All my beers are terrible.

[TheKrumm]

Ok I have beers that have been conditioning for months and they are still horrible. I'm 2 weeks away from selling all of my brewing EQ. I have made 2 awesome porters.... but every other beer I have made has either tasted like a bandade or somehow came out tasting and smelling sweet. I have 6 beers in corny kegs right now and not a damn one of them is close to good. I followed the 2-2-4 rule for the first 2 and they were terrible after 2 months so i left them in kegs and through them in the garage. I have 3 that were 1 month in primary and 3 weeks in secondary then left in a keg for 3 weeks and they are terrible. Now I have a beer that primaried for a month then i secondaried in a fridge for a week and through it in a keg and its the best tasting one but still tastes like ****. I'm giving all the beer 2 more weeks to age and if i don't enjoy 1 of them i give up. I even took my beers to the local brew store and they said they just need more time... but the 2 beers i took up there were boiled 6 months ago and they are only 5% abv beers... they should be done by now.... BLAH

 

[Lucky137]

I'm no expert, but month in a primary sounds like a pretty long time... I had my American pale ale in primary for 8 days, secondary for 7, they've been bottled for 3 weeks and they're coming along (albeit they're conditioning rather slow). Maybe try less time fermenting? Next batch, start taking gravity readings after a week in primary every two days, and when the readings level out, bottle/keg that **** up and let it sit for a couple of weeks.

Just a thought... I know we'd all hate to see you give up!

 

[seabass07]

A month isn't a big deal. It looks like you are secondarying(I made up a word) them for no reason though. 3 or 4 weeks in primary, cold crash in primary, then bottle or keg. The bandaid flavor is probably from chlorine in the water. Try using either campden tablets for your brew water or boil the water for 15 or 20 minutes and let it fall to mash infusion temp. I don't know if your water in puyallup is the same as mine in bothell, but I have days where it reeks of chlorine and days when I can't detect any. I've heard of other locals complaining about chlorine in the water as well. I boil all of my brew water for at least 15 minutes before it touches my wort. I haven't done too many batches, but they have turned out great so far.

Don't give up!

 

[944play]

The Band-Aid stuff is chlorophenol, which is usually from chlorine or chloramine in municipal water, but it can also come from wild yeast infections. If you crush a half a Campden tablet into your brewing water, it will neutralize the chlorine. DO NOT USE BLEACH as a sanitizer for anything that will touch wort or beer!

If your beers are finishing too sweet, you're probably pitching too little yeast or yeast that are weak and sickly. Make starters for liquid yeast, rehydrate dry yeast, aerate your wort (preferably with pure O2 or sanitary air), and add a pinch of yeast nutrient. Finally, assuming you're using typical soft PNW water, add a few grams of calcium chloride and/or gypsum to each batch.

 

[TheKrumm]

I'm considering making a super simple beer and seeing how it comes out with a preboil on my tab water. It just makes no sense that my last 2 porters were awesome and all these beers are terrible. Actually we did move right before I brewed all of these beers im pissed at, but I didnt think the water would change that much.

 

[944play]

City water can change a lot with the seasons. Warmer weather means more microbes, so water agencies react with more [chlorine|chloramine]. Srsly, Campden tabs are the way to go (assuming you get the enviable PNW soft water).

 

[broadbill]

Also, what temperature are you fermenting at?

 

[waldoar15]

Not enough info. AG, PM, extract, ect? Recipes, process.

 

[Maxkling]

I'm no expert, but month in a primary sounds like a pretty long time...

Honestly, a month is suggested for the most part. I don't use a secondary unless I'm dry hopping or adding fruit.

I almost gave up, I moved to all grain. I never really had a great beer until my first all grain.

Also temperature control is key, I'm serious. 3 things you really need to be sure of, Sanitation, fermentation temperature, pitching rate/temp. If you are fermenting in a closet(thats like 65 degree in the morning and 75 in the afternoon), pitching at 90 with 1 pack in a beer thats over 1060. Then don't expect to make good beer depending on the style.

 

[stratslinger]

As others have said, the band-aid flavor definitely sounds like a chlorine problem. Moving before the bad batches could have something to do with that, but so could your sanitizer. What sanitizer do you use? I've read lots of posts with folks having similar results to yours when using bleach or c-brite...

As to the beers that come out too sweet, as someone above suggested, we really need a lot more info. If you're doing all grain, it could be a mash temperature problem (lots of times it comes down to badly calibrated thermometer). It could also be something to do with your fermentation - you're definitely giving it enough time, but what kind of temperatures are you fermenting at? This is also the most likely culprit if you're doing extract...

