Hello All

[enginerd]

I just wanted to say hello and quickly introduce myself.
I'm a rookie with about half a dozen batches under my belt, but I've been reading along here since day one. I'd like to give a big, general "Thanks" for all of the help so far. That said, the time has come to start humbly asking for help ever since that batch of Scottish Ale (my first step into mashing) ended up tasting like band-aids, box and all (it's amazing how far a teaspoon of bathwater can go).
Brewing has been a great hobbie for me and I'm glad to be here.

 

[user 4295]

Hello, and welcome to the forum. Let me ask you, did you use bleach to sanitize? If so, that can sometimes lead to what can be described as tasting like a "band aid".

Here is a quote from John Palmer from his online book called How To brew on the causes of "medicinal" off flavors. If you have not read it yet, do yourself a favor and read it from beginning to end. It is a great resource and is cited quite a bit around here.

Medicinal
These flavors are often described as mediciney, Band-Aid™ like, or can be spicy like cloves. The cause are various phenols which are initially produced by the yeast. Chlorophenols result from the reaction of chlorine-based sanitizers (bleach) with phenol compounds and have very low taste thresholds. Rinsing with boiled water after sanitizing is the best way to prevent these flavors.

The only thing I would argue with is that the best way of avoiding this is to rinse with boiled water. I say that the best way is to avoid using bleach all together and going with a no-rinse sanitizer like Star-San (my favorite) or Iodophor.

 

[enginerd]

I think I've read that before. At any rate, it's bookmarked now - thank you.
I use idophor, but I didn't know if it acted like bleach in that way.
I have also read (but can't remember where) that it is possible to get yeast in the wort that naturally will exist in your house which causes that same rubber flavor. I'm thinking that was the lesson learned on this one. I carelessly let a little bathwater splash into my primary bucket while I was cooling it down prior to pitch.
Please let me know if you think I'm out to lunch on this.