Plastic Smell/taste From Cubes?

[Yikes]

Recently tried the no chill method with a english mild, I used a blue willow jerry can. After it was cool I put an airlock on the cube and fermented at 18c. Also I transferred a fermented larger into a cube for cold conditioning. After kegging and carbonating them both beers have the same bitter plasticy taste and smell. They were in seperate cubes. I dont think its an infection. The larger tasted fine initially out of the fermenter. It only developed ths taste after the cube.
I did briefly rinse out the cubes 4-5 times with a kettle full of boiled water before use.
Has anyone else had this problem and does the taste go away over time? They are just about undrinkable at the moment.
Thanks :icon_cheers:

 

[mxd]

mmm, interesting, I have a couple of batches in kegs at the moment that have a "twang" flavor.

I thought it was something to do with the way I treated my yeast (I dumped the cube straight onto the yeast cake of previous batch), but it could be the cube (both my funny tastes out of new cubes, the only other out of the cube is the one I find too strong with the cascade flavour).

For me I went the new cube,
1) warm water with nappy san
2) soak of a day,
3) rinse and rinse same more
4) no rinse sanitizer.
5) Hot Wort

 

[Supra-Jim]

I have only cube/no-chilled once, and i did that with a new cube. Prior to the regular cleaning/sanitising routine, i filled up with 95+degC water and let it sit for a few hours. Did this twice, then cleaned and sanitised, no twang or plastic flavour.

Cheers SJ

 

[Yikes]

I know I should have soaked it before use but I didnt. What I really want to know is if the taste will go away if anyone has made the mistake.
I will let you know how my "Munich Helles vom Plastik" and my "English Polyethelene Mild" turn out.

 

[KillerRx4]

Has any one tried conditioning in one of these for an extended period say 2 - 3 months or more. Maybe the nasty plastic taste would come through. :icon_cheers:
Daz

Ive conditioned a sour beer for over 12 months in a HDPE cube. It won 2nd place in a local comp.

 

[Bribie G]

HDPE is the same stuff that fermenters are made of. If you hark back to year 12 chemistry, Polyethylene (the PE in HDPE) is just a simple carbon and hydrogen compound.

Start with Methane CH4 add a carbon and get Ethylene C2H6, .... keep going till you get candlewax .... keep going till you get Polyethylene like the bags you get your grain packed in by Craftbrewer ... keep going till you get to HDPE.

So nothing there really to give off flavours at all, a very neutral substance. Probably best to just give the container a good wash out with detergent and a couple of rinses, should do the trick.

 

[eamonnfoley]

Recently tried the no chill method with a english mild, I used a blue willow jerry can. After it was cool I put an airlock on the cube and fermented at 18c. Also I transferred a fermented larger into a cube for cold conditioning. After kegging and carbonating them both beers have the same bitter plasticy taste and smell. They were in seperate cubes. I dont think its an infection. The larger tasted fine initially out of the fermenter. It only developed ths taste after the cube.
I did briefly rinse out the cubes 4-5 times with a kettle full of boiled water before use.
Has anyone else had this problem and does the taste go away over time? They are just about undrinkable at the moment.
Thanks :icon_cheers:

I stopped using cubes after the same thing happened to me. Burnt plastic flavour started appearing after 2-3 batches with it. Using plate chiller now with no problems. I better state that this is my personal preference - I got flamed for suggesting the blue cubes might not be up to the job h34r: :icon_cheers: It seems to work well for a lot of people.

Try leaving some tap water in the cube and taste it the next day. Maybe your particular cube is defective.

 

[Howlingdog]

I stopped using cubes after the same thing happened to me. Burnt plastic flavour started appearing after 2-3 batches with it. Using plate chiller now with no problems. I better state that this is my personal preference - I got flamed for suggesting the blue cubes might not be up to the job h34r: :icon_cheers: It seems to work well for a lot of people.

Try leaving some tap water in the cube and taste it the next day. Maybe your particular cube is defective.

Blue cubes- country of manufacture?

 

[Yikes]

I really want to persist with using the cubes just because of convenience. I did some blind tastings with friends (that drink megaswill) last night against carlton draught and found most still preffered my plasticy helles. I think even after a few days out of the cube the taste is starting to subside.
All is not lost. I will feed it to them until I cant detect the flavour or just get used to it.

I am soaking my cubes with PBW now before next use.

I still think the cubes are a great idea. I might just split my next batch 50/50 and see if the taste comes through.

 

[Bribie G]

The willow cubes are made in Australia. I have 4 fermenters and 4 cubes and never any problems. Fresh wort kits come in identical plastic and you'd think if there was any problem it would have become apparent by now.

 

[kevin_smevin]

I was getting a plastic taste from the bottle i prepared my iodophor in. Chucked the bottle and all back to normal. Dont know if this applies to your situation but it might