 

[tangofoxtrot308]

I second temp control! My first extract is in the fridge now. Cooled it with swamp cooler in bathroom. Between not being there and the AC breaking twice the temp got high 70s several times. Beer has ok flavor but the back end has a horrible alcohol flavor. Now I have a ferm fridge and a temp control steady 67 baby. Next beer should be better!

 

[birvine]

OP - please do not leave the hobby. Your problems will be fixable.

I have had a number of crappy brews over the years, but as I read and research more, particularly here on HBT, the brews have improved immensely. By either describing the taste or problem, or searching the same question in old postings, I have incrementally improved each batch along the road to good brewing.

Particularly in the early stages, things like chlorine in the water did not even enter my mind as a potential problem. I bought an on-the-tap filter which takes out the chlorine - no more band-aids. And on and on it goes.

Trust me, once you sort out some of the main problems and get a great batch... you'll be pretty excited and proud of yourself.

B

 

[unionrdr]

Reminds me of my 1st brew,it seemed to have every off flavor known to man from high pitch temps & the like. This is where research pays off. I let it sit in primary a few days after FG. Then 3 weeks in bottles before cracking one. All turned out well. I guess I was lucky that the chlorine off flavors were rather low.
But when the water started smelling like flat Alka-seltzer,I switched to natural spring water,problem solved. The tap water here has been quite good lately,so I used that & it's been fine. So let your senses be the judge of your tap water. You can smell the stuff in the water,especially if your faucet has that little aerator on the end. It really brings out that smell if present,ime.

 

[billf2112]

Do not worry, if you keep making crappy beer, you can have a career at Bud or Miller.

 

[BrewThruYou]

I would focus on the bandaid taste first. I don't think aging is the problem. I've gone grain to glass in 3 weeks.

Things can't smell sweet, can they? I mean sugar doesn't smell sweet to me. Maybe it smells like something that you've tasted that is sweet?

I would make a batch using all spring water first. And use very very strict sanitation procedures using StarSan. I don't know what I would do without StarSan. If that batch is fine, then I would focus on treating your water.

 

[RugenBrau]

Check your water profile and pay attention to fermentation temps

 

[Homercidal]

I second using campden tablets. You could boil, if it's chlorine, but if it's chloramine, then boiling wont' really work.

Don't use any bleach for sanitizing (I recommend StarSan, or even Iodophor, if you choose).

Pitch 1 packet of dry yeast up to 1.050, and 2 packets anything stronger than that. If using liquid yeast, I recommend making a starter, rather than pitching right from the vial.

Watch your fermentation temps. Try to keep mid 60's for most ales, up to 70. That's wort temp, not ambient air temp.

Ferment for 2-3 weeks minimum.

EDIT: Forgot to say, that your problem is fixable. Don't give up yet!

 

[ArcaneXor]

Echoing what some others have already said, your water and/or cleaning & sanitation is the primary problem. Fix that first by switching to bottled water (Bottled "drinking water" produces the best results for all-grain brewers who do not adjust the water chemistry with salt additions). Pre-boiling tap water does not necessarily eliminate the chlorophenols.
Do not use bleach or bleach-containing products in your process. Use PBW or unscented oxyclean (Oxyclean Versatile Free) for cleaning (rinse it really well!), and StarSan for sanitation (which you don't rinse).

Doing this will eliminate the band-aid taste from your beers.

Do not worry, if you keep making crappy beer, you can have a career at Bud or Miller.

As a tour guide maybe. Their brewers are some of the best in the business.

 

[rod734]

Ok I have beers that have been conditioning for months and they are still horrible. I'm 2 weeks away from selling all of my brewing EQ. I have made 2 awesome porters.... but every other beer I have made has either tasted like a bandade or somehow came out tasting and smelling sweet. I have 6 beers in corny kegs right now and not a damn one of them is close to good. I followed the 2-2-4 rule for the first 2 and they were terrible after 2 months so i left them in kegs and through them in the garage. I have 3 that were 1 month in primary and 3 weeks in secondary then left in a keg for 3 weeks and they are terrible. Now I have a beer that primaried for a month then i secondaried in a fridge for a week and through it in a keg and its the best tasting one but still tastes like ****. I'm giving all the beer 2 more weeks to age and if i don't enjoy 1 of them i give up. I even took my beers to the local brew store and they said they just need more time... but the 2 beers i took up there were boiled 6 months ago and they are only 5% abv beers... they should be done by now.... BLAH

I had some IPAs I made from extract kits that were too sweet. The more the hops mellowed, the sweeter they tasted untill I couldn't drink them. What I did was use enzymes right in the corny keg. The first one I used beano because I couldn't get any amylase local, and a couple more I used amylase I ordered on line. It takes about three weeks at room temp, but they all turned out drinkable.

