Bandaid aroma and flavor

[TheBiGZ]

So my most recent IPA developed a bandaid aroma and flavor. After fermentation/while kegging, I took a hydrometer reading and as usual, tasted the sample and was very pleased with both the flavor and aroma. The sample was pretty cloudy but it has about 6 oz dry hop (15G batch) so I didn't think too much on that. After about 4 days of carbing, I poured another taster and it had a very noticable bandaid aroma and flavor.
Many posts say that cloudy beer + bandaid flavor = infection
The question is, why did it taste fine before kegging, then develop the off flavor? All of the kegs taste the same, so the infection didn't come from the keg. And I would think that "serving temp" would be too cold for an infection to take place...
Thoughts?

 

[ibbrewing2]

I have encountered this same problem several times as well. I have always chalked it up to an infection that my beer caught after racking into the keg as the beer tasted fine prior to racking. However, another thought is that the flavor doesn't become noticeable until late into the fermentation cycle therefore becoming present only after kegging or late in the fermentor, which means I picked it up prior to kegging. The most interesting aspect to this is it's only light beers that ever develops this issue. I can say that the combo of bandaid like taste is always accompanied by cloudy beer as well. So to the OP you are not alone in your struggle.

 

[heckels]

Did you use any specific cleaners/sanitizer with this batch? Palmer typically attributes it to phenols during early fermentation (which would not be the case here) or chlorine cleaners.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html


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[DonnieZ]

What kind of water are you using? If you're using tap water, check to see how your water supply is treated to keep organic growth down.

Many municipalities use chloramines to disinfect water supplies. This is bad for homebrewing. When yeast consume wort sugars that have chloramines in them, they produce chlorophenolic compounds, and this is what you could be tasting.

Chlorine or chloramines can be used. Find out what they use, but it's likely chloramines if you're tasting it in your beers.

Chlorine will disapate via boiling or simply letting your water sit out overnight. (i.e. fill a couple of buckets and let it sit out.)

Chloramines will not dissipate naturally - you need a little chemical help. Get some Sodium Metabisulfite (Campden) or Potassium Metabisulfite. Both are really cheap at the homebrew store and will make all the difference in the world in your beers if this happens to be your issue.

One campden tablet usually treats 20 gallons of water, but you will likely not notice any difference in flavor by using a full tablet in your 6-8 gallons of brewing water. Before brewing, simply crush the tablet and stir the water. The chloramines will dissipate and continue your brew day as normal.

 

[JonM]

I agree that you're unlikely to develop an infection at fridge temps.

At just 4 days carbonating, I'd let this one sit for a while to see what develops. You could just be tasting some fleeting funky flavor from the hops as the flavors mature. I had a Citra IPA that, when it was really young, it smelled like BO. That went away after a week and it matured into a great beer.

What hops did you use?

 

[processhead]

Could the 6 oz of hops added during dry hopping have been contaminated?

I am leery about adding anything after the boil that hasn't been sanitized.

 

[JonM]

I just had a thought - there was a guy on HBT having trouble with kegged beers. It turns out he had bad CO2. Is this a new tank of gas or have you used it on previous brews?

 

[ibbrewing2]

Hops additions after the boil shouldn't be an issue as they are naturally antibacterial. Now if they were added using a hops bag or some other type container that wasn't sanitized that could present an issue. After battling a few band aid batches myself I am very keen on water treatment. Using Camden tabs to treat brew water is only half the battle, I also make sure my cleaning/sanitizing water is treated too. Treating all water that touches my equipment might seem like overkill but I've read that even small amounts of residual sanitizer water left in the bottom of a keg after sanitizing can cause chlorophenol flavored if untreated for chlorine. My last few batches have turned out well and I'd like to think that being anal about treating all water for chlorine has played some part, but who knows, perhaps the beer gods are just being kind.