Plastic Aftertaste

[sabresfan44]

Brewed an American wheat with 6gal to primary fermenter then added 3lb raspberry purée when I racked to secondary. Beer has a plastic aftertaste. Thoughts?

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

Possibly an off flavor leached into the raspberry? What did you ferment in? What was the raspberry packaged in?

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

did you sanitize your raspberries in any way? maybe they brought some bugs to the party?

 

[sabresfan44]

I bought the canned purée from my local brew store and I sprayed starsan on the canopener and the lid if the can prior to open

 

[JuanMoore]

A plastic taste often comes from higher levels of phenols or chlorophenols. They can be created if you use bleach to sanitize and don't rinse well enough. If you're using tap water and it has high levels of chlorine or chloramine that can also be a source. Could also be caused by the yeast if it's stressed from underpitching or poor fermentation temperature control.

What kind of water are you using? What yeast did you use? What was the OG? Did you make a starter? What were the fermentation temps and how long did it ferment before you racked it?

 

[winvarin]

I would second that. i had some problems with an off flavor until I started filtering my water. I had a high amount of chlorine from the local water treatment. Started using a cartridge filter setup on my outdoor faucet. Made a lot of difference

 

[maida7]

another vote for phenols. It could be water or yeast or a combination of the two. What was the fermentation temp?

 

[permo]

I get an initial plastic tasted from belgain wit (wlp400) yeast that is fermented warm, then the flavor fades after about two weeks in the keg and the beer is awesome. So just give her some time.

 

[brew hoperator]

My guess is the off flavor is from higher levels of phenols from chlorine/chloramine. I had the same taste for two consecutive batches, called my water authority and found that they add chlorine to the water. I use campden tablets on every batch now and I have not tasted it since.

One campden tablet (per 5 gallon batches) ground down into a powder and split between mash and sparge water should do the trick.

Have you detected this in other batches?

 

[Malintent]

I have been struggling with a very strong and unpleasant plastic flavor that I have reduced to a very faint plastic flavor by lowering my fermentation temperature.

I never considered it could be from the water.

My latest brew just so happens to have been made using Poland Spring water, for completely different reasons (just to see what the difference might be)

I am so psyched to think that using bottled water this time might completely eliminate that off flavor.

In just a couple weeks will be able to report.

 

[sabresfan44]

Thanks for the tips. Most likely a chlorine issue b/c I use Starsan a ton so I doubt any infection. I temp control ferment 66-68 too.