Medicinal taste haunts me yet again!

[TastySalmon]

Personally, I don't think your problem is iodophor. Iodophor doesn't change flavor when bottled. I accidentally forgot to rinse a bottling hose well one time and the first bottle that got filled tasted like, well, iodophor. The rest were fine.

 

[Yambor44]

Personally, I don't think your problem is iodophor. Iodophor doesn't change flavor when bottled. I accidentally forgot to rinse a bottling hose well one time and the first bottle that got filled tasted like, well, iodophor. The rest were fine.

Was your iodophor farm supply iodophor? This seems to be the pattern.

 

[wcr72]

I am having the same problem right now with the plasticy, band-aid off taste and odor. 5 of 16 batches have had this curse. The taste is noticeable about 1-1/2 weeks after bottling and just gets worse. This damn taste doesn't go away either, even 6 months later.

I have moved from Iodophor to StarSan with no luck. Then used RO water for all of my brewing water and just recently had another two batches of swill. I do use tap water to mix with StarSan to sanitize my equipment and generally rinse with tap water.

My next step I guess is to either use Campden tablets in all my water and to try to do an extremely thorough cleaning and sanitizing of all my equipment. I am replacing all my hoses and will report back how the next couple of batches go. It just sucks spending the time and bucks to experiment with.

I keep pretty decent records of my process. The only other common denominator is dry yeast vs. liquid yeast. All 5 bad batches have been dry yeast (5 bad batches out of 11), and have brewed 5 batches of liquid yeast, all with good results.

I'll try to post back over the next couple of months with my results.

 

[davesrose]

You don't say what water supply you're using. As for this sanitizer debate, I guess StarSan is good for eliminating an "ah ha" moment when it comes to improper sanitization. It's harder to gum up the concentrations as it is with Iodophore. My Iodophore bottles have always come with a recommended ppm concentration homebrew suggestion: which has always yeilded great results. 1 teaspoon per 1.5 gallons. I swirl this solution around my carboy and any equipment I'm sanitzing and I don't get any weird smells or tastes. I know some people have said they've used capfulls of the stuff. If you're getting too concentrated with Iodophore then you do have to rinse it with water (it's then a disinfectant and will give you off flavors).

 

[Yambor44]

Another thing to look at for those that use bottling buckets is the spigot on the bucket. You need to take that apart and clean it and sanitize it each time. A friend of mine had a couple of infections and traced it back to this area.

 

[Revvy]

Personally, I don't think your problem is iodophor. Iodophor doesn't change flavor when bottled. I accidentally forgot to rinse a bottling hose well one time and the first bottle that got filled tasted like, well, iodophor. The rest were fine.

Was your iodophor farm supply iodophor? This seems to be the pattern.

I use farm supply Iodophor, have been for nearly three years, and I have absolutely never had an issue with it.

I use it at the concentration of slightly more than 1 tbs/5 gallons, till it is straw color, exactly the same shade that the original BTF-iodophor is at 1 tbs/5 gallons.

At the proper dillution, iodophors will not affect the flavor of beer, regardless of where you buy it from.

The ones available at the farm and fleet are used in the dairy industry that's why you find it at the farm and fleet, so dairy farmers can sanitize their milking equipment and vessels.

And if there was an issue with off flavors with that stuff, do you really believe they would be using it??????

Come on guys, use a little logic here. More than likely the off flavor is from somewhere else.....Besides, iodine based products are not chlorine based products which is usually the cause of bandaid, medicinal flavors. They produce chlorophenols. Not iodines based ones.

 

[-TH-]

I use farm supply Iodophor, have been for nearly three years, and I have absolutely never had an issue with it.

I use it at the concentration of slightly more than 1 tbs/5 gallons, till it is straw color, exactly the same shade that the original BTF-iodophor is at 1 tbs/5 gallons.

At the proper dillution, iodophors will not affect the flavor of beer, regardless of where you buy it from.

