From Delicious to Dish Soap In 1 Day

[Joeywhat]

Got a bit of a problem here...made my first beer in almost 6 months a bit ago, and everything was right on track until I kegged it...the story:

Made a simple ale with 6lb pale liquid, 2oz Sorachi (leaf), 1oz bitter orange. First time doing a full boil, it went pretty well despite ending up with a bit less then 5 gallons (no big deal). As always I sanitize everything real well (starsan), and use dawn liquid dish detergent to clean everything before hand.

Anyways, before kegging I had a taste...was pretty good. Obviously needed to be carbed and cold before it was great, but it was on track. I've made this beer before, I know what it tastes like still in the primary. So I put the primary in the cooler for a day before racking to keg. Had it in primary for about 10 days, it's usually done quicker but it went an extra day or two. FG was 1014.

After chilling fermenter, racked into keg and pressurized, and had a taste....and it was literally like drinking a mild solution of dish soap and water. NO beer flavor at all. Smell was the same. I'm fairly convinced that if you put a dish soap solution and my beer in a blind taste test, nobody would tell the difference.

So what's going on here? How did it go from great one day to downright awful the next? I mean, it can't be an infection given it happened over a day, and while the beer was getting cool...the only thing I can think of is that I forgot to purge my beer line nozzle of starsan before giving it a taste, but I'd like to believe after going through nearly a gallon in the keg that it's long gone and not really effecting anything.

Any thoughts here? What the hell happened to my beer?

 

[Homercidal]

Soap in the glass??

Palmer's site says that it may also be caused by a breakdown of fatty elements in the yeast as they die, but I doubt that could happen overnight, or if the beer hasn't been sitting on the yeast for a LONG time.

 

[Joeywhat]

I've tried a dozen different glasses, even went straight from the tap. I even used a thief and took some right off the top and it was the same.

Primary was only 10 days...so it can't be the yeast giving off nasties.

 

[ChshreCat]

I gotta wonder if there was something that infected it in the keg.

 

[Joeywhat]

Considering I tried it about 30 seconds after kegging, I don't see how that's possible.

 

[Homercidal]

How did you clean and sanitize your keg??

 

[Zamial]

...and use dawn liquid dish detergent to clean everything before hand.

I question this. I have always read to NEVER use dish soap because it will take very little to contaminate your beer and make it taste "off". I also question that you were able to rinse it completely away.

I use Oxy Clean free for general cleaning.

If it was me, I would bottle the beer and hope it changes back with time. Disassemble everything and thoroughly clean everything with Oxy free, then rinse with water and then hit it with star-san.

 

[Runyanka]

Dawn dish soaps flavor never seems to go away. I would do as stated above and switch to oxy clean, or one step.

 

[onthekeg]

Was your keg empty when you transferred into it?

 

[Homercidal]

Missed the part where you said you washed with Dawn. I'd never do that in a keg. Too hard to get all of it out, and Dawn has a lot of perfume. Unless you completely disassembled your keg when you rinsed it out, and were very careful, I think you just missed some.

Hate to say it, but I doubt it's going to get much better over time.

 

[ChshreCat]

Missed the part where you said you washed with Dawn.

Beer must cause reading comprehension to suffer because I totally missed that too. That sounds like the thing right there.

And if you get Oxyclean, make sure it's Oxyclean FREE. That one doesn't have any perfumes in it. Regular Oxyclean is scented.

 

[unionrdr]

That's why I only clean stuff with five-star PBW. Great stuff,& is claimed to be no rinse. Plus star-san after that from now on,after getting lucky before. Heard too many stories about dish soap to trust it. Besides,Gary Martin swears by the PBW stuff. Good enough for me if he loves it!

 

[Rev2010]

That's why I only clean stuff with five-star PBW. Great stuff,& is claimed to be no rinse.

I can understand no rinse for sanitizer, but how can a cleaner ever be no rinse?? I mean, there's residue you are looking to remove no? And it can't actually be removed if you don't rinse it off and away from the object right? So what's the deal here... are they actually sanitizers awkwardly mislabeled as cleaners or are you really expected to clean out a fermenter or pot with these cleaners and simply leave all the crud and gook in? LOL.


Rev.

 

[Joeywhat]

I've been brewing for around 3 years now and have ALWAYS used the exact same methods to clean and sanitize...never a problem before. If there was anything left in the keg before racking, it would be star san...like I said earlier there was some still in the beer line and presumably the dip tube, but otherwise it was just foam. I usually inspect with a bright light after cleaning anyways to make sure there's 1) not anything gross still inside and 2) no more detergent residue.

 

[Zamial]

I am sorry this happened to you. Please do not get defensive but from my POV: You say it tastes like dish soap and you cleaned with dish soap. To connect these dots is not a very big leap of faith...

I understand that it has worked for you in the past but it sounds like this time something went wrong. (The reason I hear "do not use dish soap".)

