WLP001 Strange Taste

[csj]

I've had three of four batches of beer made with WLP001 (Cal Ale) end-up with a weird, bitter taste. I also had it on one batch of Kolsch. The beer smelled plastic-like, and the bitter taste did not seem to grow (or lessen) with age.
I thought it might be batches that I used bleach as a sterilizer, but after I switched to iodophor I still had the problem.
Is there something about WLP001 I missed, or am I right that I just pulled infected batches as the same time as the WLP001?
Just figured I'd ask before trying another batch of Pliny Clone.
Thanks!
C.

 

[ChillyP]

We need details to help us give you a direction. Recipe, Ferment Temp, Did you make a starter, gravity, etc....

 

[gubby]

I've had symptoms exactly like this in a couple of my beers. The first beer I ever did was a pale ale with WLP001 and it had (has) a plastic-y aroma and very astringent aspirin like bitterness. Both these occured because I pulled it off the yeast too soon (I only left it there 1 week after a 2 day lag time).

I did another pale ale with US-05 and in the early part of its bottle conditioning phase, it had those same things: slight plasticy notes and aspirin bitterness. They subsided however, with more time in the bottle.

I recently did an IPA with Wyeast 1056 and after I harvested the yeast, I smelled and tasted the slurry and it had those same off notes, but magnified, so I figured out that it was the yeast that was contributing those things to the previous beer. The IPA tastes great now (12 days in primary, 9 in secondary with dry hops), and I'm really pleased with the performance of the 1056. My advice is to wait at least 2 weeks for the beer to ferment in primary and wait the proper amount of time to bottle condition to avoid these flavors.

 

[csj]

I looked back on my notes -- sorry about the delay in adding data -- and found that the stats were in line for the Pliny Elder clone I was trying to make.
I don't think it was the ferment temps, as the last two batches were temp controlled at 64 in a freezer with a temp controller.
Both batches were allowed to sit on the yeast to clean-up before bottling.
The timeframe suggests that by soaking the bottles in an OxyClean-like cleanser while the local water was very chlorinated, there may have been salts on the bottles that caused part of the taste.
I have since switched to PBW.
In the end, it may have been several factors coming together.
Thanks,
Carl

 

[bigin31]

Your pulling off the yeast to early. You can either ferment warmer and transfer to secondary or leave in primary longer. Try 3 day increments.