 

[jjones17]

I'm no expert, but month in a primary sounds like a pretty long time... I had my American pale ale in primary for 8 days, secondary for 7, they've been bottled for 3 weeks and they're coming along (albeit they're conditioning rather slow). Maybe try less time fermenting? Next batch, start taking gravity readings after a week in primary every two days, and when the readings level out, bottle/keg that **** up and let it sit for a couple of weeks.

Just a thought... I know we'd all hate to see you give up!

I love the "I'm no expert...BUT" disclaimer before you give the wrong advice to someone who really needs anything but. It does not really matter what a month in the primary "SOUNDS" like to you, because anyone that I know who makes awesome beer (including me, not blowing my own horn but my beer is often as good as many craft beer offerings) leave their beers on primaries for more than a month at least. Often, I will brew up 5-6 beers in a 2 week span and just leave them... bottling them slowly as I need the beer, over a 3-4 month period.

To OP, looks like you are getting some good advice from some other posters though, and I would suspect that this is most likely a water issue. Personally, I had serious problems with Rubbery/Bandaid before and it happened to be from my starters - I was shaking my starters during fermentation and then pitching the entire, oxidized starter liquid on my batch. As soon as I started decanting the liquid the problem went away. Are you doing this?

 

[Tinga]

I'll take your kegging set up.

 

[brewmonk]

either you are being to hard on your self and your work, or you need to clean EVERYTHING really well.

go back to basics, and wash everything 3 times.

either the porters were able to disguise off flavors, or you have good luck with that yeast.

use a starter, and oxygenate or shake the stuffing out of the carboy if possible.

move to secondary 5 days after fermentation seems done *( rule of thumb, let it settle, then move it to clear more)

SEE WHAT WORKS FOR YOU.

 

[shawnbou]

I've got nothing to add here except some words of encouragement: DON'T GIVE UP.

Take it step by step. There's some great advice here. Change one factor at a time - start with the water/sanitation, and see how your beer improves.

Then next time change another factor - think about your yeast, are you pitching enough, is the temperature good, etc. You'll get there.

And keep this in mind: Make one small improvement with each batch, and every beer you make from here on out will be better than the last.

 

[ayoungrad]

To reiterate:

1. Temperature control

2. Campden or active charcoal filter your water

You will have beer that tastes good by doing these two things.

 

[KoedBrew]

Hey buddy a couple of suggestions before you throw in the towel.
I think you are having yeast problems. Make sure you are cooling your wort as fast as possible, get it down to the 70ish range then pitch a lot of yeast if the gravity is above 1.050 I use a starter. And shake the hell out of your carboy and allow oxygen into your wort right before the yeast!
Next, fermentation...keep the carboy or bucket from 65F to 72F after that you start getting off flavors....2 weeks should be ok but take a gravity reading before thinking it is done. For most beers you want 1.010 range give or take a few points.

Also, there is one issue that I think it could possibly be. I had a buddy who tried brewing and only had a 2.5 gallon stock pot...he ended up boiling under 2 gallons worth of wort and then would always add like 3 gallons of water to the wort. He never made a good beer when he did this. Not sure if it was the cause, but as soon as I let him borrow a larger brew pot he made good beer. I do not know what you brew with so I can't say if this is an issue.

Also, I use gallon bottles of spring water for all of my brews.

 

[unionrdr]

If you make a starter,don't ever shake it,swirl it gently. We're not Neanderthals here. No oxidation,no off flavors in starter,no problems.

 

[bigbeergeek]

Things can't smell sweet, can they? I mean sugar doesn't smell sweet to me. Maybe it smells like something that you've tasted that is sweet?

I believe a beer judge might describe the smell as "worty," which indeed smells "sweet."

 

[unionrdr]

some malt forward styles have a buiscotti like sweetness as part of their profile. Most call it"biscuity",but taste more like buiscotti to me.

 

[BrewThruYou]

I believe a beer judge might describe the smell as "worty," which indeed smells "sweet."

That doesn't make sense. Sweetness is a taste. Wort doesn't smell sweet...if you have tasted wort before and know that it tastes sweet, you'll associate the smell of wort with sweetness. They are not smelling sweetness at all...they are relying on their memory to associate that particular smell with a certain taste.

 

[onthekeg]

I would wager that your issues are as follows.
1. Chlorine in the water, this has been covered.
2. I missed if you are extract or all grain? If all grain, your pH may be high and your mash isn't converting properly. If Extract, please disregard. This is why a porter would be better than a light colored beer as the roasted malts will lower the pH.
3. Yeast starters will help your fermentation. Also, an easy way to get a good beer quickly, would be to rack onto a yeast cake. This will ensure you have enough yeast to do the job the second time.
4. If you don't want to mess with yeast starters, pitch Notty or S-05 for a batch.

Don't give up the ship because its not working out, with a couple changes to your process, you will be making much better beer. Keep at it and you will impress yourself!