metallic taste

Apparantly my stout has a metallic taste. At least thats what the judges from the competition I entered it in said. They said it might have been infected. The only thing I found about metallic taste was caused by the pot during boil but I have a stainless pot with no scratches or anything so I dont think that was the issue. Has anyone else had a mettallic taste in their beer or any suggestions on how to prevent it again? Besides sanitize everything.

 

Is it the same stout you sent on the Swap?

 

According to "How to Brew"

Metallic
Metallic flavors are usually caused by unprotected metals dissolving into the wort but can also be caused by the hydrolysis of lipids in poorly stored malts. Iron and aluminum can cause metallic flavors leaching into the wort during the boil. The small amount could be considered to be nutritional if it weren't for the bad taste. Nicks and cracks ceramic coated steel pots are a common cause as are high iron levels in well water. Stainless steel pots will not contribute any metallic flavors. Aluminum pots usually won't cause metallic flavors unless the brewing water is alkaline with a pH level greater than 9. Shiny new aluminum pots will sometimes turn black when boiling water due to chlorine and carbonates in the water.

The protective (grayish) oxides of aluminum can be enhanced by heating the clean pot in a dry oven at 250°F for about 6 hours.


It states that stainless steel won't give off these flavors, so I'm really not sure what the problem might be.

 

Metallic off flavours are hard to pin down. They sometimes pop up for no rhyme or reason, and then disappear again for a while. Even Jamil Zainasheff has mentioned he has encountered them and can't explain them.

A good friend of mine had it happen to him a couple of times. He suspected that it was the hops he was using (sorry -- I can't remember what they were, except that they hadn't been stored very well). Others link it to oxidation of wort compounds. Off flavours from a brew pot are also a commonly cited source of metallic flavours, but it doesn't sound like this is the case in your situation.

If you do figure out the cause, please post back and let us know.

 

I am convinced that most metallic flavors are a combination of roasty flavors and oxidation. At least with me, whenever I have gotten a metallic flavor, it has been in roasty beers (stouts/porters) and I had reason to believe they may have been oxidized, particularly when I bottle from my cobra taps.

 

Was your extract from a metal can? Pineapple from a metal can tastes metallic as opposed to fresh pineapple. Avoid malt extract in metal cans if possible.

Forrest

 

It is the same stout I sent for the swap granted it has been a couple extra weeks since you drank it.

The LME was from those plastic jugs and the PB came from a jar.

 

It also could just be your water. Some water supplies have a high iron content.


TL

 

My water tastes just fine straight from the tap but I filter it before brewing with it just to be sure.

 

What about the bottle caps? When you washed them they did not rust or anything right>?

 

Not sure what you mean RIC, if your referring to the grolsch style top like I sent for the swap then that wasnt an issue with the comp because they got normal bottles with caps.

 

DId you use star san? I've had problems in the past with to much star san to water ratio, didnt rinse and got a matelic flavor. now I rinse and it's all ok.

 

A better thing to do would be to mix your Star San solution at the recommended concentration. At this strength it is entirely rinseless (with no off flavours) and it actually works better (according to Charlie Talley, the inventor).

 

I use the no rinse sanitizer that came with my kit but I mix it to the recommendations.

 

No I meant that if you sent the comp a normal bottle with the normal cap. I have had my caps rust on the inside while I was soaking them during bottling.

 

How old were the hops you used? I have a buddy that has had a slightly astringent, metallic flavor in the last two batches and I think the hops he is using are old

 

Vacuum sealed and labeled some time in 07 when I got them.

 

Do you bottle condition or keg? If you bottle from a keg, I really think oxygen has something to do with metallic flavors in roasty beers.

 

Did you use a yeast starter and if so, did it contain yeast nutrients? This guy says that amino acid-based yeast nutrients can contribute a metallic flavor...

http://www.maltosefalcons.com/tech/MB_Raines_Guide_to_Yeast_Culturing.php

 

Normal bottling.

No starter on that one.

 

I just popped open the first of my batch of IPA (NB's Two-Hearted Ale clone).

It's only been two weeks since I bottled, so I was expecting it not to be completely carbonated yet, and it's not, but no problem there.

It does, however, have a slight metallic taste that I'm trying to pin down a reason for. There was a bit of a milky-looking film on top of the beer in the bottle that I haven't encountered before. I noticed it a couple days after I bottled, but I figured it was just bottle krausen. If so, though, I would have expected it to be gone by now, two weeks later.

I noticed when I bottled, that the bowl of sanitizer that I had soaked the caps in, had a little bit of rusty color to it when I was done capping.

I'm not sure if the batch is infected, or if something is going on with the caps.

Hoping the metallic taste will fade (although it's not horrible as-is). I'll give it a couple more weeks to fully carbonate and try another one.

