# Metallic Taste In Beer



## Count Vorlauf (6/5/09)

A friend who is getting into extract brewing came to me with a problem batch. He had done everything the same way as before (he said) but was getting this really metallic taste in the latest batch he had brewed. He is partial to Coopers Sparkling Ale kits. I immediately asked him if he was using the kit yeast, but he was using Fermentis US-05 dry yeast that he hadn't had any trouble with previously. He did tell me that he brewed this batch at a holiday home, so I asked him if he'd gotten a water report - maybe high levels of iron in the water or rusty pipes in the old shack? What sort of kettle was he using? Yes, it was aluminium but he had never had a problem using the same pot before and . Did he see rust around the bottle caps. No go. He'd stumped this chump.

Yesterday he comes back to me with a possible answer.

He had diligently drank his way through the bad beer (nothing else in the fridge at the shack, I guess!), had started getting around to bottles from the same batch that tasted fine, and suddenly it dawned on him. He had used sanitizing solution on some of the bottles, which had developed this metallic taste. The ones that he had just rinsed out with water were fine. The sanitizing solution is at the holiday house so he isn't sure what brand it is. 

Anyone ever hear of such a thing?


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## c0z (6/5/09)

Perhaps he was using Sodium Met to sanitise, if not rinsed or not used correctly i imagine it tastes really bad.


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## Adamt (6/5/09)

Sounds like spoiled malt extract to me! Metallic flavours (caused by spoiled malt extract) is part of the cocktail of flavours commonly referred to as "homebrew twang".


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## Katherine (6/5/09)

So being in the can to long maybe... 

I found ginger beer always had that metallic taste!


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## Online Brewing Supplies (6/5/09)

Can be caused by infection, I have seen 1200L ruined this way.
GB


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## Sammus (6/5/09)

Any spots of rust on anything he used? (kettle, whatever).. apparently that imparts a metallic twang to the final product.


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## Count Vorlauf (7/5/09)

Sammus said:


> Any spots of rust on anything he used? (kettle, whatever).. apparently that imparts a metallic twang to the final product.



He hasn't seen any rust on the bottle caps. Only half the batch is bad, the other is fine, which seems to rule out faults with the extract kit or kettle. Possible that he has an infection in the bottles.


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## Spiesy (13/10/12)

Hmmm... I'm regularly encountering a metallic taste in lots of different bottled, commercial beers. Have been for a couple of years now, and the beers are mainly from Dan Murphy's.

I am stumped. All the literature you read states that the metallic, blood-like taste taint is primarily due to leeching from inappropriate metallic breware, but I struggle to believe that the likes of Cooper's, Squire's, Young's and Creature's are at fault here... beer storage issue?

I'm drinking a Young's London Price right now, and again - it has this metallic twang to it. Bloody annoying for a $7 beer. It's expiry is April 2013, but who knows what "adventures" this beer has had since it left the brewery...

Any ideas? 

PS: thankfully, I'm not picking this up in my homebrews.... touch wood.


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## krisisdog (13/10/12)

Spiesy - tried those beers out of a glass?


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## felten (13/10/12)

Spiesy said:


> Hmmm... I'm regularly encountering a metallic taste in lots of different bottled, commercial beers. Have been for a couple of years now, and the beers are mainly from Dan Murphy's.
> 
> I am stumped. All the literature you read states that the metallic, blood-like taste taint is primarily due to leeching from inappropriate metallic breware, but I struggle to believe that the likes of Cooper's, Squire's, Young's and Creature's are at fault here... beer storage issue?
> 
> ...


I've had this many times as well (mainly Guinness), one of the main reasons I started looking into how to homebrew. I always put it down to poor storage, even though all the internet conjecture says leeching.

And yes, always out of a glass.


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## labels (13/10/12)

I came across it when I first started brewing and spent a long time researching it's cause. Sorry to dissapoint but it was so long ago I can't remember the answer except to say it was NOT caused by contamination from any metals

I willl dive back into my archives and see what I can find.


Steve


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## Brewman_ (13/10/12)

From a home brewing perspective I have not had this type of issue since using a good yeast at the right temperature ranges for the yeast being used. I have previously had it, and not sure exactly what cuased it.
Fear.


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## pk.sax (14/10/12)

Almost always used to get it in lcpa bottles in Melbourne. Never had it up here. Don't know what it is either but it's not pleasant to open a bottle and be whacked in the teeth.


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## Spiesy (14/10/12)

krisisdog said:


> Spiesy - tried those beers out of a glass?


