Infected brew ?

[Random Badger]

What does your water look like?

Are such medical questions allowed?

Anyway, I say stop worrying and bottle it. May be in for a pleasant surprise in a month or two.

 

[moto748]

I still reckon the old-fashioned method of transferring into demi-johns has a lot to commend it. You can see exactly what's going on, and see the sediment settle properly, giving you a good idea of when to bottle.

 

[GF21]

What does your water look like? I had a mate who used his city water which was heavily chlorinated and his beers all had an antiseptic taste to them until he started using RO water. Just a thought.

I have done quite a few brews with the same tap water and not had a problem , this was the first ive dry hopped tho , and wonder if its that i can taste ,

 

[phettebs]

Do you know any nearby homebrewers who you could provide a sample and get their opinion?

 

[GF21]

Do you know any nearby homebrewers who you could provide a sample and get their opinion?

thats a thought thx

 

[Hop_it]

The antiseptic taste that you describe is normally associated with chlorine in the water supply. You can easily overcome this by treating (all) of your brewing water with 1/2 a Campden tablet per ~30l. These are made from either sodium or potassium metabisulphite, and they virtually eliminate the free chlorine and chloramine in the water. They are very cheap, and you can buy them in any brewing supply shop.

 

[Pavros]

I have done quite a few brews with the same tap water and not had a problem , this was the first ive dry hopped tho , and wonder if its that i can taste ,

The amount of chlorine/chloramine in your tap water can be quite inconsistent. I have some days (perhaps once or twice a year) when the smell of chlorine is very noticeable just from running the tap but most of the time I cannot smell or taste it. I try not to brew on the days when I can smell the chlorine and I always treat my tap water with half a campden tablet before use.

Also, which hops did you use to dry hop and how many?

 

[Hop_it]

The amount of chlorine/chloramine in your tap water can be quite inconsistent. I have some days (perhaps once or twice a year) when the smell of chlorine is very noticeable just from running the tap but most of the time I cannot smell or taste it. I try not to brew on the days when I can smell the chlorine and I always treat my tap water with half a campden tablet before use.

Also, which hops did you use to dry hop and how many?

Good point

 

[Random Badger]

The amount of chlorine/chloramine in your tap water can be quite inconsistent. I have some days (perhaps once or twice a year) when the smell of chlorine is very noticeable just from running the tap but most of the time I cannot smell or taste it. I try not to brew on the days when I can smell the chlorine and I always treat my tap water with half a campden tablet before use.

Also, which hops did you use to dry hop and how many?

I'm not saying that you are wrong about tap water varying, but individual perception of such things can be influenced by other factors and I certainly notice the chemicals far more when I have had a break from them. For example on returning from a work trip or holiday (remember those!) where I've been drinking bottled water for days/weeks I find that my tap water seems to absolutely reek of chlorine until I readjust to it and it becomes tolerable again.

 

[Hop_it]

I'm not saying that you are wrong about tap water varying, but individual perception of such things can be influenced by other factors and I certainly notice the chemicals far more when I have had a break from them. For example on returning from a work trip or holiday (remember those!) where I've been drinking bottled water for days/weeks I find that my tap water seems to absolutely reek of chlorine until I readjust to it and it becomes tolerable again.

This is true, you do get used to the taste of chlorinated water. I had the same experience when I was working and travelling a lot (although I usually drank beer or wine rather than bottled water ).
However, when chlorine is present in the fermenting wort there is a risk that chlorophenols will be produced, and these are what give the medicinal taste.

 

[GF21]

Good point

the hops were in pellet form so not so sure , and worse still , I have some campden tablets , I have used them on other brews but for some reason, not this one , will the antiseptic taste go , or should I bin it and start over . Its still in the primary anyway but dont want to sort all the bottles out for nothing

 

[Hop_it]

the hops were in pellet form so not so sure , and worse still , I have some campden tablets , I have used them on other brews but for some reason, not this one , will the antiseptic taste go , or should I bin it and start over . Its still in the primary anyway but dont want to sort all the bottles out for nothing

Don't be too hasty. You might be lucky and it might go away completely or fade sufficiently given a bit of time. If it was me, I would go ahead and bottle it, and then wait a few weeks . . . . . it may well be OK, particularly if the medicinal taste turns out not to have been due to the chlorine in the water

 

[An Ankoù]

well folks , have had a taste of my brew and ive got to say , theres a definite after taste of what seems like dettoly , anticeptic . Am i right in thinking its gotta go down the drain or is it salvagable , ive done about 12 brews and this is the first time ive had this , but oh well , any advice folks ?

