Chemical Tinge

[dijital]

im strugglin to find out what is causing a chemical/bleach like after taste to my beer,the odd batch is spot on.its not a souring taste and i dont use household chemicals to clean my gear just hot water but i cant be throwing batch after batch away its making me sick.......has anybody suffered this or knows what might be causing it????????????

 

[sav]

im strugglin to find out what is causing a chemical/bleach like after taste to my beer,the odd batch is spot on.its not a souring taste and i dont use household chemicals to clean my gear just hot water but i cant be throwing batch after batch away its making me sick.......has anybody suffered this or knows what might be causing it????????????

We need to no your process start to finish
sav

 

[manticle]

im strugglin to find out what is causing a chemical/bleach like after taste to my beer,the odd batch is spot on.its not a souring taste and i dont use household chemicals to clean my gear just hot water but i cant be throwing batch after batch away its making me sick.......has anybody suffered this or knows what might be causing it????????????

Are you sanitising or just using hot water? How hot? how long? - could be an infection.

What temp are you fermenting at? Could be fusels if it's solventy or acetone like and you are fermenting hot.

As Sav said - more details.

 

[dijital]

basically im using biab to mash then just before the boil finishes im whirl locing to sanitize then ill leave over night to cool before transfering to the flask for fermentation.ill then pitch the yeast and seal.cleaning wise im just using the hotest setting on the shower to clean out the flask before use about 45 degrees c.the wort itself doesnt taste funny before putting it into the flask so im stumped

 

[manticle]

OK.

Whirlfloc is not a sanitiser.

Hot water from the shower is not enough to sanitise.

You could easily be experiencing an infection - some of which have medicinal flavours.

You are also cooling overnight which can leave plenty of time for infections to kick in. They won't make your wort taste bad immediately (necessarily).

Start with refining your sanitation and see if the problem goes away.

Clean everything properly. Use a good sanitiser to sanitise prior to using any equipment post boil.

Either chill quickly or use the no chill method properly.

Pitch healthy yeast. If problem persist, ask again but eliminate infection first.

 

[Doogiechap]

Handy linky to No Chill guide

 

[dijital]

thanks ill try the sanitizing bit and come back

 

[flano]

Handy linky to No Chill guide

awesome..thanks for that one.

geeze I have been riding close to the wind going by that link.

 

[argon]

thanks ill try the sanitizing bit and come back

yeah that's a fairly sensible idea.

For cleaning all your gear use Napisan or PBW (available from sponsors)
For sanitising use Starsan (also available from sponsors)

Don't do another batch without getting your regime in order... using tepid water only is not going to do you any favours.

 

[Nick JD]

A 500ml bottle of Starsan, while seeming expensive, is paid for with one infected batch, and since the dilution rate is a grasshopper's wee per litre ... you will be passing on the last third of the bottle to your great grandchildren.

I wish it came in a 100ml bottle. More people would buy it.

 

[Greg.L]

It might not be a sanitation issue. Oxidation can cause off flavours, so can fermentation problems like too warm, or stressed yeast. How long do you wait before bottling? How do you rack? how much headspace do you have? There are a lot of possibilities. Infections are more often caused by lazy cleaning than sanitising.

 

[argon]

snip...cleaning wise im just using the hotest setting on the shower to clean out the flask before use about 45 degrees c.the wort itself doesnt taste funny before putting it into the flask so im stumped

It might not be a sanitation issue. Oxidation can cause off flavours, so can fermentation problems like too warm, or stressed yeast. How long do you wait before bottling? How do you rack? how much headspace do you have? There are a lot of possibilities. Infections are more often caused by lazy cleaning than sanitising.

worrying about oxidation, fermentation and other problems is all well and good... if cleaning and sanitising with warm water only then you've got bigger issues to concern yourself with.

Get it clean and sanitised first. If it's still there, then maybe it's the other things mentioned above. But i bet there'll be a marked improvement as soon as a decent cleaning regime is in place.

 

[manticle]

It might not be a sanitation issue.

It might not be but it's the first place to start considering the OP's current regime.