What's that taste?

[skelrad]

I've got 3 batches in bottles right now, and am drinking my first attempt at brewing, which was just a simple extract amber ale. I learned a lot from that batch, one thing being that I need to mix my priming sugar better when I bottle. I just poured the sugar water into the bottom of the bottling bucket and siphoned onto it with no additional stiring. Apparently that wasn't mixed well enough, because some bottles are flat and some have a nice head (the've been in the bottle for 2 1/2 months now).

My question is, what is this flavor I'm getting in this batch? There's an aroma as well as a slight after taste that I can only describe as being slightly platic-like. I'm sure it's not actually plastic, but that's what it tastes like. Other than that the beer is fine. It's simple in flavor, but good.

Any ideas what that flavor might be?

 

[jonmohno]

sounds like the band-aide taste, did you use bleach in your process at all?

 

[skelrad]

Nope, never used bleach. I use Star San now, but for that batch I used the powder in a bag that came with my kit. No idea what it was.

 

[lumpher]

sounds like what i taste as the "lme twang"

 

[Hex23]

I think we'd need to know more about your overall process to guess the cause. Tell us about your water. Does it have chlorine or chloramine? What are your fermentation temps? The aroma and flavor you describe sounds like a plastic/band-aid phenolic. There are multiple causes for this.

 

[Yooper]

"Plastic" taste usually comes from chlorine or chloramines in the brewing water, or using bleach to sanitize. That comes from "chlorophenols".

 

[skelrad]

There's no major chlorine in my water (can't taste any when I drink it straight from the tap anyway) and I didn't use bleach at all. The only possibility as far as a bleach kind of thing is that I used an unidentified sanitizer that came with my kit from the LHBS. It was a bag of white powder - some sort of no-rinse sanitizer, but it didn't say what. The kit was a very basic amber ale, completely extract with two types of pellet hops. I boiled in a new aluminum pot that I had already boiled water in for hours to oxidize. I fermented in the primary (plastic bucket) for 3 weeks at around 62 degrees, and have had it in the bottles for a couple of months now.

As a point of comparison, my second batch was also an amber ale, but AG. It tastes fantastic after a month in primary and a month in bottles. My third was a partial grain recipe, and aside from still have a bit of a young skunky smell to it, tastes great too. So there was something different about this particular batch. Maybe just an extract taste? If so, I hate extract! The other possibility is that the powder sanitizer that came with my kit was bleach based and shouldn't have been a no-rinse.

I guess it doesn't matter too much. I'll keep it around for a while. If in another month or so it doesn't improve then I'll likely dump it. I've drunk 3/4 of a case of it just hoping it gets better, but so far no love. Live and learn.

 

[carnevoodoo]

There's no major chlorine in my water (can't taste any when I drink it straight from the tap anyway) and I didn't use bleach at all. The only possibility as far as a bleach kind of thing is that I used an unidentified sanitizer that came with my kit from the LHBS. It was a bag of white powder - some sort of no-rinse sanitizer, but it didn't say what. The kit was a very basic amber ale, completely extract with two types of pellet hops. I boiled in a new aluminum pot that I had already boiled water in for hours to oxidize. I fermented in the primary (plastic bucket) for 3 weeks at around 62 degrees, and have had it in the bottles for a couple of months now.

As a point of comparison, my second batch was also an amber ale, but AG. It tastes fantastic after a month in primary and a month in bottles. My third was a partial grain recipe, and aside from still have a bit of a young skunky smell to it, tastes great too. So there was something different about this particular batch. Maybe just an extract taste? If so, I hate extract! The other possibility is that the powder sanitizer that came with my kit was bleach based and shouldn't have been a no-rinse.

I guess it doesn't matter too much. I'll keep it around for a while. If in another month or so it doesn't improve then I'll likely dump it. I've drunk 3/4 of a case of it just hoping it gets better, but so far no love. Live and learn.

You are used to whatever is in your tap water when you drink it, but the levels to detect chlorophenols in beer is pretty low, so I would look at that as the cause. Do not use unfiltered tap water if it has ANY chlorine or chloramine in it.

I also do detect the extract twang in a lot of beers, and that can be very obvious, but you should rule out your water first. Get a water report and know what you're putting into your beer.

 

[pavs]

I've noticed that taste in a lot of my first extract kits. It was this wierd plastic taste. I thought it was me, but I had a lot of other extract kits that other people made and I was still able to taste it. I noticed the taste go away with partial mash kits, and no plastic after taste with any of the all grain kits that I have tasted other people make, that is why I've switched to all grain myself! Three batches in the secondary right now and I can't wait to drink them!