Horrible Sharp Bitter Aftertaste

[pint of lager]

Napisan is a cleaner. Iodophor is a no rinse sanitiser. They both do different jobs and many brewers use them successfully, including myself. Napisan must be rinsed out fully, a hot final rinse also helps. When used in the correct concentration, iodophor is no rinse. Make sure you have the correct contact time, let the fermenter drip upside down for a few minutes and it is right to use.

Bleach is also a great cleaner but once again needs to be properly rinsed or you will have unpleasant brews.

If you are doing kits and bits, make sure that if you are using any specialty grain, after straining the grain off and throwing away, simmer the resulting malt solution for 10 minutes to sanitise.

Tank water can be another source of problems. Boil it the day before using, let it cool in a spare clean fermenter and any not used the next day should go on the garden. Do make sure that any boiled tank water is fully airated, as boiling drives off dissolved oxygen.

Taps can be a source of infection. There is a great thread somewhere on ahb on how to pull them apart, otherwise use the snap tap style, these can be fully dismantled for cleaning. Make sure you use a tothbrush on the threads of the tap and fermenter.

Good luck with sorting out your problem. Much better to work it through on a kit and kilo style brew rather than your ag.

 

[andreic]

I had a from the sounds of it very similar problem with my ESB Wheat beer, and a brew prior to that.

Was a souring aftertaste that lingered in the mouth for over 30 minutes. (Drinking water only exaggerated the sting of the taste.)

I had a really good look at what I was doing and moved to using iodophor away from Napisan, and also started to pull apart my tap which I suspect was the point of the infection.

I've now got a Pils in the tank fermenting furiously.

Francis.

Hi Francis,

I have been using Iodophor through this problem to sanitise (I was only using napisan to clean). It seems that the infection has taken hold somewhere and the Iodophor has not ever kept it in check or killed it. I'd keep a real close check on your Pils fermenting now to see if you have the same problem again before doing too many more brews. Perhaps you could also do the bleach treatment mentioned in this thread as a precaution, its up to you.

I hope your Pils is alright and I'm sorry if I'm making you paranoid. I really don't want anyone to go through as many bad brews as I have unnecessarily. Learn from my mistake...

cheers,

Andrei

 

[andreic]

Hi,

I thought I'd provide an update on this issue...

Some experienced brewers had a taste of some of my infected brews (thanks Trev!). The feedback I received was that it definitely tasted bad . But the taste was not picked as an obvious or well known type of infection. Mistreated yeast or high temperature ferments were mentioned as possible causes. I was careful with temperature control and I've never had issues with kits or yeast from the home brew shop so I'm not sure if these were the cause. Infection was still mentioned ass a possibility.

In any case I have taken a number of steps to eliminate the problem. I bought a new fermenter and racking tube. I cleaned out the storage area totally where I put my fermenter and sprayed liberally with a bleach solution. The fishing gear has been moved to a new shed! I have tasted my 2 "bug be gone pale ale" kit beers I brewed since then and they are ok so far.

I was stressing at one stage that I had lost 7 brews. The news is not so bad here after all. I lost 2 lagers and one ale. I re-tasted one of the lagers I thought was bad and it is actually ok (not great, but drinkable enough to be all finished!). Most pleasing is that 2 fresh wort pilseners I fermented with Whiletlabs Czech Budejovice yeast and lovingly lagered for 3 months are in the bottle and now tasting quite good!

Of the 7 brews I though were were screwed, 4 were ok. The 4 "good" brews all used liquid yeast and the 3 "bad" brews all used dried yeast. Perhaps there is a connection here but I have not yet found it.

I was confident enough with the changes to do my first AG brew on the weekend!

cheers,

Andrei

 

[pint of lager]

That is great news Andrei.

Many people are plagued by unknown sources of infection. Ray Mills started using "no chill method" which eliminated his problem. In the other court, some people have no infection problems.

Beermakers have to pay particular attention to sanitation as the residual long chain malt sugars that remain after fermentation is complete are a feast to some infections. Winemakers usually ferment to dryness which means they can get away with a different level of sanitation.