The other thing is a wheat with orange is going to let a dish soap like flavor "shine through" because it is such a delicate flavored beer. I am going to guess that the orange actually amplifies this effect...

If this was me I would let it sit for a few days and pull a few pints and see if it has improved if not I would freeze concentrate the batch, then soak that on a bunch of JD whiskey chips until it tasted like something you could enjoy as a shot...I would completely clean everything with oxy free, rinse like you own a river and then sanitize with the star san. If you trust the system to give you non-dish soap tasting beer then brew on. I would suggest doing a simple lawnmower beer batch like:

7 lbs of 2 -row @ 148 for 90 min pitch it with some US-05 or 04 or some other clean cheap yeast and ferment it as low as possible. This will let you know if the soap taste is gone for sure, without spending a fortune of ingredients.

 

[Zamial]

I wanted to add that none and I mean 0 of my equipment gets used for anything but making beer. I clean all of this equipment with special sponges and stainless steel scrubby pads that also never get used except on my brewery items. I buy copper scrubbies and different sponges for kitchen dishes and I explained to SWMBO that she is never to use the special "beer only" stuff, for anything.

To date I have never had a beer that tasted like soap. The #1 reason why a beer will taste like soap is...because it has soap in it. It is hard to get soap in a beer if no soap even has a chance of coming in contact with it.

 

[OldManHouston]

I've also heard never use dish soap and never use bleach. They are much harder to completely rinse off than PBW or oxiclean.
I know just with my travel coffee mug that the tiniest bit of risidual soap makes it completely undrinkable for me.

 

[Gtrman13]

I was cooling a pale ale in an ice bath in my kitchen sink once and I knocked a bottle of green apple dish soap into my wort. Not a great move. I skimmed off any bubbles I saw and ended up tossing a few glasses worth of wort and everything ended up being fine. Not even a hint of green apple taste in the final product.

 

[dantheman13]

I've been brewing for around 3 years now and have ALWAYS used the exact same methods to clean and sanitize...never a problem before. If there was anything left in the keg before racking, it would be star san...like I said earlier there was some still in the beer line and presumably the dip tube, but otherwise it was just foam. I usually inspect with a bright light after cleaning anyways to make sure there's 1) not anything gross still inside and 2) no more detergent residue.

I've got to agree with everyone on this. Since you describe the soap flavor as happening right after you kegged, the only logical answer is that soap got introduced into the beer at some point during the transfer. It couldn't be an infection with that small amount of time. If you take a step back and think about it, there really isn't any other explanation!

I wouldn't beat yourself up over it. It sounds like you have your process down, and this was a one off thing. You may never find out exactly how the soap got in there, but as long as it doesn't keep happening, I would say that it doesn't matter.

 

[rico567]

Missed the part where you said you washed with Dawn. I'd never do that in a keg. Too hard to get all of it out, and Dawn has a lot of perfume. Unless you completely disassembled your keg when you rinsed it out, and were very careful, I think you just missed some.

Hate to say it, but I doubt it's going to get much better over time.

I haven't any idea what happened to the beer in the OP, and I don't keg, but all my fermenters, bottling bucket and boil pot are washed with Dawn™ every time they have been used in the 3.5 years I've been brewing, perfume or no perfume, to no ill effect.
Carboys, all small parts, hoses, etc. are cleaned with PBW. Sanitizing of everything with Star San.

 

[unionrdr]

I can understand no rinse for sanitizer, but how can a cleaner ever be no rinse?? I mean, there's residue you are looking to remove no? And it can't actually be removed if you don't rinse it off and away from the object right? So what's the deal here... are they actually sanitizers awkwardly mislabeled as cleaners or are you really expected to clean out a fermenter or pot with these cleaners and simply leave all the crud and gook in? LOL.


Rev.

I dump out the PBW used to clean with,residue & all. Then sanitize. I may even go over the bottles,fermenter,etc with clean PBW to make sure it's clean before the star-san. The label on the PBW said no rinse,& it does work fine that way,but I'm not confusing it with a sanitizer. Go back & read again...

 

[Rev2010]

Go back & read again...

Maybe you should go back and read again, I didn't accuse you personally of mistaking cleaner for sanitizer. I was asking if companies are marketing them awkwardly. I mean, no rinse cleanser defies logic being there's debris left behind.

Rev.

 

[unionrdr]

Maybe you should go back and read again, I didn't accuse you personally of mistaking cleaner for sanitizer. I was asking if companies are marketing them awkwardly. I mean, no rinse cleanser defies logic being there's debris left behind.

Rev.

...oook...I just took my wife to the LHBS to get some more stuff & picked up some more PBW. Labeled as five star,it still says "no rinse".?...I'm assuming after you get whatever you're using it on clean & free of particulate matter. Like it's not gunna cause any harm. Same as no rinse sanitizer.?...