What Happened?

[BertusBrew]

I am not a new brewer at all but this has never happened to me. I kegged my pilsner about a month ago. For the last 3 weeks the beer has been tasting great, and getting better and better each pour. It has been about a week since I last pulled a pint, but tonight I thought tonight would be a perfect night for a pils. The beer tasted and smelled like laundry detergent. I dumped it and poured another into a different glass, same thing, detergent. What happened?

 

[sputnam]

when was last time you cleaned lines and how did you clean them?

 

[BertusBrew]

I cleaned them the day before I put this beer on tap. So about a month ago. I used BLC and rinsed it, I'm thinking maybe I didn't rinse good enough, but I have cleaned my lines hundreds of times the same exact way. who knows. going to flush them again and see if this problems clears up.

 

[rgauthier20420]

I does sound like the lines, but if it were me I'd sanitize a glass and grab me a bit of beer out of the keg. Not saying something might be wrong with the beer itself, but I know I'd be worried that something has made the beer turn bad. Atleast you could get your Pils still

 

[Homercidal]

+1. Draw a sample from the keg with a thief and eliminate the lines or faucet as a problem.

Do you know if you have chlorine or chloramines in your water? That is one thing that might show up after fermentation, though I have not heard of the flavors associated with it described as soap.

 

[BWE]

How long did you leave it in the primary after fermentation? If left too long you can get a soapy flavor. On the home brew scale it would probably have to be long time though.

 

[Homercidal]

As fast as this hit, and since it was tasting great very recently, I'm leaning towards an outside cause, like actual soap residue.

Maybe clean a glass by hand and rinse well and try again? Maybe some aroma or residue from the washer machine.

 

[PLOVE]

Yeah - weird. Pretty rare for something to go from getting good to tasting like laundry detergent - unless of course laundry detergent is involved. Assuming you have multiple lines you could also just switch and see if the taste is still there. Maybe the BLC precipitated and got trapped somewhere in your lines?

Dumb thought - but are you sure it wasn't the glass you were using?