They're all out of a glass mate, but I get what you're implying - as I call this taste, the "capped" taste.


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## Spiesy (14/10/12)

Good to know I'm not alone in this department. I've taken back cases to Dan's before over this. From memory, beers that I've experienced it in:

Cooper's Pale Ale, Little Creatures Pale Ale, James Squire's Golden Ale, Young's London Pride, Bittburger... probably loads more.

And you know what, they're _mainly_ from Dan Murphy's on Bell St., Preston. Hmmm.... guess I'll steer clear of there from now on.


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## mondestrunken (14/10/12)

labels said:


> I came across it when I first started brewing and spent a long time researching it's cause.



Me too.

I eventually put it down to using steel wool to scrub off labels, as it disappeared after I assembled a clean bottle collection.


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## dicko (14/10/12)

Count Vorlauf said:


> Yesterday he comes back to me with a possible answer.
> 
> He had diligently drank his way through the bad beer (nothing else in the fridge at the shack, I guess!), had started getting around to bottles from the same batch that tasted fine, and suddenly it dawned on him. He had used sanitizing solution on some of the bottles, which had developed this metallic taste. The ones that he had just rinsed out with water were fine. The sanitizing solution is at the holiday house so he isn't sure what brand it is.
> 
> Anyone ever hear of such a thing?



I think you or he has answered the question, acid based sanitiser may throw a metalic taste if used too strong or not rinsed.

I am not sure about Sodium Met or Iodophor as I have never used them.

Cheers


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## bum (14/10/12)

dicko said:


> I think you or he has answered the question, acid based sanitiser may throw a metalic taste if used too strong or not rinsed.


An acid based sanitsier like Starsan? :huh: 

I get a metallic bite from lots of beers. Metallic aroma from even more. Seems to be more prevalent in darker beers. I'm not as quick to blame storage/handling as some others here - I wonder if they're buying most of their beers from one place and assuming some correlation. I get it from many beers from many countries from many retailers (and at breweries).


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## bignath (14/10/12)

Just saw this and couldn't resist posting it....





Have you tried sampling it through your mouth? :lol:


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## Spiesy (15/10/12)

bum said:


> I'm not as quick to blame storage/handling as some others here - I wonder if they're buying most of their beers from one place and assuming some correlation.





Spiesy said:


> And you know what, they're _mainly_ from Dan Murphy's on Bell St., Preston. Hmmm.... guess I'll steer clear of there from now on.


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## bum (15/10/12)

Yeah, I know. I was trying to be polite.


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## dicko (15/10/12)

bum said:


> An acid based sanitsier like Starsan? :huh:
> 
> I get a metallic bite from lots of beers. Metallic aroma from even more. Seems to be more prevalent in darker beers. I'm not as quick to blame storage/handling as some others here - I wonder if they're buying most of their beers from one place and assuming some correlation. I get it from many beers from many countries from many retailers (and at breweries).



The OP's enquiry was related directly to a brew that his friend had done.
Based on his observations the taste in this case is in a sample of bottles that were sanitised as opposed to the samples that were rinsed with water. There was no enquiry as to why some commercial examples have a metallic taste.

My quotation above was based on a friend who for a time was creating extract brews.
When I used to visit and sample his beer, it allways seemed to have a metallic taste.
He had become used to it and didn't think he had a problem so I decided to try to find the cause.
I attended while he prepared the extract and put it in the fermenter with no obvious problem. He used temp control during ferment so no problem there.
It came time for bottling and he was using PET bottles. He had had problems in the past with crud being left in those indentations in the base of those bottles so he was storing them with diluted phos acid and when it came to bottling time he was upending them on his bottle tree, letting them drain and then botlling his beer.
I took 4 of these bottles and let him bottle as usual while we rinsed the remaining lot and bottled the rest of the beer.
When questioned as to the strength of the sanitiser his method was to put a "splash" in each bottle and filling it up with water, putting the lid on and storing until bottling time.
Well when it was time to sample, the 4 that we had marked had that metallic taste and the rest were fine ( for extract).
The OP was from some time back so he may have sorted his problem.
It would be interesting to find out..

Cheers


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## pk.sax (15/10/12)

I wonder if the breweries ship their beers in large tanks and the bottling happens at retain contracted bottling plants/local breweries. A particular store or region might get what gets bottled locally then, might explain the commercial thing.

Come to think of it, never yet had it from a beer bottled live. Reckon it might be a particular bottler/s that have issues with their process.


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