I had a few brews in the house cause it was too cold in the garage. The temp have been up the past few days and I haven't had the time to do anything with them. I transfered them today and they both had the same plastic taste (both in glass carboys, one normal..not belgian blonde ale and one chimay blue clone). Are they both lost? the temp in the house got too 77 the last 3 days.
an issue...
- Thread starter robmee
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I have had the same problem. I have searched and searched forums and homebrew shops for answers, most of the time I get the answer as temperature as the cause. This winter I have been brewing and brewing and I have not had any plastic issues yet, but I know exactly what you are talking about. I will give you my opinion based on what I have been through.
The Brews I did last year I was not able to recover. The temp got well into the 80's much higher than my yeast could handle. I still have some in the bottle today and its horrible. My first brew this winter was a American Brown. When I transferred it to my secondary it had that plastic smell you are talking about. I was very upset but went ahead and went to secondary then to the bottle. The plastic taste has faded almost gone. I have made my own determination that hops are having something to do with this. I dont know if its using old hops, or hop oils or a certain kind of hop. I would be curious to know what kind of hops you used and how old they were. I would say if your withen range of your yeast temp your ok, but if its still has that plastic smell when you bottle or Keg I would say it will still be there when you are ready to drink it.
The Brews I did last year I was not able to recover. The temp got well into the 80's much higher than my yeast could handle. I still have some in the bottle today and its horrible. My first brew this winter was a American Brown. When I transferred it to my secondary it had that plastic smell you are talking about. I was very upset but went ahead and went to secondary then to the bottle. The plastic taste has faded almost gone. I have made my own determination that hops are having something to do with this. I dont know if its using old hops, or hop oils or a certain kind of hop. I would be curious to know what kind of hops you used and how old they were. I would say if your withen range of your yeast temp your ok, but if its still has that plastic smell when you bottle or Keg I would say it will still be there when you are ready to drink it.
El Pistolero
Well-Known Member
Here's a link for flavor systems. The plastic taste is probably phenol, which as you can see from the link can come from sanitation issues, or improperly rinsed cleaners/sanitizers.
On the other hand, to me a very strong banana taste/aroma is pretty similiar to that plastic phenol taste, and the banana can be caused by high temps. The good news is that if it is esters caused by too high temps, it will mellow out with age.
I wouldn't think a phenol problem would have anything to do with the hops tho.
On the other hand, to me a very strong banana taste/aroma is pretty similiar to that plastic phenol taste, and the banana can be caused by high temps. The good news is that if it is esters caused by too high temps, it will mellow out with age.
I wouldn't think a phenol problem would have anything to do with the hops tho.
robmee
Well-Known Member
I use a quad sanitizer (resturant/deli sanitizer) called Q-san and I sanitize the same way all the time. I have a few of those stick on termometers on different carboys and one did say 82*f so I am leaning more to the temp side. Damn FL weather 40 40 40 40 60 90 35 90 90 90...crap beer went bad. Oh well good thing is one is a belgian so it will need to age for 6 months, hopefully the taste fades.
El Pistolero
Well-Known Member
Sounds like temp is the culprit...especially with that belgian yeast. I'd get to Wally World and grab a big rubbermaid tub...sit the carboy in that filled with water and you won't have any more temp problems...at least it works over here.
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