Band Aid Creep

[Swinging Beef]

The last three brews have had a band aid/medicinal flavour in them and did not carbonate as well as I had hoped.
Obviously some sort of infection.
In two dark belgians, the taste was barely discernable fresh, and crept in over two months of storage, getting progressively worse, but the APA was so noticable it had to go straight down the toilet.

Any suggestions?

I normally rinse all gear immediately.
THen a bleach/vinegar combo.
Then a rinse.
Then Idophor

 

[flattop]

I had it too just recently. Switched to Starsan from Ross and threw away my fermenter and got a new one. Search for Medicinal taste and you will read my saga.

 

[fergi]

beef, do you actually clean with a detergent of some type.
cheers
fergi

 

[Swinging Beef]

beef, do you actually clean with a detergent of some type.
cheers
fergi

No 'tergents at all.
Should I?

 

[fergi]

No 'tergents at all.
Should I?

well i have always , rinsed out all the yeast dregs from fermentor with water, rinsed again with water, put in a couple litres hot water and a proper brewing detergent"i use a neo pink or a lesnies super sanitiser/washer that i get from our butcher shop,then rinse a couple more times then spray with sanitiser till next brew, now i dont know if everyone uses some sort of cleaner but to me it makes perfect sense to get that film off the inside of the fermentor.just rinsing with even a sanitiser is going to leave a film inside your equipment. when we have the health inspectors come around about every few months and do their tests it is amazing what they can pick up off our equipment even though it has been cleaned,so imagine those plastic fermentors , you really need to clean them properly. so the answer is YES.but only a proper beer degergent

 

[Fatgodzilla]

Welcome to my nightmare. Was sailing well then got similiar problems. I really don't know if I solved my problem or merely replaced it but I blamed the following and acted accordingly

1. The water. More heavily chloinated and chloramines added. Add a pinch of sodium metabisulphate (campden tablets) to each batch of water.

2. Soaked my urn, boiler keg and mash tuns in PBW then Starsanned them. This proved initially okay, but infection returned. Pulled apart all components of tun & kegs including taps, soaked again, used brushes to clean every nook & cranny soaked in PBW then Starsan and reassembled.

3. Bought two new fermenters.

Only brewed three brews since then but have had three clean brews.

I reckon the water was a problem but I also reckon I had two different types of problems - like you a few brews had no obvious problems when bottled but tasted off on carbonation. I also got two infected batches noticed in the fermenter.

So have you pulled apart everything you can and cleaned everything and everywhere ? never underestimate the strength of the enemy !

 

[Jase71]

Have you thought about removing the band aids from your ingredients list ?

 

[razE]

well i have always , rinsed out all the yeast dregs from fermentor with water, rinsed again with water, put in a couple litres hot water and a proper brewing detergent"i use a neo pink or a lesnies super sanitiser/washer that i get from our butcher shop,then rinse a couple more times then spray with sanitiser till next brew, now i dont know if everyone uses some sort of cleaner but to me it makes perfect sense to get that film off the inside of the fermentor.just rinsing with even a sanitiser is going to leave a film inside your equipment. when we have the health inspectors come around about every few months and do their tests it is amazing what they can pick up off our equipment even though it has been cleaned,so imagine those plastic fermentors , you really need to clean them properly. so the answer is YES.but only a proper beer degergent

I use regular dishwashing detergent and rinse thoroughly, followed by star san and no problems here

 

[Swinging Beef]

Hmm... thinking I might do an all extract brew to see if its in the mash tun.
I guess I have let that get a bit festy in the past, but wouldnt boiling piss off those stinks?

Weird thing is, Ive done around 30 brews this past 12 months, and it is only now the band aid stink has arrived, but over 75% have been pre-AG.

Its the fact that it creeps up on me that is weirding me out.
I brewed a lovely heavy 1090 belgian ale, and drank most of it happily and tried to let a few age.
BUt now it stinks.

 

[Trent]

swinging beef
Save yerself doing the extract brew - your problem isnt in the mash tun. Unless, of course, you dont boil your wort for an hour or so after it comes out of there. I would say replace all your plastics, and start bottling in a different room. Worked for me in the past.
T.

 

[eamonnfoley]

swinging beef
Save yerself doing the extract brew - your problem isnt in the mash tun. Unless, of course, you dont boil your wort for an hour or so after it comes out of there. I would say replace all your plastics, and start bottling in a different room. Worked for me in the past.
T.

I've had a similar problem that occurs only after bottling. Its so depressing wasting weekends on it all with nothing to show. This time I'm chucking the bottling bucket, and bottling from the primary with carb drops instead of bulk priming.

Surely it isn't supposed to be this hard. Most people rarely get an infection right?

 

[flattop]

Mine was in the fermenter, it didn't creep you could taste it right from the tap.

