row that I have used fresh liquid yeast and all have been excellent - actually smell like beer!! I opened a couple of my retained harvested yeast jars and they too had the band-aid smell so I definitely linked it to the yeast. Still haven't figured out what went wrong with my yeast harvesting procedure but now I know where to focus.

 

[Brewmoor]

Great to know. Thank you. You give me hope.

 

[dex0807]

I have no experience in this, but I am thinking of trying acid washing my yeast before pitching, as in this article.
http://oz.craftbrewer.org/Library/Methods/Hayes/YeastWash.shtml

 

[moti_mo]

I can chime in that the only time I have had this off flavor in one of my beers was when I re-used yeast from a heavily hopped beer. Never again has it reared its ugly head, so I have completely stopped re-using yeast from IPA's, etc.

 

[cclloyd]

I have had two batches with the bandaid / chloraseptic funk and both times I traced it to the yeast. One was a bad sachet of the notty and one was yeast (WLP300 I think) that I washed and stored for about 8 months. The stored one took 3+ days to take off - with a starter. It was supposed to be an altbier but it was horrendous - totally undrinkable.