AAAHHH! Help me solve Band Aid Taste

[beerman1957]

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.

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.

 

[hops2it]

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.

 

[Countrysquire]

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.

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.

 

[Petho]

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.

 

[jrg42]

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.

 

[Countrysquire]

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!

 

[cheezydemon3]

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)

 

[charlesmartin]

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.

 

[Haputanlas]

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.

 

[cheezydemon3]

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.

 

[Countrysquire]

Update - Took the bad beer to a local homebrew expert. In his opinion, it does not taste like an infection, but like phenol, likely due to our water. I'm guessing my warm fermentation temperature made this worse. Anyway, he was kind enough to come over this morning and watch me brew, giving me some pointers along the way. This says a lot for the people in this hobby.

BTW, the IPA is improving and is drinkable. The Bee Cave Pale Ale, on the other hand, has shown no signs of improvement and will likely go down the drain.