Plastic taste in beer

[unionrdr]

High ferment temps are part of the problem. Here's a link to palmer's descriptions; http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html

 

[Kates]

I have done side by side comparisons of 1 gallon extract brew and 5 gallon extract brew. Both used municipal tap water. The 1 gallon was boiled completely before fermentation. The 5 gallon I only boiled 2.5 gallons and diluted it with cold tap water up to the 5 gallons. Remember, chlorine is removed with boiling. The 1 gallon did not have the plastic taste. The 5 gallon (2.5 of which were not boiled) DID have the plastic taste. My policy, add Campden tablets to remove the chlorine if you do a half boil.

 

[bobeer]

I had this issue with the last place I lived in. First beer I brewed there I used half spring water but had to use half tap water because I didn't have enough bottled water. It was a pale ale and it sort of had that plastic off flavor to it that worsened over time. I didn't think it was the water, I thought it was more a temp control issue, so I brewed a Heady clone with all tap water as my next beer. I looked after the fermentation temps clearly but this time the beer had an even stronger plastic smell and taste to it. So much that it was undrinkable and I had to dump the batch. One of the only ones I've had to dump in over 4 years of brewing.
The next batch I brewed with all spring water and the issue was totally gone. It was definitely the chlorine/chloramine in the tap water.

Campden tablets will help with chlorine but I'm not sure if it helps with choramine. From what I remember, and this was a while ago that I was dealing with this issue, choramine can only really be totally removed by pretty lengthy contact time with a carbon filter. Perhaps maybe that was the only way to get rid of choramine using only a carbon filter... I can't remember... in any case I'm sure you can find more info on here about filtering chlorine/chloramine out of your tap water.

I just always buy good water to brew with instead of messing with my tap water. Good water in, good beer out!

Good luck!

 

[unionrdr]

The very reason I started using spring water. Besides the improved flavor.

 

[anteater8]

I'm going a little crazy with the same problem a lot of people in this thread have described. I'm ~120 batches in and this is my first time experiencing it.

I've had a pretty strong plastic taste in my last 4 or so batches, the flavor comes on about 3 seconds after taking a sip. The weird thing is, sometimes I will only notice it on the first sip and then I can enjoy the rest of the glass with no off flavor. There have also been a few times that I pour the glass out because I can't stand that taste. I have also shared my beer with several friends who insist they don't taste any off flavor, including plastic. I noticed the plastic taste in a NEIPA, entered it in a competition anyway, and it won gold with a 39!

I use campden tablets and been slowly replacing all my plastic parts. I'm just as mystified by the fact that the flavor comes and go as I am by what the source could be.

 

[tre9er]

I'm going a little crazy with the same problem a lot of people in this thread have described. I'm ~120 batches in and this is my first time experiencing it.

I've had a pretty strong plastic taste in my last 4 or so batches, the flavor comes on about 3 seconds after taking a sip. The weird thing is, sometimes I will only notice it on the first sip and then I can enjoy the rest of the glass with no off flavor. There have also been a few times that I pour the glass out because I can't stand that taste. I have also shared my beer with several friends who insist they don't taste any off flavor, including plastic. I noticed the plastic taste in a NEIPA, entered it in a competition anyway, and it won gold with a 39!

I use campden tablets and been slowly replacing all my plastic parts. I'm just as mystified by the fact that the flavor comes and go as I am by what the source could be.

what did you figure out?

 

[anteater8]

what did you figure out?

The off flavor is gone, but I never figured out why. I slowly replaced a few plastic pieces of equipment, deep cleaned my tap lines and kegs, but I can't pinpoint what actually made the difference. I didn't make any major changes to my process.

 

[day_trippr]

Are you on a municipal or commercial water supply that might be intermittently injecting low levels of chloramine - which allegedly works for both chlorine and chloramine?

It might be revealing to do a batch using RO or DI water from the store...

 

[anteater8]

Are you on a municipal or commercial water supply that might be intermittently injecting low levels of chloramine?

There is supposedly chloramine in our city water, but I've always used campden tablets to counteract that.

 

[anteater8]

Are you on a municipal or commercial water supply that might be intermittently injecting low levels of chloramine - which allegedly works for both chlorine and chloramine?

It might be revealing to do a batch using RO or DI water from the store...

I'm remembering now I bought distilled water from the store for one batch, and that did not address the issue at the time.

 

[tre9er]

I feel like I only had this issue with bottle carbing. Can't recall having the issue once I started kegging. I took a few years off brewing, now our first batch we bottled and there is a slight plastic-y taste. Gravity samples tasted fine, so I think bottle sanitation is the likely culprit. I admit we were lazy, throughly rinsed the bottles (no bottle brushing, no soaks in PBW, etc.) and then quickly dunked in StarSan prior to bottling each. Intending to run them through the dishwasher on sani cycle just before bottling next time, as well as StarSan soaking them before filling.

 

[YaleH]

I experienced this as well and at first I thought about poor sanitation or chlorine but now I'm not so sure. I had been experiencing this from my most recent brews and the only real change has been using a counter flow chiller and march pump set-up including braided PVC tubing. I recirculate hot wort through the chiller to sanitize it and I'm starting to think that since the max temp on the tubing is less than 212° something from it is leaching out and getting into the beer. Anyone else think that this may be the case?

Standard PVC is not used in the industry for heated water...... They make CPVC which must be used with hot water!!! Switch over to CPVC piping and you should be good, it's available any big box store that carrries plumbing supplies.