AAAHHH! Help me solve Band Aid Taste

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Countrysquire

Countrysquire

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So far, I have brewed a couple dozen times, 20 or so mini mashes, 3 all grains. Three of these have had a VERY strong band aid taste, the rest of them have been great. Just kegged two all grain brews, BierMuncher's Centennial Blonde and Ed Wort's Bee Cave House Ale. These were brewed one day apart, the Centennial Blonde is outstanding, the Bee Cave Ale is horrid, all band aid, all the time. The only difference that I can cite is fermentation temperature, 72 for the Centennial Blonde, 74 for the Bee Cave. Based on one jillion reviews, both are obviously great recipes. What am I missing here? Thanks so much for any advice.
 
My first thought is dry yeast, I remember using and getting that taste.

Haven't used dry in ages, but I think I'm going to give it another shot though.
 
One of the three band ones were liquid yeast, one dry yeast (hydrated) and the third was moved from the brew kettle on top of a yeast cake that had just had the wort moved to a secondary.

The problem is that I can't find the common denominator between the three.
 
Do you have a son? Maybe he's putting his band aids in your beer to get a kick:)?
Do you use bleach to sanitize? If so the yeasts phenols will react with the chlorine and sometimes give a medicinal or "Band aid" taste.
 
My water source is always the same, tap water (perhaps I need to start adding Camden tablets). My sanitation routine is always the same, and seems to me to be thorough. I'm guessing chlorophenols too, but why does this only happen sometime?
 
Countrysquire said:
My water source is always the same, tap water (perhaps I need to start adding Camden tablets). My sanitation routine is always the same, and seems to me to be thorough. I'm guessing chlorophenols too, but why does this only happen sometime?
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Maybe sometimes you rinse a little better... Wild yeast can produce the same flavors.
 
I've had it a couple of times, before i started treating the water with campden. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason, just every now and then the dreaded bandaid would pop up. Start treating your water with campden = problem solved.
 
Countrysquire said:
My water source is always the same, tap water (perhaps I need to start adding Camden tablets). My sanitation routine is always the same, and seems to me to be thorough. I'm guessing chlorophenols too, but why does this only happen sometime?
Click to expand...

City water isn't 100% consistent all the time and can change based on the season or other local factors like water treatment. Maybe just try subbing 1/2 of your brew water with bottled RO or distilled water.
 
Treating my water and possibly buying treated water (only $1 a gallon) seem like no brainers. Both are cheap options and I'd be a fool not to do this.
 
Countrysquire said:
My water source is always the same, tap water (perhaps I need to start adding Camden tablets). My sanitation routine is always the same, and seems to me to be thorough. I'm guessing chlorophenols too, but why does this only happen sometime?
Click to expand...

I do think it's chlorophenols. Your water supply may add more chlorine at times, or use chloramines (which don't boil off). I'd either buy RO water and try again, to see if that is the issue, or treat with campden. I'd suggest one batch with RO water purchased from the store with a teaspoon of calcium chloride added to it. If that solves the problem, you know it's your tap water.

Some beers may "hide" chlorophenols better than others.
 
Thanks. I *ASSUMED* that the city water was always the same. Campden tablets are certainly so cheap that I would be crazy not to use them in the future. Also, as noted, I do brew a different style each time, so maybe some styles do hide it better, but I wouldn't think the Centennial Blonde, with an OG of 1.042 would hide it so well.
 
you just beat me to this thread. I did a centennial pale ale (10 days ago)and just took a taste of it from the primary and all i could taste was band aids. I know it has only been 10 days but it has never tasted like this before. I used Poland Springs water instead of my well this time to see if there was a difference. There is. Any chance this will clear up?
 
Ugh. Kegged an IPA last night and the band-aid taste is odor is even stronger. Looks like 10 gallons of nasty beer will be going down the drain.

Looking at the city water dept. web site, it says that the average level of chloramine is 1.4 ppm. This was a report from 2009, the latest one available. We are currently under a mandatory water rationing order, due to a drought, so this might make it even worse. Will be brewing this weekend and have campden tablets in hand, so we'll see what happens.

Thanks.
 
