Rubber band aroma

[reuliss]

I have a very young brett/lacto beer with a nasty rubber band aroma and flavor. Normally I'd let that ride to see if time cleared it up, but I'm concerned about chlorine that I did not filter from my brewing water and wondering if the rubber smell is some kind of of chlorophenol that's here to stay. Anyone experience this in you sours with Brett and had it clean up? I don't feel like tying up cellar space if it's a goner now.


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[mnick12]

chlorophenols have a very strong sickly sweet chemical odor.

It is probably a by product of lacto fermentation, all of the lacto ferments I have done have a sort of off smell to them.

 

[homebrewer1234]

By chance did you use a fermenthaus rubber bung? I've found they can impart a pretty strong rubber flavor/aroma to beer.

 

[reuliss]

By chance did you use a fermenthaus rubber bung? I've found they can impart a pretty strong rubber flavor/aroma to beer.

I sure did! And the damn thing does smell pretty bad. That thought had actually crossed my mind, but I thought there was no way the smell could make its way INTO the beer. I guess I was wrong. In your case, did it go away?

 

[dantheman13]

Give it more time. It may age out.

 

[youreanimpulse]

I agree with Dan, I have 2 Berliners that had this issue and in the one that's done it is completely gone. The other isn't ready to test yet. I suspected chlorophenols at first (though my water was adequately treated with Campden), but I now think it was a phase in the Brett/lacto fermentation.

 

[TNGabe]

If you've never had this smell in your sacc only beers, it's probably not the bung or chloramine. 4 ethylphenol is a fairly common off flavor for some brettanomyces strains and usually will resolve given time.

 

[reuliss]

Turns out it was the bung. Completely gone after a while with a plastic one. The bung was brand new so the effect may fade, but I think I'm gonna toss the darn thing.


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[ButcherBoy]

By chance did you use a fermenthaus rubber bung?

I got several of these foul things, used one on a gallon of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc. It was a great looking wine, but it tasted like a tire. Thank goodness it was only the gallon and not the big 5 gallon carboy, I threw all of those junk bungs out and will never buy another one.

 

[Chops1867]

Wow. I always thought it was residual sulfur from the yeast. Fermenting wine often smells like rubber bands to me. My taste buds tell me that chlorophenols taste like band-aids.
I'm gonna ditch those rubber bungs.