Serious Off Flavors

[BaxterBrews]

Just kegged an Allagash White Clone with a recipe I hadn't used before and the first taste was straight band aid....both taste and smell....really can't even drink it.

I've been reading a ton and trying to source the issue and have landed on perhaps too much chlorine in my water. I haven't historically treated my water at all. I am worried though that the water may not be the issue because I haven't had this same off flavor before.

Just curious to get any thoughts. I've included a few specifics below:

6 Gallon Brew in a Bag....no sparge

5.5 lbs Pilsner
2.5 lbs White Wheat
2.5 lbs Red Wheat
0.5 lbs Cara-Pils
0.5 lbs Flaked Oats

60 minute mash time

.5 oz Pearle - 60 Minutes
.5 oz Saaz - 20 Minutes

Wyeast 3944

Corriander, Orange Peel (Bitter) and Ginger - all added at Flame Out

Any help would be awesome...love this beer and would love 5 gallons sitting in a keg.

JB

 

[Build]

What temperature did you ferment? Also over pitching can enhance phenols. Without water treatment it's probably chlorophenol. What other off flavors have you had with this same beer?

 

[brewbama]

Do you use "city" water. If so, you never know when the municipality changes up their potion, flushes pipes, makes the source the Detroit River, etc, etc

 

[BaxterBrews]

I did ferment a little high....probably closer to low 70's and I did create a 1 Liter starter for a 6 gallon batch.

To be honest most of the time I haven't had off flavors....the beer has just been too thin so I added some additional stuff to the grain bill. I got the feel and consistency good this time....just so much band aid.

 

[doug293cz]

Sometimes water companies will give the supply a "shock" treatment of chlorine/chloramine to deal with periodic microorganism issues. If you got your brewing water after one of those treatments, and the excess chlorine/chloramine hadn't had time to clear the distribution system beforehand, it could have borked your batch. Campden is cheap insurance. A half tablet (about 300 mg) will treat 10 gal of "normally" chlorinated water. After one of the shock treatments, it may take more (judge by taste/smell, if you can detect chlorine, you need more campden.) I won't brew without it anymore.

Brew on

 

[dyqik]

Sometimes water companies will give the supply a "shock" treatment of chlorine/chloramine to deal with periodic microorganism issues. If you got your brewing water after one of those treatments, and the excess chlorine/chloramine hadn't had time to clear the distribution system beforehand, it could have borked your batch. Campden is cheap insurance. A half tablet (about 300 mg) will treat 10 gal of "normally" chlorinated water. After one of the shock treatments, it may take more (judge by taste/smell, if you can detect chlorine, you need more campden.) I won't brew without it anymore.

Brew on

This is the season for shock treatments of chloramine/chlorine. My last batch was also ruined by this, and testing Campden in the water a couple of days ago I found I needed half a tablet in 5 gal to get rid of the chlorine smell.

At that level, I think I need to even treat the sanitizing solution water as I use StarSan and transfer onto foam - it takes very little residual chlorine to give a detectable band-aid taste.