Plastic smell in beer

[gpalkar]

There's a strong plastic smell in my last 2 batches - a blonde and a hefeweizen. Where do you guys think it's coming from?
I ferment my beers in a glass carboy so there's barely any contact with plastic.
I must confess that the clamp hoses in my mash tun were rusted. Can that be the reason?
I sanitize my equipments with StarSan.

 

[Kerrbrewer]

Chlorophenol is the only thing I can think of. Its from chlorine.

 

[Yooper]

Chlorophenol is the only thing I can think of. Its from chlorine.

That's the most likely and common cause- chlorine in the brewing water.

The other cause is contamination from bacteria, which is possible but less common.

 

[seatazzz]

What Kerrbrewer said...did you treat your water? If you did, and you're fairly sure there wasn't any chlorine, that "plastic" (also can be mediciney or bandaid-y) may have come from pitching your yeast before the wort was chilled enough. I ruined several batches doing that, speak from experience. Most municipal water supplies have chlorine or chloramines added to kill bugs.

 

[Revvy]

You have a couple options to test to see if the issue is Chloramines/Chlorine- brew a batch with spring water, treat your water with Campden tablets, or if you want to brew before getting campden tablets, then pull all your water the night before... put it in buckets, and leave it out overnight.

John Palmer talks about this in this section of how to brew.

 

[gpalkar]

If you did, and you're fairly sure there wasn't any chlorine, that "plastic" (also can be mediciney or bandaid-y) may have come from pitching your yeast before the wort was chilled enough. I ruined several batches doing that, speak from experience..

It could be this then.

It isn't the water I use. My water report says 12 ppm Cl which is negligible I guess.

 

[doug293cz]

Chlorophenonls can be caused by chlorine or chloramines in you water, and result in the classic "bandaid" smell/taste. You can remove chlorine by pre-boiling your water, or letting it sit uncovered overnight. Chloramines cannot be removed the same way. The easiest way to make sure you have chlorine/chloramine free brewing water is to treat it with Campden (sodium or potassium metabisulfite) tablets. 1/2 a tablet treats 10 gallons, and works pretty much instantly. Crush the tablets so they dissolve more easily.

Brew on

 

[doug293cz]

It could be this then.

It isn't the water I use. My water report says 12 ppm Cl which is negligible I guess.

12 ppm Cl in water is A LOT! Most municipal supplies are in the 1 ppm range. Are you sure it didn't say 1.2 ppm?

And, 1 ppm Cl is enough to give you detectable chlorophenols in your beer. Campden is cheap insurance.

Brew on

 

[gpalkar]

12 is right.
11.9 ppm to be precise

 

[chickypad]

It could be this then.

It isn't the water I use. My water report says 12 ppm Cl which is negligible I guess.

This is the concentration of chloride ion in your water, and not what we're talking about. Most municipal water sources have chlorine or chloramines added. You should still consider this as the likely source, and do what others suggested like using campden, etc.

 

[gpalkar]

My bad. 11.9 ppm is my chloride ion and not Chlorine. Report say that there's no trace of chlorine in my water.
I'll try using Campden anyway

 

[IslandLizard]

My bad. 11.9 ppm is my chloride ion and not Chlorine. Report say that there's no trace of chlorine in my water.
I'll try using Campden anyway

If you use municipal water, chances are there IS chlorine or chloramines in it. They have to, for sanitation.

 

[ajdelange]

Chloramine is the most likely suspect as chlorine is usually sufficiently driven off by heating in the HLT. Do the test described at https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=361073 to see if you have chloramine in your water.

 

[gpalkar]

Chloramine is the most likely suspect as chlorine is usually sufficiently driven off by heating in the HLT. Do the test described at https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=361073 to see if you have chloramine in your water.

Thanks! Will try it out.
However, I treat my water with this machine: https://www.eurekaforbes.com/water-purifiers/by-category/aquaguard/aquaguard-classic
It's not RO but employs a UV technology to purify water. Ideally shouldn't get any residual chlorine.

 

[Yooper]

Thanks! Will try it out.
However, I treat my water with this machine: https://www.eurekaforbes.com/water-purifiers/by-category/aquaguard/aquaguard-classic
It's not RO but employs a UV technology to purify water. Ideally shouldn't get any residual chlorine.

How does it remove chloramines? A very slow charcoal filter or something?

Also, it's certainly NOT RO or anything like it, since it says this: "Aquaguard will not reduce essential minerals from water. The water purifier has a specially designed Mineral Guard Technology that prevents scaling on the quartz glazz tube of the UV chamber and retains the essential minerals in water."

So, it's a purifier but not a filter or RO type of system? My guess is that it does NOT remove chlorine nor chloramines. If it did, it should say so.

 

[ajdelange]

"The cutting edge BoitronTM technology magnetizes and de-clusters water ions, to make the water more "bio-available", by unlocking nutrients in water, promising you the healthiest water." = snake oil. I wouldn't count on this unit to have any beneficial effects on your water except perhaps killing of bacteria via the UV lamp but then municipal water or an approved well shouldn't have any pathogenic bacteria in it. I don't see anything in there, such as a carbon filter, which would remove chloramine (or chlorine). UV is, sometimes used to remove chlorine/chloramnie at water treatment plants so if your unit produces the right wavelength at the right power level and the contact is long enough it might remove some or all of any chlorine or chloramine in your source water so trying the test will definitely be worthwhile. Try it on both pre and post treatment water.

 

[gpalkar]

Coming back to this. I just realised that I was making a grave mistake of siphoning hot wort using the plastic siphon. I noticed that my siphon has bent considerably from the bottom. Was the siphon's plastic leaching out due to hot wort?

 

[Brownalemikie]

Btw, don't use Starsan on metal clamps....or metal anything. It will corrode metal. The only time I use Starsan on metal clamps is right before I use the clamp, then rinse it off right after. JMO