Off flavors after 5-6 weeks in the bottle?

[cashmeregrenade]

So, my IPA tasted wonderfully when I opened the first one after 3 weeks in the bottle. This was my first beer and I was excited that it'd turned out as well as it had. But, after 5,6 weeks, I noticed that some of them had developed a somewhat chemical-plastic like bitterness to them. I also found a very small amount of sediment in some of the ones that tasted that way, but wasn't able to conclude the off flavor to be a direct result of it. The cap on my auto siphon had fallen off before I began siphoning, and I didn't realize it, and so I got a bit more into my bottling bucket than I wanted of course.
Is there anything else that may have caused this?

 

[niko]

All homebrew will have sediment in the bottom. Could be an infection although if it tasted good at 3 weeks i doubt that. Also how did you clean and sanitize your bottles? BTW, where are you in DSM? I moved to Texas from Nowalk in 2004.

 

[cashmeregrenade]

I cleaned just with dish soap, with a thorough hot rinse, and sanitized with 1 step sanitizer on bottling day.

I've lived in the Drake area and downtown more or less for about five years. I've lived in Sherman Hill for three, minus a 10 month stint in Costa Rica this past year. I grew up on the west side though, I graduated from Valley in 99 and lived in Urbandale when I was young.
The really funny thing is, that I lived in Ft. Worth/Arlington for most of 2001, when I was 21. I was playing in a band called Travail back then. I also was in a band for many years and played Dallas a bunch, mostly at the Door, at it's old location. Deep Ellum is a favorite old spot of mine.

Well thanks for the reply. One thing that I did NOT do was boil my priming sugar solution, on bottling day. But I figured that if one turned out well, they all would have. Is it possible to have too heavy of a sanitizing solution? It says no rinse, and I thought that I was pretty accurate with my proportions, but at the same time I thought better to have too much than not enough. Who knows.

 

[Tall_Yotie]

How careful were you about splashing? From primary to bottling bucket, and bottling bucket to bottle? Did you use a bottling wand? I ask as the most common off-flavor I see here is due to oxidation; air mixing in with the beer after fermentation is done.

Have you checked any other bottles other than the 2 you mentioned?

 

[cashmeregrenade]

I was decently careful about re oxidizing, yes. I had to move the carboy to actually siphon into the bucket, but I have a carrier and I was cautious. Also used a bottling wand, as well. I only have about 15 beers left, out of 5 gallons. At first they were consistently great. Some of them are still very good, and it seems to be dependent on the pour and not getting the sediment into the beer, which also makes it cloudy.

What are giveaway off flavors due to oxidation? The taste I'm getting is almost like a plastic/chemical-ish type thing, almost like cleaner or something. You can even smell it on the head, it's weird.

 

[Tall_Yotie]

Oxidation leads to a wet cardboard, stale flavor. Seems that is not what you have. Did the temperature where your beer was stored happen to get high?

If it is more apparent when you get the dregs into your brew then I would think it might be flavors of strained yeast. Note certain though.

 

[donjr721]

drink em sooner to prevent this. just kidding. could be from the sediment, very well could be dish soap. i used one step my first brew, then switched to starsan, no problems. i read on here that starsan seems to be the preferred sanitizer. don't know. maybe just those particular ones. good luck.

 

[BradleyBrew]

what is the abv? I've noticed on higher brews 7+% that the taste of the beer during the conditioning period change overtime. I have a big barley wine that I have been aging for about 4 months and a try a bottle each month. Each time I get "different" result. Maybe you are losing some IBU's and noticing off flavors from another phase of the beer??

 

[donjr721]

what is the abv? I've noticed on higher brews 7+% that the taste of the beer during the conditioning period change overtime. I have a big barley wine that I have been aging for about 4 months and a try a bottle each month. Each time I get "different" result. Maybe you are losing some IBU's and noticing off flavors from another phase of the beer??

i agree with BradleyBrew, maybe post the recipe and some other "clues" may arise.

 

[illini0250]

I've experienced this a few times. I've had 3 of about 12 batches come out exactly as you describe. All were secondaried, and all were brewers best kits with lme. I haven't had this on any brew not secondaried, but all of those were with dme too. I did have this occur with one pm and dme recipe. It did fade after 6 months. Like you, some bottles worse than others. I avoid lme and rarely secondarr though I still don't know for sure the cause. The carboy was a used better bottle thats been oxycleaned numerous times. I have a bb kit that wasnt in secondary carbing and a dme that was in secondary for a month also carbing. I'll check back in after a month if I come to any conclusions. Frustrating.

 

[cashmeregrenade]

My clone recipe was a Bells Two Hearted ale, which is a double, but I added an extra ounce of hops, and weighted most of it toward the end of the boil. So, four ounces total. I don't have my recipe in front of me cause Im workin out of town this week, but as I recall, It was muntons gold DME, and I believe muntons light DME. Steeped about 3 pounds of grain for 45, 45 boil, primary for 10 days, secondary/dry hopped for 12 days, then bottle conditioned for 3 weeks.

Actually, @Tall Yotie - now that you mention it, before I had decided to beerfridge them all, I had what was left of the bottles sitting in my room a couple of weeks ago, before I had put my AC unit back in. Its a guessing game, cause I wasnt around, but we did have one hot day where it wouldnt be unreasonable to think that it couldve gotten to 80-85 in there.
What is strained yeast? Could the heat have caused my problem? How warm is too warm?

And, @Bradleybrew, I definitely have noticed some rounding off of the hop oil/aroma/flavor edge over time, but the bitterness/smell thats bugging me doesn't taste/smell like a hop bitterness at all. The clone recipe is around 7%, so mines in that ballpark for sure.