 

[caleb]

Just a suggestion, but have you actually removed the tap from your fermenter and washed it thoroughly? If so, have you even disassembled the tap and cleaned out the bit inside?

I got one batch which had just this problem - medicinal, mixed with "mouldy vinegar" taste.

For the last few batches I had just flushed the sanitizer out through the tap and thought this would be enough... when I disassembled it I found a layer of gunk built up inside which smelt STRONGLY of the same off taste in my beer.

I actually discovered you can disassemble the tap too - by banging it with a rod inside the top pops off for further cleaning - there was another ring of gunk inside not reachable by normal means.

Check your equipment and procedures for any other bits which might be missing out on the cleaning process.

 

[caleb]

Actually, something else you didn't mention - is the taste present in the brew when it comes straight out of the fermenter? Or does it only happen once they have been conditioned in the bottle or keg?

You mention one only becoming noticeable after 2 months - the problem COULD be lurking in your bottles or keg, and not in the primary fermenter or related equipment.

 

[eamonnfoley]

I actually discovered you can disassemble the tap too - by banging it with a rod inside the top pops off for further cleaning - there was another ring of gunk inside not reachable by normal means

if i were you, i'd grab some new taps from bunnings. Only a dollar something.

 

[Fatgodzilla]

swinging beef
Save yerself doing the extract brew - your problem isnt in the mash tun. Unless, of course, you dont boil your wort for an hour or so after it comes out of there. I would say replace all your plastics, and start bottling in a different room. Worked for me in the past.
T.

Never say the problem can't be in the ................. whatever. The problem can be there.

Do not, under any circumstances, under estimate where the problem lies. You may go for years without a problem, but when it comes, its hard to remove. Like a golden staph infection in the body that happens in a supposedly sterile hospital, do not think this problem will not happen to you. You have been given enough advice. You have been told enough times. Clean and sterilise everything. Pull apart whatever can be pull apart and clean and sterilise. When you think you have cleaned and sterilised everything, pull it apart and clean and sterilise. I have seen the light. I have thrown out too many batches to know it can happen to you ! Cos it happened to me ! If it can happened to me .. God's gift to everything, it can happen to you mere mortals !





Here in endeth the sermon.

 

[Bizier]

I have one batch of bottles next to my recycling pile ready to be tipped out. Was an APA with a similar infection, sharp and medicinal, definitely undrinkable.

I think mine came from being cocky and fermenting 5 batches at once when ill prepared. I added some plain sugar without boiling it. I also used gladwrap and had a krausen that wouldn't fit in the vessel and came home to yeast piles on the floor. Instead of cleaning the top with iodophor, I just put the gladwrap back on as-is.

I think the lesson in my case is not to be complacent. Clean absolutely everything, sanitise absolutely everything and manage any issues promptly and manage them the right way.

A turfed batch represents a huge loss to me, both time and effort, and also whatever money was spent. The time spent cleaning everything absolutely anally is time spent well, and you can wash down the hard work with clean cold beer.

ED:
I am currently using my ghetto PBW for now: Alkali cleaner, Sodium Perc + Detergent. This is working an absolute charm, but I will buy the real thing when I run out of these ingredients.

 

[WarmBeer]

I actually discovered you can disassemble the tap too - by banging it with a rod inside the top pops off for further cleaning - there was another ring of gunk inside not reachable by normal means.

Handy hint #253:
Boil up your tap for a couple of minutes first, it will make the plastic more, umm, plastic-ey. Then I just put the back end of a wooden spoon inside the tap body and whack it down on the bench. Comes off without a hitch.

Then, since you've got the water boiling anyway, chuck both bits in for 5 mins, and voila, bugs-be-gone!

 

[Jim Botla]

This happened to me once, I bottled a ale let it mature a couple of weeks then started drinking it. At first there was

no noticable off flavours, it was very enjoyable as most beers are, but about 10 days later I noticed a slight

bandaid taste which seemed to get stronger by the day, by this time though the beer was almost gone so that

wasn't a real problem, what really worried me was I'd repitched the yeast from the brew into 2 more brews. For

some reason that I can't explain and has baffled me ever since both of those brews were fine and never

developed the bandaid flavour, maybe the answer to this problem is drink your beer real fast!


Cheers Jim

 

[Swinging Beef]

Thanks for all the replies.
Next week I start brewing again.

In answer to questions, tho, there has not been any significant flavour problems direct from the fermenter and it hid for probably 8 weeks in the strong belgian beer, but the English Brown and the APA were funky as soon as they carbonated. The carbonation was low, too!

I have two fermenters, tho, and it could just be that one of them is funky. In future I will track which beer goes into which fermenter.

Im thinking my tap hygene is inadequate and will look to that first.
Will pop these buggers apart and boil them for a while.

Will get some stinky pinky to clean everything with, and then use the regular methods of cleaning.