 

Hello everyone, new to the forums, haven't brewed yet and have been reading a lot and came across a possible reason for metallic tastes. I was reading extreme brewing and it noted that adding oxygen late in fermentation can cause metallic or cardboard flavors? So maybe if you tend to move your carboy during fermentation you could be oxygenating it. Just throwin it out there as an option.... once again read this out of Extreme Brewing; An Enthusiast's Guide to Brewing Craft Beer At Home. location 962 on android kindle, or ~27% through the book

 

I have had the same issue a time or two and pinned mine down to steeping grains to hot, incorrect sanitizer ratio and old malt. My last Rogue Brutal IPA clone was that way and the hop aroma and flavor seemed to fade less than 3 weeks after kegging and I have no issues with this keg in the past. When I looked closer at the dates, the hops were from the 2009 harvest! Could be the culprit!?

 

I just made an ipa that still needs a few weeks in secondary dry hopping, but I tried a sample and it tastes metallic. I am hoping it will fade with time, but the malt I used was from glass jars, but could have been somewhat old. The hops I used may have been subjected to improper storage? (75-80F)

It's not over powering, but it somehow reminds me of the hops' bitterness, and I think they are the culprit for me.

 

I'm finding I get this taste on beer hopped with Centennial (just one hop I tend to use a lot with highish levels or myrcene). IME, it's high myrcene levels which can add just a touch of metallic flavor. This flavor tends to fade a bit as the ale mellows but also, while noticeable in the first few sips, it can become "invisible" shortly thereafter.

 

It has been mentioned before in this thread. Oxidation, especially in its early stages, lends a metallic flavour to beer! Unless you take active measures to avoid it, it is highly likely that your home brew will suffer from oxidation issues and pick up this specific metallic flavor, that in effect dulls your beer. For example, if when your beer reached fg, and you move it to a secondary fermenting vessel with a significant head-space, it will quickly pick up the oxygen and develop the metal flavor. There's a link between what we refer to as metallic flavor and oxygen. Everybody knows with first hand experience that oxygen has a significant chemical impact on (untreated) metals. This chemical reaction can be observed as it results in stains and rust over time, but is also instrumental to what causes the metal to emit what we think of as metallic flavor or aroma. In fact, it is only untreated metal that emits this particular smell, and I especially notice it when I rinse and brush my cast-iron frying pan under running, hot water, or when I polish stained brass or copper. If you play the trumpet, you're an oxygen flavor connoisseur! In contrast, stainless steel cutlery does not emit that smell at all, because there's no oxygen reaction. Unlike untreated metals, beer doesn't rust or stain (hmmm, well, perhaps it actually does), but it is influenced by the same flavor impact. Over time, the oxygen flavor will change, and it will also start influencing your beer color - perhaps by similar reactions to those causing metals to stain and rust?

 

I have to concur here. Been brewing for 18 years now and my process has evolved over the years. At one point I was pumping my wort continuously during the boil through my counter-flow chiller as a disinfecting technique and letting the wort splash back into the boil kettle. I started noticing metallic tastes in my darker beers. I only pump now for 10 minutes to disinfect and the tip of the hose is submerged so as to eliminate as much contact as possible to the air. This is also talked about extensively as pre-mature oxygenation of hot wort. Never oxygenate your wort until it is thoroughly cooled for a variety of reasons. This has turned out to be one of them IMHO.

 

Interesting...

I wonder what could be oxidizing to give such flavors.
A quick google search popped up that yeast nutrients have Zinc & aluminum in them, often.

I'm not sure, but I would assume zinc oxide and aluminum oxide would definitely give off-flavors. But these concentrations are so small... Perhaps there are trace metals in the grains that oxidize.

An interesting problem. My stout came off terribly metallic, which is why I'm here. I definitely did add a lot of oxygen to it, after transferring to secondary fermenter and bottling...
Bummer, was really excited about this one too. Smelled delicious.

 

Has anyone ever had their brew tested (chemist) when the metallic taste is present? Is it safe to drink?

 

Lol. You can't go to a chemist and say "Hey whats in here that gives it this metallic taste?" That's unfortunately, very difficult to do. Especially if the chemist has no idea what it could be. (I'm a chemist)

And yes its safe to drink.

So far my thinking is that the metallic taste is from yeast & cloudiness from the fermentation. After having the product bottled for about 1.5 weeks the metallic taste is quickly disappearing. Give it another month and I'll bet I wouldn't even know it was there at all.

 

Metallic taste does dissipate over time for me as well. Perhaps a MALDITOF mass spec could pick up trace elements...hmmm

 

Any mass spec could. But you'd have to really consider which ones are probable, and what configuration they are going to be in. I'm not sure if Mass Specs fragment metal complexes like AcO[M], so you may have to take that into account as well.

And if you DO ionize them and fragment them, theres no way to know what their parent complex is.

And to be honest if you use spring or tap water, the amount of metals in there is going to be huge... not sure how you would narrow down which metal is contributing to the taste.

 

I sometimes notice a bit of a metallic taste in my brews right after force carbing (~2 weeks), but it always dissipates pretty quickly (by week 3).

 

Old post but I just had the same issue with an "Apricot" wit brew. I think it was from the can that I used for my apricot puree that a racked to the secondary in. Tastes very similar to the sample I had before I racked it. Just guessing, but if that's the case I would say to be cautious of the material that your ingredients come in. They may impart undesirable flavors even if they say they are "pure". Pure ingredients shipped in non-inert containers may have undesirable effects a month or two down the road.