What's with this rubbery taste?!

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wanabeer

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I've searched this site and some other sites and I haven't been able to get a grasp on it yet. Does anyone know what could cause a strong rubbery taste in my brews. From what I gathered so far it sounds like an infection. I will gladly give more details if necessary.
 
Maybe like a plastic? I remember one time I made a batch that tasted like a weird almost burnt plastic taste. I also remember one day smelling the plastic tubing that I'd used to rack and it had the same odor... pretty faint though. I pitched it I guess I dont know if it was an infection or the plastic.
 
Is it more solventy (like nail polish remover or rubbing alcohol) or more sulphury (like a blown out match, rotten egg, or fart)?

Don't worry about the carbonation. One week is a couple weeks too soon for that.


TL
 
I guess more on the solventy side. I think I'll just clean the heck out of my carboys with bleach and probably replace my bottling bucket to see if that takes care of it.
 
The rubbery smell and taste normally come from incomplete yeast activity, assuming you're not using latex gloves or something similar during the brew. As with just about every problem here, patience is the key..let those bottles sit. I keg/force carb and notice the rubber smell in some of my green beers...it tends to go away after a month.
 
rubbery can also come from autolysis...but that'd mean the beer sat in primary for 3-4 months on the yeast cake.

is that at ALL possible? or was this a 'normal timeframe' beer from primary to bottle within a month?
 
A third possibility is Band-Aid(TM)-like, which is caused by chlorine interacting with phenols.
 
Thanks all, since you mentioned it I realized that there has been one variable that I've changed and that is the length of time that the beer has sat in the primary. It seems that before I had this problem if I would rack to the primary with all the trub, then I could get away with going to secondary in one week. But lately I have been racking to secondary with an auto-siphon and trying to be careful to leave as much trub behind as possible and going quickly to the secondary. This, I am learning does not give the yeast enough time to finish it's job. Anyway, I have since learned to use my hydrometer so I will go by that before racking over to the secondary or bottling (and probably using the 3-2-1 method).
 
I had that plasticy taste with an American Wheat I made. While it was my first mash and all that, I definitely want to say the problem was the yeast. I harvested yeast out of an Oberon bottle and it was just terrible.
 
resurrecting this thread cause I just tasted my first AG after conditioning in the bottle for 2 weeks and it has a rubbery taste. I've gotten the same taste from the local dive bars and always blamed it on a dirty beer line. Anybody know that funky taste I'm talking about? Maybe its just 'green'?
 
What are you using for a cleaner? Chlorine bleach, if not rinsed thoroughly, can react and cause a rubbery after-taste.
 
didnt see this mentioned, but a friend of mine made beer using water from a garden hose and it tasted like it!
 
The off-flavor I most frequently get at bars (and it's not always dive bars) is Oxidation. This sometimes occurs when there is a long run from the kegs to the bar, and they use an O2-containing pressure boost to get it there without throwing off the carbonation. Contamination is rarely an issue at bars due to the threat of inspection.
Oxidation is called a Cardboard flavor, but every tongue/brain combination may call it something else.
Oxidation is a real possibility when transferring or bottling.
 
thanks for the info, all good possibilities. I use StarSan but just dilute it in tap water. I do a lot of racking and the hose smells like it. I don't think it tastes like cardboard but its been a long time since I've tasted that intentionally.
 
Ok, the longest I would say is I left it in primary for one and a half months. Si I am going to assume it's autolysis or the dead yeast thing. So how to avoid this? Maybe next time I brew get 3 or 4 dry yeast packs like the Nottingham. Do a yeast starter and look for a good reaction to the starter? Any thoughts?
 
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