As noted before the bandaid off taste is more than likely phenol and the result of some type of bacterial infection. The most common causees are poor sanitation technique and specificly poor rinsing if you use bleach. The second is over milling or sparging. If this is only an occasional problem for you and you are using consistant milling and sparging technique I would suggest that you need to be more careful with your cleaning especially if you are using bleach. I had a batch with the same problem several years ago and ended up believing that it was a result of poor rinsing. I have tried to define "over sparging" a number of times and have to this point never been able to come up with a clear and consistant answer. I would like to hear back if you have thoughts about that question.
 
I use Cleanitizer from AHS to clean and sanitize, which is a no-rinse product, though I do rinse. I had gotten this one time before, last year on a mini-mash batch, but was using Iodophor to sanitize with. Two of the three all grain batches have been bad, but I've used the same brewing and sanitizing process for each batch. I do feel like I'm being thorough with the sanitation process. I fly sparge, which takes 45 minutes to an hour to give me 6.5 gallons. Thanks for the help.
 
Badhabit- Interesting! I know that I did not use any bleach so this has been driving me crazy. However I had a friend grind my grain this time instead of the LHBS and it was much finer. Perhaps that is it.
 
I agree with the Chlorophenols from the water. Since city water comes in many flavors, it very well could contain more ppm a DAY later than it did the day before. My suggestion is to get RO water from the store and use some brewing salts if needed.

Sanitizing: I use Oxyclean for a primary scrub and rinse with Iodphor. Then I allow my equipment to dry in the sun. Before using the equipment again, I spray with a dilute of Iodphor and allow it to dry normally. I do this the DAY BEFORE the brew and then store the equipment (mainly fermenter) in the fermentation fridge.


Luckily I have good city water that uses nothing but Chlorine. I have never had band-aid beer...ever.
 
I was planning on brewing tomorrow, but I might wait. Just got home and tried the IPA again, which was dry hopped, and you can't even taste the hops over the band-aid. It's just that strong. I think what I need to d is find an experienced local home brewer and have him taste this to get his opinion of what is going on. My fear is that I might be describing the wrong problem, and thus will end up with the wrong answer. Really hard to ask y'all to solve this without tasting it, but believe me, you don't want to taste it.

It's just funny that these two are train wrecks, yet the BierMuncher Centennial Blonde is outstanding.
 
Countrysquire said:
I was planning on brewing tomorrow, but I might wait. Just got home and tried the IPA again, which was dry hopped, and you can't even taste the hops over the band-aid. It's just that strong. I think what I need to d is find an experienced local home brewer and have him taste this to get his opinion of what is going on. My fear is that I might be describing the wrong problem, and thus will end up with the wrong answer. Really hard to ask y'all to solve this without tasting it, but believe me, you don't want to taste it.

It's just funny that these two are train wrecks, yet the BierMuncher Centennial Blonde is outstanding.
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Try this: Salvage one gallon and re-boil that gallon. See if that kills the taste. Here is my thoughts: If it is bacteria, then the taste is gone. If not, it was the water. Maybe.

I also would clean every item that touches the beer with extra anti bacterial and a very good no rinse cleaner. BTW, Dry hopping does NOTHING to impart bitterness or flavor. DH is for aroma mostly, but I also know I am splitting hairs.
 
beerman1957 said:
BTW, Dry hopping does NOTHING to impart bitterness or flavor. DH is for aroma mostly, but I also know I am splitting hairs.
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I know this is the "common wisdom" but I disagree with this. If you think dry hopping adds no bitterness or flavor, I suggest an experiment where you take something like a cream ale or blonde and dry hop it for 1 week with 4-6 oz of CTZ. Be sure to keep some with no dry hopping so you can compare.

Then, plug your nose and taste them side-by-side.
 
weirdboy said:
I know this is the "common wisdom" but I disagree with this. If you think dry hopping adds no bitterness or flavor, I suggest an experiment where you take something like a cream ale or blonde and dry hop it for 1 week with 4-6 oz of CTZ. Be sure to keep some with no dry hopping so you can compare.

Then, plug your nose and taste them side-by-side.
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Some very residual bitterness could result from alcohol emulsion, but the overall IBU would be insignificant for bittering. Plugging your nose makes no difference because the bitter is not olfactory is not connected to smell.


http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2008/05/21/dry-hopping-enhanced-hops-aroma/
 
RugenBrau said:
Badhabit- Interesting! I know that I did not use any bleach so this has been driving me crazy. However I had a friend grind my grain this time instead of the LHBS and it was much finer. Perhaps that is it.
Click to expand...

