Homebrew...burps?

[Aquavitae]

Hey all. Ok, so I just cracked my first bottle of my first 5 gallon homebrew. I did a BSG Octoberfest extract kit with specialty grains. I was super careful with sanitation and I followed the directions to the letter. The only issue is my fermentation was probably like 4 degrees higher than recommended.

Here’s my question: have any of you ever had a homebrew that tasted really great, but the beer burps tasted way different than your typical commercial beer belch? Like, the burps are faintly plastic-y. What’s the deal there? You don’t taste it in the beer itself at all.

 

[mredge73]

It is because you are new to drinking live yeast.
Almost every commercial beer (even most craft brews) will filter out yeast before shipping. Your homebrew is teaming with live yeasties.
Right now they are disturbing the balance of your gut microbes; but they will eventually find their place and live with you forever.
Once that happens you will get used to the new smell of your burps/farts.

 

[azmark]

Plastic-y may mean that you didn't deal with the chlorine in your water properly.

 

[mredge73]

This too, you can usually smell/taste this in the beer before drinking.
If so, you need to use better water.

 

[carloslavin]

I do notice them tasting different than what I usually get from non-homebrew. But to me they just taste better. Sometimes I'll even taste one of my beers and feel it's "just ok", then the burp will totally sell me on it being good.

That happens to all of us right? RIGHT?

 

[Aquavitae]

I can’t tell if some of these replies are joking or serious. I was really asking. Ha ha I know that the burps and stuff aren’t usually discussed here. I was trying to determine if they were a subtle tell I didn’t something wrong. Oh well. Not a huge issue. The beer’s good and that’s what’s really matters, right?

 

[Devin]

Plastic-y may mean that you didn't deal with the chlorine in your water properly.

This. I experienced it in a couple of brews before I started using Campden to treat the chloramine in my water. The beer was good, but always got the plastic-y, band-aid burps from it.

 

[JordanKnudson]

Plastic-y is usually a sign of chlorine/chloramine in your brewing water. Municipalities generally use one or the other to treat their tap water, and if you use water containing either one without removing it, that plastic taste/aroma will show up in your final beer. Since you seem to be only experiencing it retronasally, I'd guess that there was just a small amount in the water that you used.

Easiest fix is to either treat your water with campden tablets, or use distilled/reverse osmosis water.

 

[Cincybeer]

It is because you are new to drinking live yeast.
Almost every commercial beer (even most craft brews) will filter out yeast before shipping. Your homebrew is teaming with live yeasties.
Right now they are disturbing the balance of your gut microbes; but they will eventually find their place and live with you forever.
Once that happens you will get used to the new smell of your burps/farts

The live yeast will take a while for your body to get used to.

 

[RM-MN]

Plastic-y is usually a sign of chlorine/chloramine in your brewing water. Municipalities generally use one or the other to treat their tap water, and if you use water containing either one without removing it, that plastic taste/aroma will show up in your final beer. Since you seem to be only experiencing it retronasally, I'd guess that there was just a small amount in the water that you used.

Easiest fix is to either treat your water with campden tablets, or use distilled/reverse osmosis water.

Try this. Campden tablets are cheap, usually available at the homebrew store, and leave no taste even if your water has no chlorine/chloramine. 1/4 tablet, crushed, treats 5 gallons of water. Use it before you start the beer.

 

[Aquavitae]

Thanks for the feedback! Small point if you don’t mind clarifying for me: 2.5 gallons of the brew was Dasani instead of tap water (yes there’s a reason, no it's not exciting at all), so would I still use a quarter tablet or should I use less? I have zero experience using them whatsoever. All I had brewed before this was mead and never used them for any of my brews.

Also, I applaud the use of ‘retronasally.’ I never get to break out the multisyllabics with my friends.

 

[RM-MN]

Thanks for the feedback! Small point if you don’t mind clarifying for me: 2.5 gallons of the brew was Dasani instead of tap water (yes there’s a reason, no it's not exciting at all), so would I still use a quarter tablet or should I use less? I have zero experience using them whatsoever. All I had brewed before this was mead and never used them for any of my brews.

Also, I applaud the use of ‘retronasally.’ I never get to break out the multisyllabics with my friends.

I don't think Dasani would have any chlorine compounds so it shouldn't need treated. Your not noticing the taste up front may be related as your beer would only have half the water with (potentially) chlorine in it. That leads to half the taste.