Off Flavors / Metallic Taste

[chriscarlino]

I'm a new brewer so I'm looking for some feedback from those more experienced. I only have two brews under my belt so I am pretty green still. My first brew was about two months ago. It was an amber ale extract kit.

I know there are a lot of factors that can lead to off flavors including ferm temperature, contamination, and probably a dozen other things. The first batch I brewed (Amber Ale) was pretty decent at about 3-4 weeks. Smooth, good flavor, and great carbonation.

It is about 8- 9 weeks old at this point. Have let it continue to bottle condition and have just been putting a 6 pack at a time in the fridge. It had progressively getting better the longer it sits. Over the past week I have started noticing a metallic taste and aroma which seems to be getting stronger with every beer I crack open.

Can anyone offer some ideas as to what could cause this metallic taste and what to do to prevent in the future?

 

[Conan]

What did you use for brewing water? Straight out of the tap is not your best option, whether you're on well water or city.
What kind of metal does it remind you of? Copper, steel, blood?
Did you do a full, 6 gallon boil or did you do a partial boil with top-up water? Dry extract or liquid, and where did you get it from? Kyle

 

[jethro55]

This reference has some ideas.
http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html

 

[chriscarlino]

Conan.. I used tap water. Out tap water is pretty good though. I did a partial boil of three gallons, LME and DME kit from TrueBrew. Topped off to 5 gallons after boil with water straight from tap. Not sure how old it is since it came with the whole brew set my wife got me for Christmas. It does have a bit if a copper taste is suppose..

 

[uncleleon]

Could be chloromines , but given the time line seems more like a slight infection , if it's progressively getting worse

 

[chriscarlino]

I was extremely careful about sanitizing everything.. Probably overly cautious. The only thing I didn't do is pre boil the water I used to bring it up to 5 gallons. I did do this on my second batch that is in the primary now and used filtered water from our fridge opposed to straight from the tap. I suppose time will tell if this batch has the same issue. Even though it is getting progressively more noticeable.. It's still good enough to drink and I'll be damned if I'm going to pour any of it out!

 

[alane1]

Another thing to consider could be carbonic bite, let one go flat and see if the off flavor is still there.

 

[Slow_Day]

Oxidation can cause an increasing metallic taste. What steps do you take when racking and bottling to minimize oxygen absorption?

The obvious answer to this is to drink it faster.

 

[1977Brewer]

I love that the best solution to every home brewing problem is to drink fast.

I often perceive oxidation as a metallic flavor.

 

[chriscarlino]

Very careful when racking to bottles. Used auto syphon when transferring to bottling bucket with no splashing. Obviously used bottling wand to fill bottles. I have tasted this same metallic taste in commercial beers especially if drinking directly from bottle opposed to a glass pour. It is more prevalent in my homebrew even with a glass pour. It's certainly not anything so unpleasant that it makes it unpalatable but it is definitely the first thing you notice and is undesirable.

 

[chriscarlino]

Haven't really heard of carbonic bite before. I'm assuming it is exactly what it sounds like. I will let one go flat and see if it is still there. If this is the problem, is there some way to prevent?

 

[alane1]

Haven't really heard of carbonic bite before. I'm assuming it is exactly what it sounds like. I will let one go flat and see if it is still there. If this is the problem, is there some way to prevent?

It's more common with kegging but it comes from over carbing beer. The simple solution is to just use less sugar. I've had good tasting beer out of the primary taste metallic after carbing, I just purged the keg, let it go flat and the taste was gone. If it is a carbonation issue you can just open the bottles let some c02 dissipate and recap.

 

[MaxStout]

Very careful when racking to bottles. Used auto syphon when transferring to bottling bucket with no splashing. Obviously used bottling wand to fill bottles. I have tasted this same metallic taste in commercial beers especially if drinking directly from bottle opposed to a glass pour. It is more prevalent in my homebrew even with a glass pour. It's certainly not anything so unpleasant that it makes it unpalatable but it is definitely the first thing you notice and is undesirable.

Maybe your palate is more sensitive to that taste. Have you served your beer to others, to see if they notice it? Don't tell them what to expect, just ask what they think of the flavor.