dish soap taste?

[tyson1]

I am just curious why both of my brews have a dish soap after taste. One is a Brewer's Best Irish Cream ale, and the other is a batch I kind of came up with. Its a cherry pale ale. The initial taste is good, irish cream is dark and smooth, then a dish soap taste. The cherry ale is a lighter (darker then bud light), strong alcohol taste (what I was going for 7%), then dish soap taste. If anyone knows what/why this could be happening, I'd appreciate it.

 

[wildwest450]

Are you using soap to clean your equipment?

 

[tyson1]

no soap is being used. I rinse my bottles in dishwasher without anything else inside, with no soap. Could that be a cause?

 

[Revvy]

how long are you waiting for them to bottle condition and carb before you are tasting them?

 

[Nurmey]

Here is a thought.

From John Palmer's How to Brew

"Soapy flavors can caused by not washing your glass very well, but they can also be produced by the fermentation conditions. If you leave the beer in the primary fermentor for a relatively long period of time after primary fermentation is over ("long" depends on the style and other fermentation factors), soapy flavors can result from the breakdown of fatty acids in the trub. Soap is, by definition, the salt of a fatty acid; so you are literally tasting soap."

 

[Seawolfe]

Check your serving glasses? I get this sometimes at restaurants.

 

[MattMann]

I might be off here, but doesn't most dishwashers put out "jet dry" every load, even if you don't put soap in there? I don't know if this is your problem, but that is why I never personally use the dishwasher. I never really wanted to give it a try to find out.

 

[ajwillys]

I might be off here, but doesn't most dishwashers put out "jet dry" every load, even if you don't put soap in there? I don't know if this is your problem, but that is why I never personally use the dishwasher. I never really wanted to give it a try to find out.

If you have a jet dry reservoir and fill it on a regular basis, then yes. If, like me, you haven't bought jet dry since you bought the dishwasher, then no.

 

[elkdog]

It very well could be old liquid extract that's doing it. Making sure to get fresh liquid extract from your LHBS or switching to dry extract would fix it, going forward. You could try doing a batch with DME to see if that solves your problem.

 

[tyson1]

i guess that could be it. I do have some jet dry in the dish wash. never thought about that. My next batch I wont use the dish wash. I left the irish cream in the primary for 3 weeks, then went into secondary for 4 weeks, then bottle, sat at room temp for 2 weeks then in the fridge. The cherry was in primary for 1 month, secondary 2 weeks, then bottles at room temp for 4 weeks, then fridge

 

[BREW N QUE]

What kind of water do you brew with? I have well water (hard) and a water softener. When I used my softened water to brew with I got some off and sometimes soapy flavors. Thru my research I have since learned that the softener removes the calcium and magnesium but leaves the carbonates making the water very alkaline and unbalanced. This makes the malt flavors very "dull" and the hops can taste soapy.