Metallic taste in ESB - but from what?

[grrickar]

So this recipe I have brewed multiple times, but this batch turned out metallic? I use a Bayou Classic SS pot, so nothing aluminum came in contact with it. The water I used was RO water, from the same source as all my other batches. I used a spray manifold to rinse bottles with OxyClean, then dunked each in StarSan and drained them before bottling.

Yeast was Wyeast smack pack of 1968, which I always use for this recipe.

I'm baffled, even after reading articles on how it could have happened. I am ready to dump the batch...

I waited another couple of weeks to see if the flavor changed, and it has not. Beer carbed fine - is very clear and there is alcohol present - the taste is just not desirable...

 

[EtchyLives]

I had this happen about 2 years ago and I was also confused. The best that I could come up with is that I accidentally rinsed the bottles with oxyclean water instead of starsan water. I've been very careful since then and never had the same thing happen.

Again, I would like to reiterate that I may not be correct about what happened with mine. My best GUESS is that I had oxyclean residue in the bottles. I waited a year with a 6-pack to see if the metallic taste went away and it did not.

 

[spittybug]

Subbed...

I had a very similar issue when I attempted a clone of Purity's UBU beer. This is brewed not far from Manchester, UK. It carbed fine, had a good ABV but to my palate had a very unpleasant metallic taste. Others who tasted it couldn't identify it as such, but did feel something was off.

86% Marris Otter, 4% Crystal 120, 9.5% American wheat and a touch of black malt for color. English Ale Yeast S-04 (or S-05, I have conflicting notes). Mid 60's ferment. Challenger in boil, Cascade at different times for flavor. I did use tea balls for the hops which I don't normally do......
1.048 (poor efficiency - bad mill) and ended 1.010 for abv of 5%. RO water.

The ONLY beer I've made that I threw away most of. I'll definitely try again since I love Marris Otter and this is a great beer from the brewery...

The head brewer at 11 Below here in Houston suggested maybe the lack of minerals didn't play nice with the hops. I'm more inclined to believe the tea balls were cheap Chinese crap that leached **** into the beer.

If you see any commonalities between our brews, I'd love to hear.

 

[grrickar]

Subbed...

I had a very similar issue when I attempted a clone of Purity's UBU beer. This is brewed not far from Manchester, UK. It carbed fine, had a good ABV but to my palate had a very unpleasant metallic taste. Others who tasted it couldn't identify it as such, but did feel something was off.

86% Marris Otter, 4% Crystal 120, 9.5% American wheat and a touch of black malt for color. English Ale Yeast S-04 (or S-05, I have conflicting notes). Mid 60's ferment. Challenger in boil, Cascade at different times for flavor. I did use tea balls for the hops which I don't normally do......
1.048 (poor efficiency - bad mill) and ended 1.010 for abv of 5%. RO water.

The ONLY beer I've made that I threw away most of. I'll definitely try again since I love Marris Otter and this is a great beer from the brewery...

The head brewer at 11 Below here in Houston suggested maybe the lack of minerals didn't play nice with the hops. I'm more inclined to believe the tea balls were cheap Chinese crap that leached **** into the beer.

If you see any commonalities between our brews, I'd love to hear.

Well I did use a healthy amount of MO, but never had that issue before. My malts are stored in 5 gallon buckets with those gamma lids. My hops were mostly EKG, and I used a mesh bag to dry hop.

Maybe the Oxyclean is to blame - dunno. It isn't in just some of my bottles, it is in all of them. It doesn't taste like the by product of an infection - and the carbonation, color and lacing look ok. It is like I put a coin in my mouth and took a swig of beer. Not overpowering, but not pleasant either.

I don't detect the malt characteristics I would expect either for this being my ESB recipe. I mash in using sideline coolers, and drain through 3pc SS ball valves.

Well - now that the beer has warmed I get more astringency - like a sharp taste then my mouth feels dry after each sip. Maybe that is the clue to figure this out.

 

[grrickar]

One more thing - the initial smack pack never took off - bad yeast perhaps. I pitched another, but it was like a day and a half later when I could go by the LHBS and get a fresh pack...

 

[grrickar]

Two weeks later and the metallic taste is gone. The ESB profile still is not right, but the beer is more acceptable now. I'll pay way more attention to my process next time to see if I can determine what caused it....

 

[kh54s10]

A SmackPack may or may not swell, if it doesn't it is not necessarily bad. Did you make a starter? A pack is only enough in direct pitch for a low gravity beer. Though underpitching wouldn't give it "metallic" AFAIK.