Medicine, Band Aid Off Flavor - Solved

Posting this in an effort to help others avoid the problem.

I dumped a 10 Gal batch a couple of months ago because it had a medicine, plastic taste to it.

I then brewed a 20 gal batch, guess what, same funky taste.

I have since ruled out the following:
Fermentation temp
Poor yeast health
Chlorine residue and/or Chloraphenols in tap water
Infection - Always a concern, but I have since ruled it out(read below).

So, sitting around with my brother in law, with off-tasting brew in hand, we just started brainstorming.
"what about this?" he says
"nope, can't be that because of XXXXX" I would say.

Finally, I did recall that I bought a new garden hose a couple of months back.

Kicked that around for a few minutes, next thing you know, we are out in the yard pouring glasses of water from the hose at 10pm.

Aha! Exact same plastic taste. The hose has a nasty rubber cure taste that is very very noticeable.

I have been kicking myself all weekend over this one. I hope that this helps others.

Always taste your water straight from the source before brewing.

 

You brew with hose water?!

 

I had a similar issue; I went to HD and bought 3/8" pvc tubing and connected the amount I needed to run water. It's clear and I can make sure that all water is removed. I would suggest a carbon filter if you don't use one already. The next item; what temperature are you pitching your yeast and how much; these 2 issues can give that 'band aid' taste as well.
Agree with your garden hose statement 100%

 

Yeah, I usually don't use garden hose water, but I don't filter my home water and the hose water is the same as the water from the sink. The difference of course in this case was the hose.
Never had a problem with my water so I will continue to use the tap water(but not from the hose). I will look into the carbon filter though, couldn't hurt.

I usually get the wort down to 70 before pitching, then into the keezer to maintain the temperature.

In regards to yeast, I make a starter and stir plate when the OG is planned to be over 1050. If it is below 1050 I just use a smack pack.

I have 4 kegs of beer with the funky taste. I think I might just aquire a liking for the funky taste and see if we can still drink it!

 

Check for a "potable" hose for drinking water. I think they use different materials than for garden hose. I used my garden hose last night, but only after running it for many minutes. I was going to use water from the kitchen coming out of the carbon filter, but by the time I got to brewing it was getting late. It will be a nice test to see if the garden hose was a bad idea or not. I've used it before and not had a problem.

 

Yes, good advice. A potable hose would do the trick. I learned the hard way.

I didn't drink from the hose before brewing. If I had it would have been very obvious that there was a problem.

 

Potable hose is white and available at all RV/camper dealerships and Wal-Mart in the camping section.

 

PVC leaches chlorides that are noticeable on the human taste palette at 2 ppb... that's B for Billion. Harmless... but affect taste.

 

Yeah, that is my next concern. I am debating just dealing with the off flavor and toughing it out. I am wondering if it is a bad idea from a health standpoint.

 

always feels great to solve an off flavor....good job

 

Thanks for the posting. I've been using a garden hose for a year now. May have to do some testing.

 

I've had my first bad batch.... a band-aid batch.

I don't use a hose, but I do have a couple ideas of what may have caused the problem.

My question.... I have my beer in a keg for a week now, will the flavor go away with time, or should I cut my losses now and dump it?

 

I use a hose for my water using my kitchen sink but it's a hose meant for trailers. I wasn't really thinking about it when I bought the hoses, I just wanted short ones... they had 6' hoses at lowe's and luckily they were for potable water.

So if you use a hose... get a hose meant for a trailer and you're good.

It's light green btw.

 

I do and haven't noticed any off flavors. If it taste good you can brew with it!

 

Agreed. I've never tasted "good" hose water at my house. I must be buying the wrong hoses...

 

+1 for the white RV hose! No need for "agents known to cause cancer in the state of California"

 

I'm going to have to check out that RV hose, but I've been recently using a garden hose, and I also recently bought a whole house filter to run the water through. Seemed to work OK, and the hydro samples from the recent batches I made seem fine. I was thinking this may be the contributor to my off-flavors, but I'm starting to think it was the fittings in my old MLT(I think the washers were zinc, and I also used the flat black rubber washers).

 

I know when I bought a new garden hose this year, it was marked that it "contains lead" and as such should not be used for potable water.

 

Thanks for this thread. I have had two 5 gallon batches with a plastic hose flavor that I was having trouble diagnosing. The one thing that changed in my setup was a section of brand new garden hose that I used to deliver water. FYI, the old section of hose hadn't been a problem in past batches, but the new one may have ruined two batches. I'll hook it up and taste the water when i get home. I'll carry buckets from the spigot from now on. not taking any more chances.

This forum is excellent!