You may have a point here. Grinding finer would impart flavors not before seen. I keep my grains ground to .040-050. However, I don't think BAnd-Aid flavors would result from over-crushed grains, but maybe someone out there can weigh in.
 
Hi. I'm a water treatment operator. I would guess it's the chloramines. They are not good in the way of taste and odors. Depending on how your city is ATTEMPTING to treat your water...adding ammonia or ammonium sulfate to intentionally create chloramines (longer disinfection for lower usage pipelines), this can result in ammonia and hypochlorite (bleach) in your water which may be misconstrued in the homebrewing world as a sanitation problem, i.e. lack of rinsing.

The other option here is that your utlity is attempting to breakpoint chlorinate but failing at times. Your water would then be measure in free chlorine (typically mg/L or possibly ppm, same thing by the way) which IMO is by FAR the best option for a homebrewer. The major problem in this scenario is that when/if ammonia is present in particular, and improper dosing of chlorine is a factor, the water can fluctuate back and forth between free residual and the moment before free residual which is comprised of constituents we call dichloramines and trichloramines. If your water has ever smelled like algae or had an "earthy" smell, this may well be the case, even if you are not actively noticing it at the time of the brew.

BTW, for anyone who did not know, if your water utility chlorinates using free residual, you can pour the brew water the day before and leave in a bucket/container with no lid overnight or even for a few days in a fridge. The chlorine will dissipate leaving you with low or no chlorine.
 
beerman1957 said:
Try this: Salvage one gallon and re-boil that gallon. See if that kills the taste. Here is my thoughts: If it is bacteria, then the taste is gone. If not, it was the water. Maybe.
Click to expand...

This is something that I hadn't thought of trying, but would sure be easy to try. I'm wondering if it is bacteria, would the flavor go away after boiling? Seems like it would still be there, just dead. We'll see, I'm off work today and will go do that right now.

Thanks.
 
I finally solved my band Aid taste by using carbon filtered water in place of the Crystal Geyser bottled water that I had been using. There is a store that sells purified water without chlorine and it did the trick.
 
I was in the same boat as you for a while. Every 3rd batch or so would have that band-aid phenol. I think my pallet is sensitive to that awful taste, so even the smallest hint and i could taste it. Lagering for a few months will diminish it greatly though.

Last 4 brews i used store bought water for both the starter and the mash/sparge water and i have not had any off flavors since. I know my city water has chloramine in it, so once I started using RO/store bought water for my starters it has not been a problem.

I was still getting problem when i used city water for the starter and store bought (or campden treated) for brew day. Really confusing trying to diagnose the issue.
 
Yeah, the boiling didn't improve anything. However, I did learn that 1 gallon of carbonated beer will foam out the top of a 5 gallon pot very easily when it approaches boiling temperature!
 
Chlorine or it's evil relatives.

My tap water is FINE and so is the ice in my automatic ice maker, worth a batch to find that out IMHO.

Even when I brew AG now, I use ice in the wort to chill. Clearest beer ever without irish moss or gelatin or secondary. (or a chiller for that matter)
 
my bandaid flavor (and i mean BANDAID flavor) spread in my bottling bucket from one batch to the next. i sanitized it to the max...and no more bandaid. starsan has rescued my brewing hobby. i've had no problem with dry yeast, but i did have a problem when my beer was touching something that smelled like bandaids...my bottling bucket. once i got a handle on the sanitation, i have had nothing but success. again, thank you starsan. even swmbo made a comment after two infected batches...um...had to get a handle on it quickly. i cannot emphasize enough: STARSAN.
 
I had two batches get infected from a stupid method of dry-hopping (such a dork). However, I would go so far as to say that this was similar to a band-aid taste. The infection was post primary fermentation, so it wouldn't impart as much of a bad flavor as it would before the fermentation.

I wouldn't rule it out is all.
 
The ONLY infection that tastes like band aid is Lambic yeast, or brettanomyces that Starsan probably won't kill.

Starsan is something that your other sanitizer isn't. Cleanser residue is the likely culprit. Not a lambic infection.

That was the fix. Better sanitizer? Sure! But mostly because it doesn't leave behind chloramines.
 

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