Disgusting Batch - Help What Went Wrong

[gmc]

Hi all,

I have done 20 odd batches of home brew, all from kits, all have been tasty and according to plan. The latest batch is a festival golden ale, which is a kit I have done before. 3 weeks in FV, 3 weeks in bottle, 2 days in fridge.

It tastes like something from under the sink!

Super strong chemically type taste. Not like vinegar or some of the other off tastes like many people describe. It literally tastes like fairly liquid or something. Using chemsan sanitiser and am very dilligent about the sanitising. Not had a problem yet.

Only thing that was a bit different that usual is that I had some issues syphoning from FV to bottling bucket. Kept getting bubbles in the line and had to repump the syphon a lot of times to get it going.

The flavour doesn't coincide with others descriptions people have put for oxidised beer. Some say its like sheery or cardboardy. This tastes like some noxious industrial chemical.

I can still taste it now 1 commercial beer and 1 hour later.

What do you all think it could be?

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Probably either an infection, not rinsing out any chlorine cleaner or fermenting too high. I think that i've had all 3 of these at different times. Doesn't sound like it's oxidised.

 

[An Ankoù]

Does it taste like TCP mouthwash?

 

[foxy]

Hi all,

I have done 20 odd batches of home brew, all from kits, all have been tasty and according to plan. The latest batch is a festival golden ale, which is a kit I have done before. 3 weeks in FV, 3 weeks in bottle, 2 days in fridge.

It tastes like something from under the sink!

Super strong chemically type taste. Not like vinegar or some of the other off tastes like many people describe. It literally tastes like fairly liquid or something. Using chemsan sanitiser and am very dilligent about the sanitising. Not had a problem yet.

Only thing that was a bit different that usual is that I had some issues syphoning from FV to bottling bucket. Kept getting bubbles in the line and had to repump the syphon a lot of times to get it going.

The flavour doesn't coincide with others descriptions people have put for oxidised beer. Some say its like sheery or cardboardy. This tastes like some noxious industrial chemical.

I can still taste it now 1 commercial beer and 1 hour later.

What do you all think it could be?

It isn't just about sanitising it's about cleaning as well, best to employ an alkaline clean prior to the sanitising.
Brettanomyces

 

[labrewski]

Had 2 batches that were nasty I put it down to being lazy in cleaning bottles
Not rinsing after pouring
And a quick clean before bottling
Starsan is not a miracle worker
Cleaning is priority I think

 

[gmc]

It isn't just about sanitising it's about cleaning as well, best to employ an alkaline clean prior to the sanitising.
Brettanomyces

I do give everything a very thorough scrub before sanitising, although I also use chemsan for that process. Perhaps thats.

Although would that give a chemical taste if there was contamination, or is it more likely to give a sour vinegar type flavour?

 

[foxy]

I do give everything a very thorough scrub before sanitising, although I also use chemsan for that process. Perhaps thats.

Although would that give a chemical taste if there was contamination, or is it more likely to give a sour vinegar type flavour?

If it's the band aid sort of taste, and smell, then my money would be on infection.

 

[gmc]

Had 2 batches that were nasty I put it down to being lazy in cleaning bottles
Not rinsing after pouring
And a quick clean before bottling
Starsan is not a miracle worker
Cleaning is priority I think

I might have been neglecting the bottles a bit to be honest. Always rinse when done and check for all the yeast on the bottom being cleaned off but apart from that, it is just a splash with chemsan on the day. Last tasty batch had been in different bottles so that could be it.

Is a chemically taste the taste to associate with poor cleaning and sanitising? I was expecting more of a vinegar type flavour if the beer got infected

 

[labrewski]

Did u open FV or any other ideas to induce contamination

 

[labrewski]

I might have been neglecting the bottles a bit to be honest. Always rinse when done and check for all the yeast on the bottom being cleaned off but apart from that, it is just a splash with chemsan on the day. Last tasty batch had been in different bottles so that could be it.

Is a chemically taste the taste to associate with poor cleaning and sanitising? I was expecting more of a vinegar type flavour if the beer got infected

I had only 2 terrible brews where I know I was lazy in cleaning before sanitizing
Hence I fixed the problem lo

 

[pilgrimhudd]

I suppose though, if it was just the bottles some might be ok?

 

[labrewski]

I k

I suppose though, if it was just the bottles some might be ok?

But if all bottles are well used and u don't clean them properly
Sanitizing cant help

 

[foxy]

Is a chemically taste the taste to associate with poor cleaning and sanitising? I was expecting more of a vinegar type flavour if the beer got infected

You can get different tastes, some can taste quite nice. As in that link I posted microorganisms can form a biofilm which sanitiser cannot penetrate, or even some cleaners. Best to make sure that the cleaning is flawless before sanitising.

 

[labrewski]

I k

I suppose though, if it was just the bottles some might be ok?

But if all bottles are well used and u don't clean them properly
Sanitizing cant help

 

[steve123]

The beers that have gone for bad for me are when I used an out of date liquid yeast, I did too batches from the same mash and boil kettle one with dry yeast which turned out well and the other with the liquid, so it was easy to identify the problem. My second problem was and I don’t know why I did it, I used a garden hose to fill up the boil kettle, the hose was new, the beer had a horrible taste to it, I would say I could taste the rubber in the beer. I don’t think it would be bottles, I have used my bottles many times and only rinse and star san them. Although recently I decided to give them a clean with chem clean

 

[prog99]

If it's the band aid sort of taste, and smell, then my money would be on infection.

Same here. I binned some kit after two like this in a row after pinpointing an old fermenter as the likely cause.
Never had it since.

 

[gmc]

If the consensus is poor sanitisation, then what would you recommend for a thorough clean of all my gear. I have a tub of oxi cleaner I used when I got some very old flip top bottles.

Only problem is my fermenter is currently fermenting. I hope the 2 beers I have done since are not going to turn out to be disgusting

 

[Sandimas]

These things can be hard to track down, I'm 200 brews in and had a bad one recently and I'm struggling to work out what went wrong: all the brews before and after were fine.

What temp did you ferment at, could it have been too high or low and stressed the yeast?

 

[pilgrimhudd]

I use thin bleach at 2.5ml per litre, dunk everything in that for 30 mins or so, give it a very good rinse, let it dry and spray with star san.

 

[DavidB]

Just a thought, but if you are bottling and all 40 pints have the same off flavour then my money would be more on cleanliness or an infection at the FV stage or even your syphon tube.
Statistically it seems less likely that the cleanliness on all 40 bottles failed at the same time and all individually got infected at the same level with the same spoilage organism delivering exactly the same end results.
That is unless you are introducing some common factor across all the bottles eg dunking them all in the same contaminated solution.