The dreaded medicinal flavor... que quest goes on & on

[dmtaylor]

If you don't want to replace your o-rings right away for some reason, as an experiment you could try fermenting in different equipment for a few batches to see if you get the same medicinal results or if the problem magically goes away.

 

[Jako]

I had a problem like this many years ago. The problem went away when I replaced my hoses and rubber materials. You might just have yourself an infection that's gone permanent, hiding out in your soft materials. Take everything apart, change every O ring, etc.

Good luck.

i had an issue like this. i lost 4 batches back to back. i replaced all my plastic equipment and used star-san and iodine. i haven't had an issue since. i also had issues with bottles at one point so that could be the issue as well.

 

[safcraft]

I have been trying to find a dealer to replace all Grainfather Conical Dual VAlve Tap rubbers and seals.
It has not been easy, as dealer often do not carry this, and Grainfather themselves do not sell them directly (dont know why but they said i had to buy from a local dealer).

So meanwhile, i can't stop and be quiet, so i decided to fill a bucket with starsan, and deep dive all rubbers, seals, and hard parts of the dual valve tap for 2 days.
After that i was extra carefull with filling the fermenter with starsan to the top, and closed it.

I made a Weizenbock yesterday (smoked recipe) and dumped the yeast starter (made 4 days ago, smelling wonderfull , no medicine on it). I used WY3068, known for giving me trouble with medicine in the past .

Lets now hope for the best and try the beer in 1 week time.

 

[safcraft]

Update on this just for future reference.

Start OG : 1.058
Current gravity at 4 days fermentation : 1.020

No signs of medicine yet.
Good steady flow of bubbles on airlock.

 

[safcraft]

Update on this brew:

FG at 1.016 , fermented 21 days.
No medicine on this one, tasting nice.

On primary again : Helles Bock fermenting at 12ºC.
Will check on flavor in a few days time.

 

[BandonBrewingCo]

Hope it's ok to jump in on this with a question of my own... I brewed the (m)Oktoberfest with a harvested kölsch slurry from a quality tasting beer. Now, my (m)Otoberfest is exhibiting a bit of an off taste like medicinal but is fading over time in the bottle. The last bottle is was very much only in the background and I was looking for it. I had temp controlled the fermentation too. I'm not prone to infections and the harvested jar (sitting on beer) in the fridge smells fine.

Would this yeast be ok to use again if I use a vitality starter?

 

[safcraft]

Hope it's ok to jump in on this with a question of my own... I brewed the (m)Oktoberfest with a harvested kölsch slurry from a quality tasting beer. Now, my (m)Otoberfest is exhibiting a bit of an off taste like medicinal but is fading over time in the bottle. The last bottle is was very much only in the background and I was looking for it. I had temp controlled the fermentation too. I'm not prone to infections and the harvested jar (sitting on beer) in the fridge smells fine.

Would this yeast be ok to use again if I use a vitality starter?

From my point of view, you do not have and infection because medicinal would never fade. You probably got off flavor byproducts from yeast during fermentation and now te yeast is cleaning them.
I would re-use and give them a proper low gravity starter.

 

[safcraft]

Update on Helles Bock :

Fermenting for 2 weeks and finished diacetyl rest. FG at 1.010
No signs of medicine, tastes great. Will begin lagering now !

Another batch on primary now : Session IPA fermenting for 2 days with US-05

 

[Soulshine2]

I have dealt with medicinal flavor beers quite often. Too often than i would like.
Still, i have narrowed it down to some culprit, but still find it hard to avoid.

Some Yeasts are more prone to stress than others. This is a known fact that i learned for myseld too. I have had stressed yeast off flavors from WY3068 and WY3787. Until now, none of my DRY yeasts have showed medicinal flavors due to stress.

I have used : 34/70, US-05 , Nottingham , Belle Saison and S04
Last year i made 2 Dark Saisons (i know, not true to style) with the Belle Saison yeast.
They came out close to 9% ABV due to extremely attenuative yeast ( did not know it well yet) and very highly pronounced fusel alcohols that blamed to temperatures (fermentation was 26ºC ambient ...probably rised above 30ºC in vessel).

This time, decided to brew a "classic Saison" , light Pale in color and lots of Amarillo. Kind of like a Boulevard Tank 7 (followed a recipe for that).
Everything in mash went well, and i cooled down 21L of beautifull clear wort to my fermenter.

Error nº1 : I forgot to aerate the wort.
Error nº2 : Used 1 packet of Belle Saison (1 year old in the fridge) properly hydrated

Maybe because it was not aerated. Maybe because it was old yeast and not enough yeast for a 1.065 wort. Still it lift off fermentation in 12h....and fermented vigorously for 2 weeks, dropping down to 1.006. Temp was controled at 20ºC steady during fermentation.

Problem : medicinal taste. terrible again.
I know this off taste, it is stressed yeast. It is NOT due to chlorines, i have treated water.

I just cant seem to understand, because lots of folks seem to use this yeast underpitched. They also seem to go higher temps, i thought i would keep it low, to prevent off flavors. Guess not.

Anyone else got medicine from Belle Saison ?
I guess i will try this again, but need to know what to change ...
Cheers

when you say medicinal taste , are you tasting the Band-Aid taste?
In my reading on that specific issue , it was said to suspect a wild yeast had gotten into the brew somehow...
My American Honey Brown Ale has that slight band aidy taste and thats the only brew I used a liquid yeast smack pack ,that didnt ferment in 36 hours and I repitched a started dry packet .It fermented like crazy but the taste is off.

 

[BandonBrewingCo]

From my point of view, you do not have and infection because medicinal would never fade. You probably got off flavor byproducts from yeast during fermentation and now te yeast is cleaning them.
I would re-use and give them a proper low gravity starter.

That could be it. I've just been separating my trub from my wort (usually about 1.050-1.060) and using that as a vitality starter. So this time I watered it down to get to 1.040 and the starter looked and smelled much better!



But then I went ahead and pitched it into cold wort and forgot to take it off the cold balcony for a day... le sigh

 

[safcraft]

Update on Helles Bock :
Lagering but still waiting for new fermenter to transfer to secondary and gelatin.


Update on Session IPA:
Fermented for 10 days with US-05, FG at 1.009.
Tastes very very green, but no signs of medicine whatsoever.

So very pleased, 3 batches with no medicine in it.
I have to package these (bottle) before i move on to another IPA challenge.
Quite pleased for now...

 

[BandonBrewingCo]

From my point of view, you do not have and infection because medicinal would never fade. You probably got off flavor byproducts from yeast during fermentation and now te yeast is cleaning them.
I would re-use and give them a proper low gravity starter.

A bit of lagering seems to have cleared everything up, looks like you were right

 

[ninjaltd]

Just to add to this old thread. I was having some similar problems with medicial flavours. Gave everything a good pressure wash, PBW clean and started sanitising with iodophor instead of starsan and this (so far) has resolved it for me. I suspect this is some type of brett strain that is very resistant to sanitisation.