Force carb "garden hose" flavor - options?

[normzone]

Will this evil flavor, ignorantly induced by me by repeatedly shaking under CO2 pressure, ever leave the beer?

Do I need to bleed off all pressure and bottle, or can it stay in the corny keg?

Will anybody in the know respond to my plea?

Thanks for any input, panicked newbie with eleven gallons of weird beer here.

Norman

 

[beerkrump]

"garden hose?"

Is it a plasticy, band-aid like taste.

Do you use bleach or iodine as a cleaner or sanitizing agent?

Force carbing by itself does not impart any flavors.

 

[normzone]

I'm using bleach, with liberal rinsing.

The beer tastes fine before kegging and force carbing, and then has a bite and a flavor you could describe as plastic. It reminds me of drinking out of an old garden hose.

 

[HexKrak]

Did you by chance draw your boil water from an old garden hose? If not, I'd recomend switching from bleach to star-san, iodophor, or another no rinse sanitizer.

+1 Carbing shouldn't impart any flavors, but sometimes affects the perception of sweetness/bitterness.

 

[normzone]

No, although my boil water comes from three gallon food grade plastic carboys that I fill at my local water store. It's my house drinking water and there's no problems with it out of the bottle for drinking purposes.

I've searched extensively and found a couple of posts that speak of force carb imparted flavors, and one that says that it goes away. It didn't say in how long. I've seen the posts that say "let even a bad beer age for a long time before you give up on it".

At this point I'm thinking draw off of the kegs and bottle, set and forget. But that's a lot of work that I'd like to know if it's necessary or not.

 

[Bsquared]

You probably did not notice the flavor before carbonating. One of the effects of carbonation is to transport aromatics to your nose, enhancing the flavors.

Carbonation will not add any flavoring to the beer, it will just turn up the volume on some flavors that are already there.

What kind of beer is this, and what yeast strain did you use? Some yeast strains will kick off phenolics that have a Band aid, medicinal plastic flavor (this is mostly from strains of Brett though). How old is your CO2 hosing? how old are the rubber gaskets in your kegs? these are just some thoughts of where this flavor is coming from.

I agree that you might want to stay away from bleach as a sanitizing agent, not just because it may impart off flavors, but also bleach needs to be used at a very specific ratio to be maximally effective and is vary unstable. (20% bleach with 20min contact time and 20% bleach is only stable for 24hr.) PBW and Star-san, or Ionophor, definitely worth the money.

 

[normzone]

It's an IPA with Whitelabs California Ale yeast.

The in hose from the CO2 tank is from an unknown age, the out hose is new.

The corny kegs are from an unknown age as well, one of the three I was lent does not seal well at the main seal, that batch will be bottled as a result.

I use a glug (non specific measurement unit) of bleach to five gallons of water and soak for fifteen or twenty minutes. Of the three sanitizers you mention, any favorites of yours? I'll go reread the sticky regarding sanitizers.

At a minimum it sounds like removing from the carboys/CO2 and going to bottles would eliminate that possible factor.

 

[Boleslaus]

It could be from your beer line. Where did you get the line from and what type did you use. I get a very noticeable plastic taste if my beer sits in my lines for more than an hour.

 

[normzone]

The new out line came from my LHBS, it's about two feet long, labeled beveragefactory.com pvc nsf 51 3/16 id.

I certainly appreciate all of your inputs, it's tough to be seized by "the beer fear".

 

[Boleslaus]

You could try taking a sample directly from the keg (i.e. open it up). If it doens't taste like plastic, its your line or bleach/cleaner/etc. like others have said.

 

[Bsquared]

Of the three sanitizers you mention, any favorites of yours?

I use all three, depending on what I am doing. PBW is a caustic (basic) and is good for breaking up organic crud in fermenters, beer lines, etc. Star-san in an acidic sanitizing solution that can be used by its self on clean surfaces to eliminate biological contaminates, it is also good to use in conjunction with PBW as an acid rinse.

Ionophor is good to use as a sanitizing agent on clean surfaces.

sounds to me like the gaskets in the old keg might be the problem.

 

[normzone]

Well, I'm drinking it green directly from the well of the corny now, sinner that I am.

The flavor is still there, albeit slightly lessened. So all theories minus the out hose still hold. Thanks for that troubleshooting clue [Boleslaus].

Old gaskets [Bsquared]? That's one big old stinky gasket set if that's the cause. Granted, they are of unknown provenance.

Force CO2 is not a flavoring agent[Bsquared] [beerkrump]? There is another thread here that leads me to believe otherwise. Are there multiple opinions on this?

It's obvious that I need to grow up and endorse advanced cleaners - thanks for your tutorial [Bsquared].

 

[LakewoodBrew]

force CO2 carbonation should have no effect on flavor.

the general act of carbing will impart some flavor components as you are in-effect adding some amount of carbonic acid to the beer, along with making it fizzy. the acid effect gives beer the bright crisp flavor of a freshly carbonated beverage, as opposed to a beer that is going flat which gets a bit dull.

but, as noted previously, it also accentuates flavor that are already present. a plasticy flavor could be a yeast by-product that you just didn't notice green. slightly elevated fermentation temps with many yeast strains can give you some flavors that i would refer to as plasticy.

Sometimes those aromatics can be carried away by venting and recarbonating the beer, but it's unlikely to disappear completely (until you finish drinking the beer).