Band Aid tastes: For the sake of science

[safcraft]

I decided to start a new thread, as i intend to do follow ups on what to come.

To resume this story short, i brew a Hefe that turned into Band Aid Beer.
I am unsure of what may have caused it, so decided (for the sake of science) to do some experiments with my final product, and try to find the cause of it, thus helping me (and other readers) to prevent this in the future.

INTRO:
My tap water is pretty soft, around 70ppm alcalinity and odorless.
Nevertheless i use Campden tablets to prevent Chloramines.
I use ChemiPro to clean and Starsan to sanitize.
I brew in a Mash Tun (cooler) keeping temps to 65C in a single infusion and batch sparge with 77C degrees water for the second runnings.
Then a 60-90 min boil, followed by plate chiller into fermenter.
I do 1L to 2L starter depending on gravity, based on Wyeast vials.
I normally (including this Hefe) ferment in a temperature controlled fridge at 20C.

Fast forward, i got a Band Aid hefe , and don't know why.
So to try and procure the problem:

1. I will remove a spoon of yeast cake and make 2 new starters:
- 500ml tap water + 50g malt extract + yeast from cake
- 500ml bottled spring water + 50g malt extract + yeast from cake

So this will tell me if i have an infection, both starters will smell and taste BAND AID.

If only the TAP water one,....points to Chloramines in TAP water...and the Campden tablets to blame being nothing more than placebo.

IF both are fine...no infection and no problem from water, so probably due to temperatures or some problem with some ingredient (i only used wheat and pilsner).


2. After experiment 1 done, i will take the 15L of Phenolic Hefe and BOIL IT. This will remove the alchohol...and remove the BAND AID taste. I know..i have tested this with a 100ml sample ! No taste after boiling for 5 minutes!

3. Make a small stove top mash with 1Kg wheat + 1Kg Pislner. Add 500g of sugar and end with a 1.100 gravity wort (5 litres).
Add this high gravity wort to the BOILED Hefe and into the fermenter they go again with a new starter of Wyeast 3068.

Depending on the results of Test Experiment 1, i may use the same yeast from the CAKE....or use a new Wyeast 3068 vial i have on the fridge.

Let the science start....
Will report findings.

 

[xpops]

is this an isolated incident? how are you getting water to your kettles/HLTs?

i had an incident with back to back batches...only to find out i made a rookie mistake and used a new garden hose to get water to my HLT...rubber bandaid DIPA and rubber bandaid Amber Ale!....gross

just a thought.

 

[safcraft]

Thanks for the heads up, but i have just brew a light coloured pale ale with S04 that has no problems whatsoever , despite being very bland flavour,. But that was my mistake in the recipe.
I take my water directly from my kitchen sink outlet. Or I fill my unused fermenter in the bath tub...

 

[safcraft]

So 2 starters made with 500ml and a few couple of spoons of yeast cake goo....

The yeast cake was the strangest I have seen. lots of trub coagulated and some kind of gelatine glueing everything.... I did not see any yeast...so just dropped 2 spoons of goo....

View attachment 1501188863485.jpg

 

[safcraft]

So fast forward 2 days and....

None of the starters smelled bad or tasted wrong. This points me that my water is fine even untreated like I suspected and I have no infection in this batch.

In order to find another opinion I took a sample to my local friend that is a professional brewer. The minute he smelled it he said..."this is a Weiss...and you got stressed yeast phenol!"

Wow.....never considered that. But it falls within logic because everything else was discarded.
I must have done something to stress the yeast. and got medicine beer....

So I went with my initial plan and heated the beer to 80C for 1 hour. The smell almost appeared to be gone so I cooled it...added both starters because they smelled and tasted fine and bottled it with sugar.

Let's hope it turns out drinkable beer....

 

[safcraft]

On another front, while the Hefe is carbing, i decided to make a Weizenbock with a new fresh pack vial of 3068. 1L starter like before, but no cold crash and i pitched while there was still krausen in the starter (24h). The temperature difference from the starter to wort was not large (25C starter vs 20C wort).

I have krausen and activity 24h later, and the beer is fermenting at 17C now.
Lower , safer and slower this time....lets hope for good tastes.

 

[safcraft]

For The sake of science I did it.
For my sake I will not do it again.

I opened a bottle of the band aid Hefe with 5 days . Pretty much carbed and nice foamy head .
Tastes nasty.
The band aid remains and it'still undrinkable even after the boil...
So lesson learned:
If the band aid is mild or medium taste let them are for 6 months in bottle and they will be drinkable.
If the taste is nasty...dump it.