Off flavor in several batches of beer

[Gnomishninja]

We've done a couple batches of beer now and I've noticed that they all have a distinctive "skunky" taste to it. I've been poking around on this forum for a while and see a lot of stuff about sunlight making beer taste skunky.

While we don't get a lot of sunlight in our kitchen, the only lightsource is one of those obnoxious fluorescent tubes. I'm wondering if the fluorescent light it gets exposed to while we pitch the yeast, rack to secondary, and bottle could be causing this issue.

I also wondered if they were getting infected, but we are very careful to sanitize everything and to keep things as clean as possible.

The beer that I'm worried about is our first partial mash. It's supposed to be an imperial red with cascade hops. The mash was too hot at one point - got up to 185 F before I caught it, but it tasted and smelled so sweet I didn't think it would hurt anything.

We kept it in primary fermentation for 2 weeks and secondary fermentation for two weeks and bottled it a week ago.

My DBF came home last night and decided to crack one open and poured some for me. It tasted like crap. It had this sour, skunky taste to it and it was murky. When we bottled it, it was clear.

I want to give it time and see if it gets better, but the boyfriend has a goat's stomach when it comes to beer and he will probably drink it all before it ages even another 3 weeks.

So is there any way I can prevent this from happening in the future?

 

[Urban]

hmm, how do you sanitize your bottles and caps? Is there alot of air movement where your bottling?

 

[Gnomishninja]

We run the bottles in the heat cycle in the dishwasher. There's no fan or anything where we're bottling, so the air movement is minimal. The bottlecaps are boiled in a small pan.

 

[Yooper]

We run the bottles in the heat cycle in the dishwasher. There's no fan or anything where we're bottling, so the air movement is minimal. The bottlecaps are boiled in a small pan.

How do you clean them before you sanitize them in the dishwasher?

 

[Ton]

A couple thoughts on this..... If the mash hit 185, that stop any and all enzymes from working. So if that happened within the first 15 minutes of your mash, very good odds that your starches from your grains did not get broken down into simpler sugars. Making them unfermentable to yeast.
So the two weeks in the primary without anything to ferment, could of caused some kind of infection (because the yeast were dormant & basically unable to defend themselves.

On the other hand, if the mash was successful, and this was an imperial beer, two weeks in the primary may have not been enough time for the yeast to finish fermenting and/or clean up and the other byproducts in the beer.

 

[Gnomishninja]

We usually just rinse them out and sanitize them. I take it we should be be using a bottle brush and detergent?

 

[Yooper]

We usually just rinse them out and sanitize them. I take it we should be be using a bottle brush and detergent?

If they are dirty only. What I do is hold them up to the light and eyeball them. If they look clean without any debris or spots, they're ok to rinse out and sanitize. Sometimes there may be some crud on them, though.

"Sour, skunky and murky" sure seem like an infection process, probably lactobacillus infection.

What do you use for sanitizing the fermenter/siphon/etc?

 

[Gnomishninja]

A couple thoughts on this..... If the mash hit 185, that stop any and all enzymes from working. So if that happened within the first 15 minutes of your mash, very good odds that your starches from your grains did not get broken down into simpler sugars. Making them unfermentable to yeast.
So the two weeks in the primary without anything to ferment, could of caused some kind of infection (because the yeast were dormant & basically unable to defend themselves.

On the other hand, if the mash was successful, and this was an imperial beer, two weeks in the primary may have not been enough time for the yeast to finish fermenting and/or clean up and the other byproducts in the beer.

I'll definitely be more careful with the mash temperature next time. It didn't get up to 185 until about 40 minutes into it.

When we sampled from the secondary, it tasted very yeasty and there was a lot of dead yeast on the bottom of the primary fermenter when we racked it.

The two weeks was per the recipe. Should I have given it four weeks instead? I'm worried leaving it in the primary too long will cause other off flavors.

 

[Gnomishninja]

If they are dirty only. What I do is hold them up to the light and eyeball them. If they look clean without any debris or spots, they're ok to rinse out and sanitize. Sometimes there may be some crud on them, though.

"Sour, skunky and murky" sure seem like an infection process, probably lactobacillus infection.

What do you use for sanitizing the fermenter/siphon/etc?

The DBF got the sanitizer from our local brew shop. I asked him and he said "iodine" but I think he means idophor (sp?).

We usually fill a bucket with idophor and dunk any siphons, airlocks, etc into it before it touches the brew.

 

[Yooper]

The DBF got the sanitizer from our local brew shop. I asked him and he said "iodine" but I think he means idophor (sp?).

Iodophor is fine!

So, talk us through the process. Not the mash/boil, but after. You chilled the wort by......... blah blah blah. We'll be able to sort of "see" what you are doing if you talk us through it.

I assume you mixed the sanitizer correctly- and that it was freshly made?

 

[Gnomishninja]

Iodophor is fine!

So, talk us through the process. Not the mash/boil, but after. You chilled the wort by......... blah blah blah. We'll be able to sort of "see" what you are doing if you talk us through it.

I assume you mixed the sanitizer correctly- and that it was freshly made?

When the boil and mash were over, we chilled the wort by adding cold water and ice. It took over an hour to get it down to a yeast-pitchable temperature (85 F) and I worried and fretted the whole time. I saw a thread on here about doing a water bath and we plan on doing it that way next time.

We mixed the sanitizer per the instructions right before we sanitized.

 

[Yooper]

When the boil and mash were over, we chilled the wort by adding cold water and ice. It took over an hour to get it down to a yeast-pitchable temperature (85 F) and I worried and fretted the whole time. I saw a thread on here about doing a water bath and we plan on doing it that way next time.

We mixed the sanitizer per the instructions right before we sanitized.

Where did the cold water and ice come from?

A water bath next time is a great idea! You want to pitch at under 70 degrees, actually, not under 85! But if you put your boil kettle in an ice bath in the sink and gently stir it, you should get it under 80 in 20 minutes or so. Add your prechilled top off water to it, and you'll be at 65 degrees quickly next time.

 

[Gnomishninja]

Cold spring water and a bag of ice we bought at the store.

 

[Ton]

I'll definitely be more careful with the mash temperature next time. It didn't get up to 185 until about 40 minutes into it.

When we sampled from the secondary, it tasted very yeasty and there was a lot of dead yeast on the bottom of the primary fermenter when we racked it.

The two weeks was per the recipe. Should I have given it four weeks instead? I'm worried leaving it in the primary too long will cause other off flavors.

Don't spend to much time worrying about off flavors from leaving it in the primary (some yeast vary), one month is nothing to worry about.

What was your terminal (final) gravity?

 

[Gnomishninja]

1.035. I'm not sure if I should dump it or let it sit and hope at this point.

 

[Yooper]

Cold spring water and a bag of ice we bought at the store.

Ice from the store could very well have some contamination. I wouldn't do that anymore! Either freeze your own ice in sanitized containers, or just cool the wort in the ice bath and top up with cold spring water.

 

[Ton]

1.035. I'm not sure if I should dump it or let it sit and hope at this point.

That is extremely high, I'm nearly 100% sure fermentation didn't complete, either from yeast health or incomplete conversion in the mash. You might have to chalk this up as a loss.