Ooooh, that smell

[Petho]

I have a batch of a blonde ale that has a faint scent of Band Aid. It doesn't have an over powering band aid taste but the scent is there.
What causes that?

 

[unionrdr]

Chlorine. Must be quite a bit in your tap water,or you brewed a light gravity beer,which will make it more noticeable. I switched to natural spring water to top off with. Or you could filter it with any number of water filters on the market.

 

[Petho]

Well, I brw with all tap water.
All Grain, and I hit my mash temps pretty well.
The frementing temp might have spiked due to a vigorous fermentation but I don't know if that causes it?

 

[BWN]

campden tablets are a cheap way to get rid of chlorine

 

[NorthRiverS]

I use a Brita Filter

NRS

 

[unionrdr]

As I currently understand it,chemicals in the water,PH,etc are very important to AG brewing. So it seems to me that you'd experience the same thing as an extract brewer with these things,maybe more. Since you're making your own wort,you're putting those chemicals into the very heart of your beer.

 

[mky375]

I doubt its chlorine as it breaks down with heat quickly, since you're doing an all grain batch you have water over 160 then mixed with the grain for 150+ or so for an hour then you boil it for an hour.

I'm not sure about the "band aid" smell but fermenting wort usually doesn't smell good and its no indication that something is wrong.

I say let it ride and see how it comes out.

 

[jigidyjim]

Check out the "medicinal" section: http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html

 

[topend]

Your municipal supply may contain chloramine, which is a chlorine/ammonia compound. It will not boil out no matter how long you boil, and will cause a band aid flavor. Mine has it too. Your water department can tell you, or it may be mentioned online.

The easiest way to deal with this is to use campden tablets. 1/4 tablet (crushed) per 5 gallons of water will bust up the chloramine compound into chlorine and ammonia and eliminate the band aid flavor. They say the campden will work almost immediately, but I have two 5 gallon water jugs and I prep my water the day before brewing to be on the safe side.

 

[Petho]

"Chlorophenols result from the reaction of chlorine-based sanitizers (bleach) with phenol compounds and have very low taste thresholds. Rinsing with boiled water after sanitizing is the best way to prevent these flavors."

I use bottled spring water which I don't think has a chlorine smell. I use StarSan and there is usually quite a bit of bubbles in the sanitizer when I begin to ferment. Could it be too much StarSan?

 

[topend]

So do you use all tap water or spring water? If using spring water then chloramine should not be the source, nor should starsan. It is not chlorinated.

 

[Petho]

I have been using Crystal Geyser water for all of my brewing. I found a placeon the web that shows their water composition:
Calcium Ion: 12 PPM
Magnesium: 3.1 PPM
Potassium: 8.7 PPM
Sulfates: 2.6 PPM
Sodium: 130 PPM
Total Dissolved Solids: 590 PPM *(except TDS which are parts per million)
Other Principal Components: Chlorides 260 PPM


I am wondering if the Chlorides are causing the occasional bandaid smell?
I guess I need camden tablets for the bottled water!

 

[jsweet]

Okay, it MIGHT be chlorophenols, but if you say the temperature spiked, it also MIGHT just be regular phenols. I thought I had gotten a batch all chlorophenol'd up, and I still wonder if some of the bottles had that, but I now believe it was mostly just due to a lot of phenols in a very hot fermentation. Phenols supposedly give a spicy/peppery note, but in abundance I think I was experiencing it as medicinal. As the batch in question has aged a bit, I've come to experience it more as peppery, with maybe only a hint of medicinal notes here and there. When I first cracked it, I thought it was "Band-Aid" all the way.

I would say, give it a good 6-8 weeks in the bottles, and see how it changes. If it still smells and tastes like "Band-Aid" to you, then it's probably cholorophenols. But if it starts to become just more like "peppery, maybe slightly medicinal", then it may have just been the hot fermentation temps.

Just my $0.02.

 

[unionrdr]

ooo-oo,that smell! Can you smell that smell? The smell that's around yoooou...yeeaaah. I've gotten regular off flavors of that sort,but sitting in primary took out most of them. Then 3-4 weeks in the bottles at room temp. 1 or 2 of them had a little quinine-like flavor way down on the back. But natural spring water took care of that. I use 2.5G of tap water in the BK,then top off with the spring water. The yeasties seem to enjoy it.

 

[Malintent]

It isn't starsan. That is an acid based sanitizer. A chlorine based one would do that.