That doesn't sound good, GF21. I've had that one myself, I thought it tasted like TCP. If it persists it's destined for the drain. However, if it's what I'm thinking, you should be able to smell it, too. Fingers crossed.

 

[foxbat]

Unfortunately the one brew that went bad that way for me actually got worse over time. It had to go.

 

[GF21]

There seems a lot of debris from the hop pellets still in the wort , I had a taste today and I'm not sure it could be the hops I am tasting , there seems a lot in suspension , Ive added some finings and might give it another week (thats 4 weeks in the primary) and I'll bottle it , unless anyone can advise me further .Most of the green stuff i thought was mould has gone now (photo in the original post ) but as i said there are a lot of bits in the wort , will the finings make it drop ? , there is still a taste of antiseptic but i think its not as pronounced as earlier , that could me wishful thinking on my part tho

 

[Hop_it]

There seems a lot of debris from the hop pellets still in the wort , I had a taste today and I'm not sure it could be the hops I am tasting , there seems a lot in suspension , Ive added some finings and might give it another week (thats 4 weeks in the primary) and I'll bottle it , unless anyone can advise me further .Most of the green stuff i thought was mould has gone now (photo in the original post ) but as i said there are a lot of bits in the wort , will the finings make it drop ? , there is still a taste of antiseptic but i think its not as pronounced as earlier , that could me wishful thinking on my part tho

Hop pellets added loose during fermentation, or at the end, do tend to result in a lot of suspended debris in the beer. This should drop out if the fermentation has finished, and the finings will probably help. What type of finings have you used?
I would suggest that you do not bottle it until it is clear of the hop debris because you don't really want that in the bottles, and you certainly don't want it in the glass when you poor it.
It's not a bad idea to use a hop bag for dry hopping, although there are brewers who will disagree because it probably compromises the flavour extraction due to the hops being confined to a small bag. However, you can improve things by weighing the bag down so it's not floating on the top in the fermentation vessel. I just put some glass beads in the bag with the hops, but you can use anything that is heavy, inert, and can be sanitised before putting it in.

 

[Sandimas]

Medicinal taste is not always due to chlorine, I filter my water but had one brew with this taste recently, all others fine. Never did track down what caused it. But my wife couldn't taste it so she drank the batch, some people are more sensitive to it than others: get someone else to taste it.

Bottle/keg it and see what it's like in a few weeks time. Not familiar with that lager kit but have done other lager kits that recommend 12 weeks in the bottle before drinking to condition out, so you might just need a little time. In my experience infections take months to get going.

 

[GF21]

Hop pellets added loose during fermentation, or at the end, do tend to result in a lot of suspended debris in the beer. This should drop out if the fermentation has finished, and the finings will probably help. What type of finings have you used?
I would suggest that you do not bottle it until it is clear of the hop debris because you don't really want that in the bottles, and you certainly don't want it in the glass when you poor it.
It's not a bad idea to use a hop bag for dry hopping, although there are brewers who will disagree because it probably compromises the flavour extraction due to the hops being confined to a small bag. However, you can improve things by weighing the bag down so it's not floating on the top in the fermentation vessel. I just put some glass beads in the bag with the hops, but you can use anything that is heavy, inert, and can be sanitised before putting it in.

i used the sachets you get from most homebrew stores , not isinglass finings , i did read the contents but not prepared to empty the bin looking for the empty sachet , the instructions did say after 2 days it should clear but we'll see ay

 

[UKSkydiver]

I cant help with the flavour you describe, but suggestion for packaging; use a sanitised mesh bag when you transfer/bottle to help reduce any hop matter going into your desired container.