Metallic Flavor in My Apricot Saison

[erinriley72]

I'm hoping for some troubleshooting on my Apricot Saison. The first bottle I opened after 3 weeks was great! Refreshing and good apricot taste without being overwhelming. Every bottle that I have opened since then has a horrible metallic taste and I'm not sure what happened.

My recipe was as follows:

- 7# Pilsner
- 2# Wheat
- 2# Munich
- 6 oz. Acidulated Malt
- 4 oz. Special Roast

Hopped with Hallertau and Magnum and used the Wyeast 3711 French Saison. After primary, I added 3 lbs. 1 oz. of apricot puree. It was in primary for about 2 weeks (a week longer than I intended) and in secondary for 2 weeks. Bottle conditioned for 3 weeks.

The first bottle opened with a POP but tasted great and was effervescent. The next 2 had the same pop but the horrible metallic taste was there. The last bottle didn't POP but still had the metallic taste.

I will note that I use an enamel coated pan to heat my strike and sparge water but it doesn't have any cracks. I use a stainless pot for the boil.

Any help is appreciated! I was really looking forward to this beer and now I'm going to have to dump it... BOOOO!

 

[golfish67]

I had a similar issue. My local brew shop said it was probably the sanitizer. Using too much and not letting the carboy drain completely. After you sanitize it let it sit upside down for about 5 minutes to drain out.
Since it didn't happen to all the bottles in the batch. I suspect that there was residual sanitizer in some of the bottles. Check them as you dump them. I'm trying to pin point this problem as well. So I'm interested in what you find out. Good luck.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[erinriley72]

I will definitely watch that. I'm pretty neurotic about sanitizing and I have a fast rack to let it dry. With that being said, it's worth ruling out. Thanks!!

 

[JayDubWill]

What sanitizer are you using? I've never encountered off flavors with star San. I experienced something similar with peaches when I used way too many and left them in secondary way too long.

 

[erinriley72]

I'm using Star San too and haven't had this issue previously. I am going to watch my sanitizer to water ratio and make sure I'm not overdoing it on the sanitizer.

The apricots were only in secondary for two weeks so don't know that it could be that. Someone else had suggested that maybe the beer is over carbed and that the taste is carbonic bite. I let it sit a bit and then tried it side by side with a freshly opened beer and the taste was the same.

I think that I'm going to get rid of my one enamel pot for strike water and then I'm just going to try a couple small batches and manipulate a few variables (carb, acidulated malt, yeast, primary fermentation time) and see what works. Once I figure it out, I'll post it.

Thanks for the ideas - they are greatly appreciated!!

 

[theweirdowithabeerdo]

Are there any other explanations for this effect other than StarSan? I am a little skeptical that that could help explain it.

I have a farmhouse saison conditioning on top of apricot puree and with some citra hops (dry hopping) right now, and both the smell and flavor have a bit of a metallic quality to them. My primary time was about 8 or 9 days and my secondary time will be, in total, about 2 weeks. Hopefully the off flavor will drop out with bottle conditioning. But I'm just shooting this out there in case anyone has any other explanations for this off-flavor while in secondary.

Thanks.

 

[hlmbrwng]

I recently brewed a coconut porter that had a metallic taste on the finish. It may be for different reasons though. It may be the malt or even the toasted coconut in my case. But I do use Star San and usually have a good amount of foam in the carboy. Not usually a problem, so I don't associate my issue with the Star San.

Did you treat your mash water? If so, what were your levels?

 

[VladOfTrub]

I use primarily Weyermann and Pioneer Pils floor malt, Budvar yeast, Hallertau or Saaz and once in a while a metallic taste develops after about a month in a keg. However, the taste disappears during the aging phase. I age beer that has a start grav 1050-1055 for four to six months and 1055-1060 for six to eight months. I think that metallic taste is due to a reaction caused by yeast when something is out of balance. Maybe a pH-yeast issue. I am not sure if the impact occurs during primary or during secondary.
I use star san but, I wash it out. Perhaps, in certain cases the chemicals in starsan mixed with just the right chemicals in the wort might cause a negative impact. All of the ducks would need to line up.

I can't figure out what takes place during secondary when fruit is added to the fermentation vessel. During second fermentation yeast is supposed to convert maltose back into glucose which becomes fuel for the yeast and gravity reduces. During the aging phase yeast does the same thing with malto-triose and natural carbonation occurs, it takes months. I am not familiar with the way that yeast works with the fructose in puree. In my opinion, fructose will cause the yeast to start up and prime the beer while it is in secondary.
Sometimes speise is added during fermentation to "feed" the yeast but, it is used if something is out of balance and the speise corrected the issue. Usually, when speise is added the beer requires krausening. When a diacetyl rest is performed beer is krausened.

Here's a scenario: Let's say that a maltose (Beta) rest (140-145F) wasn't used. What happens next, Beta enzyme activates during the saccharification rest instead of during the lower temperature maltose rest. The high temperature quickly denatures the enzyme, curtailing conversion. Also, Beta is a weak enzyme and depending on the malt the enzyme may not exist. Beta is responsible for conversion. Beta converts glucose into complex types of sugar, maltose and malto-triose. Since, yeast can only use simple types of sugar like glucose for fuel, it burns right through glucose during primary and before going dormant it searches for other types of sugar. That's the time when secondary fermentation begins, that's if maltose and malto-triose are present in the beer. A second conversion takes place during secondary fermentation.

Back to the beer. If a maltose rest was not used, conversion did not fully take place or it might not have occurred at all. When conversion is limited there is no need to move the beer to second fermentation because the yeast burned up all of the simple sugar during primary. Complex sugar was not produced and the yeast went to sleep until puree was added.
When the puree was added the fructose kicked the yeast in gear. The problem is that during second fermentation beer is void of oxygen but, yeast requires oxygen. Beer yeast deals with the lack of oxygen problem. Yeast strips the oxygen contained within the molecular structure of malt sugar and uses it as the oxidizer. I don't know how beer yeast deals with fructose. I'm not sure what would happen if sugar for priming is used. I'm not too sure if carbonation will take place. The yeast might be beat. Will pectin be an issue?

I have never had any luck with producing fruit beer, the stuff that I made was always pretty much vile. I gave up on trying to make it. Great Job, brewers that nail it down!!!!

 

[patthebrewer]

Did you bottle condition? It's been my experience that some people (myself included) can interpret flat or under-carbed beer as having a metallic taste.

 

[brandonlovesbeer]

Next time try leaving out the metal flakes. They never convert all the way. And are usually Unfermentable anyway. [emoji39]