The ones available at the farm and fleet are used in the dairy industry that's why you find it at the farm and fleet, so dairy farmers can sanitize their milking equipment and vessels.

And if there was an issue with off flavors with that stuff, do you really believe they would be using it??????

Come on guys, use a little logic here. More than likely the off flavor is from somewhere else.....Besides, iodine based products are not chlorine based products which is usually the cause of bandaid, medicinal flavors. They produce chlorophenols. Not iodines based ones.

What you’re saying makes a lot of sense. Which is why I waited for 14 batches before I suspected my iodophor as the cause of my off flavor. I also realize that many have used iodophor, even the farm fleet kind, without any problems. However, my first 14 batches all had the off flavor and I tried everything – and I mean everything – to fix it (I’ll give you details if you’d like). On batch 14 I dry hopped using a nylon bag that I had sanitized in my iodophor. It was still wet when I put it in the fermentor. That batch had the off flavor so bad that the light bulb instantly went off. So I switched to Starsan for batches 15 through 20 and the off flavor is completely gone, not even a hint left. I’ve changed nothing else.

The iodophor I had been using contained 1% titrable iodine. To make a gallon of 12.5 PPM iodophor from 1% titrable iodine, I used 12.5/1,000,000 x 100 x 768 tsp/gal = 0.96 tsp/gal (or 1 tsp/gal). It was labeled as a disinfectant for animal wounds (not for disinfecting milk equipment). I bought it at TSC. The bottle looked like this:

Maybe the other 99% of the ingredients are different than the one you’re using, I don’t know. I emailed the company and they wouldn’t tell me what they are. Maybe I left my equipment too “wet” (which would be like using too high a concentration of iodophor if you think about it, right?). What I do know is that you will never ever ever convince me to use it again. Is it the cause of the OP’s problem? Maybe not. But I thought it was worth sharing my experience.

 

[Revvy]

What you’re saying makes a lot of sense. Which is why I waited for 14 batches before I suspected my iodophor as the cause of my off flavor. I also realize that many have used iodophor, even the farm fleet kind, without any problems. However, my first 14 batches all had the off flavor and I tried everything – and I mean everything – to fix it (I’ll give you details if you’d like). On batch 14 I dry hopped using a nylon bag that I had sanitized in my iodophor. It was still wet when I put it in the fermentor. That batch had the off flavor so bad that the light bulb instantly went off. So I switched to Starsan for batches 15 through 20 and the off flavor is completely gone, not even a hint left. I’ve changed nothing else.

The iodophor I had been using contained 1% titrable iodine. To make a gallon of 12.5 PPM iodophor from 1% titrable iodine, I used 12.5/1,000,000 x 100 x 768 tsp/gal = 0.96 tsp/gal (or 1 tsp/gal). It was labeled as a disinfectant for animal wounds (not for disinfecting milk equipment). I bought it at TSC. The bottle looked like this:

Maybe the other 99% of the ingredients are different than the one you’re using, I don’t know. I emailed the company and they wouldn’t tell me what they are. Maybe I left my equipment too “wet” (which would be like using too high a concentration of iodophor if you think about it, right?). What I do know is that you will never ever ever convince me to use it again. Is it the cause of the OP’s problem? Maybe not. But I thought it was worth sharing my experience.

That's nearly exactly the brand I use, except mine's made by Dionne...Like I said, I've got no issues from it.

 

[Houblon]

I'll say it again:

I bet you have a infection from what you posted.
heres a few links:

http://www.2basnob.com/beer-dictionary.html
Medicinal: A flavor or aroma suggestive of chemical, plastic, smoke, or cloves, usually resulting from wild yeast or sanitizer residue.

http://www.tasteyourbeer.com/researchterms.php
Medicinal: having one or many of these qualities: electrical fire, medicinal, plastic, listerine, band-aid, smoky,unwanted yeast or contamination from microorganisms

http://www.byo.com/resources/troubleshooting
Chloraseptic-like or Band-aid-like aroma or flavor (phenolic) * Contamination