Medicinal taste ?

[sasabs]

I finished my first batch of Hefeweizen (using extract). Everything went well until I was ready to bottle. two weeks after moving to secondary. The beer looked good, almost no clouding. Odor was good. BUT the beer in addition to the usual flavors also had a distinct medicinal taste in the background. Somewhat like mouth wash. Could this be infection or some other contamination? Any other possibilities?
I intend to keep it in the bottling bucket another week or two and then dump it. Any ideas of cause and possible remedy?

Thanx

 

[djsethall]

Astringent flavor?

 

[alestateyall]

Why dump it? Lots of off flavors go away if you age the beer in bottles.

Also, I think some hops have a medicinal flavor. I think simcoe does.

 

[jiggs_casey]

http://www.bblodge.info/Homebrew-Resources/off-flavors-in-home-brew.html

 

[unionrdr]

Yup. Phenols. Like we always say around here,SANITIZE EVERYTHING THAT TOUCHES YOUR BEER!!!!

 

[Yooper]

Three things that I can think of off the top of my head cause "medicinal" flavors.

One is having chlorine or chlorinated water in your brew. Sanitizing with bleach, for example, or using tap water that has chlorine or chloramines in it will cause a medicinal flavor.

Another is using some yeast strains and fermenting above 70 degrees or so. Some yeast strains get really "clove-like" which can medicinal.

The last is bacterial contamination. If you sanitized well, that shouldn't be an issue.

I would guess that either the water or fermentation temperatures (or a combo of both) is responsible here.

 

[HatchetJack]

Don't dump it, it's still too young to judge. My first hefe tasted exactly like
that at bottling but turned out fanatastic. Bottle it up and taste it again
in a couple 3 weeks.

 

[vegas20s]

don't dump any beer unless it taste so bad you want to vomit. I have had a few beers that cleaned up after a month or two. I read a HBT post about a brewer who bottled some really bad tasting beer and forgot about it and six months later the stuff was freaking awesome. See what the yeast can do, don't dump the brew!