medicine/Aspirin taste on IPAs after a few weeks

[homebrew_handyman]

I am getting a crushed aspirin almost medicine taste on my very hoppy beers a few weeks after they have been tapped. I have used simcoe and mosaic hops on these beers but it happens to all my ipas.

When I first pour they taste great. Lots of aroma and tropical notes. After about ten days they become muddled and a slight medicine after taste.

I haven't noticed it with other beers I brew. What could this be? Some folks have suggested my water and I need to get a filter system. Some say I have bad hops or its the hops themselves giving up others have said its been slight infections in my kegs that take weeks to throw things off.

I love hoppy beer and have come up with some great recipes but they never survive longer than a few weeks. I can't afford the money or space to test every single theory. Anyone have a good idea what this is? Encountered it yourself and fixed it? Thanks!

 

[CadillacAndy]

There are a couple things that could be causing this. My first thing to rule out would be any sort of contamination. It's possible for wild yeast to produce these medicine-like phenols. If you're 100% sure of your sanitation, I'd probably look to your water second. Medicinal flavors can be from chlorine or chloramine in your water. You can filter slowly with an activated carbon filter and use campden tablets to blow off the chloramines (1 tablet per 20 gallons). Are you chilling down to pitching temperatures and pitching a healthy yeast starter? If you wait too long to pitch, wild yeasts can take over. Also, if you're pitching unhealthy yeast, they can throw off phenols that could taste medicinal, depending on strain.

Do you have several other batches going at the same time, or brewed around the same time as this batch? How often do you brew and is this ONLY happening in hoppy beers (especially over the course of several months and several different batches). It's possible that you just didn't notice it in other beers because the water company may have just started using chloramines again, or it could be an issue with sanitation.

 

[j1n]

From http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html

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.


What kind of sanitizer and water did you use?

 

[homebrew_handyman]

I use star san and I rinse with hot tap water. I have noticed this flavor is all my ipas the past year but no other beers. I just kegged another IPA batch and was very detailed in my cleaning and sanitization. So it will be a good control test for sanitizer issues.

I drop sodium metabisulphite into my water to kill wild yeast so wild yeast shouldn't be the issue. What kind of filter system should I get for my water to test that theory? Thanks for the help.

 

[RPCidery]

Are you rinsing after using Star-San? If so, don't.

 

[Brews]

Are you rinsing after using Star-San? If so, don't.

My thoughts exactly. And don't fear the foam.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[homebrew_handyman]

I never rinse my star san. I leave everything foamy and great. Just can't figure this one out.

 

[Brews]

Try using a camco RV filter. About $18 at Wal-Mart and it's good for a lot of gallons, like over a thousand.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[homebrew_handyman]

Picked up a filter and I'm going to give that a shot see if it helps. It can't hurt. Other than that I'm at a lose.

 

[markk308]

I was wondering if you were able to figure out what was causing the off flavors?