I have been trying to troubleshoot what I perceive to be an off flavor for what feels like over two years now. The flavor is a cidery/sweetish aroma. It has a subtle cidery taste, and sometimes I perceive it as hot even though my beers are generally well below 6%.
I ferment in Anvil stainless brew buckets. Sometimes after cleaning with PBW at appropriate temps and dosage, I can still SMELL it on the stainless. It is driving me nuts.
I suspected my kegs, because I would sometimes not perceive it until after the beers were kegged. I nuked them with boiling H2O/pbw. StarSan soak. Replaced all gaskets, washers and rubber/plastic, even new poppits. I no longer smell it in the kegs after washing, so that's a start.
I just transferred a beer into a clean keg and i'm partly kicking myself, because the beer has the aroma. I cold crashed the fermentor down to 50F (that's as low as I could go) and prior to cold crashing, I did not perceive the flavor (3 days ago).
So now I suspect my fermentors. I have not replaced the plastic or rubber gaskets that contact the beer in the fermentors, so that's my next move.
With all of that said, I have a plan to continue hunting down the source however I can not find information on what yeast or bacteria could be causing this, I am truly stumped. Cidery, bordering on sherry, sometimes perceived as hot. There are off flavors that are described this way, but the usual suspects for these flavors I've already eliminated and they also tend to be more process driven. Sometimes I wonder if it's yeast stress? Its just such a distinct flavor, and it doesn't matter the style i'm brewing. It shows up nearly every time. So far I've narrowed it to something that likes lower temps, alcohol tolerant (it only appears post fermentation), does not seem to intensify over time. I've had it affect competition beers, too but I've not bee packaging beyond the keg since last year so I know it's further back in the process than my bottles and beer gun.
Any input appreciated - im going nuts.
I ferment in Anvil stainless brew buckets. Sometimes after cleaning with PBW at appropriate temps and dosage, I can still SMELL it on the stainless. It is driving me nuts.
I suspected my kegs, because I would sometimes not perceive it until after the beers were kegged. I nuked them with boiling H2O/pbw. StarSan soak. Replaced all gaskets, washers and rubber/plastic, even new poppits. I no longer smell it in the kegs after washing, so that's a start.
I just transferred a beer into a clean keg and i'm partly kicking myself, because the beer has the aroma. I cold crashed the fermentor down to 50F (that's as low as I could go) and prior to cold crashing, I did not perceive the flavor (3 days ago).
So now I suspect my fermentors. I have not replaced the plastic or rubber gaskets that contact the beer in the fermentors, so that's my next move.
With all of that said, I have a plan to continue hunting down the source however I can not find information on what yeast or bacteria could be causing this, I am truly stumped. Cidery, bordering on sherry, sometimes perceived as hot. There are off flavors that are described this way, but the usual suspects for these flavors I've already eliminated and they also tend to be more process driven. Sometimes I wonder if it's yeast stress? Its just such a distinct flavor, and it doesn't matter the style i'm brewing. It shows up nearly every time. So far I've narrowed it to something that likes lower temps, alcohol tolerant (it only appears post fermentation), does not seem to intensify over time. I've had it affect competition beers, too but I've not bee packaging beyond the keg since last year so I know it's further back in the process than my bottles and beer gun.
Any input appreciated - im going nuts.
