Opened a bottle of my beer tonight to check its carbonation and there is a slight medicinal taste off it.
It is only slight but its there.
The beer I made was an IPA (all grain).
I used US-05 yeast
I am wondering has this been caused by my tap water? I used Star San as my sanitizer.
Is there any chance this will go away after the beer has been in the fridge for a wk or two? (hoping against hope I know)
Really frustrated but at least its only a one gallon brew.
Thanks in advance
unwanted nasties, water source additives like chlorine, iodine based sanitizer, poor mash PH, high fermentation temp have all been blamed for medicinal off flavors.
Start the elimination process ;)
Might need a stronger agent than starsan - it's good as a sanitiser but just don't think it sterilises to the same degree as miltons/VWP/Oxicleaner/etc.
Quote from: sub82 on March 05, 2015, 09:10:05 AM
Might need a stronger agent than starsan - it's good as a sanitiser but just don't think it sterilises to the same degree as miltons/VWP/Oxicleaner/etc.
None of the beer cleaners are true sterilisers, they're only sanitisers (hair splitting), http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter2-2.html
Oxy is a cleaner. You still need to sanitise after.
VWP is marketed as a Cleaner & Steriliser, although you have to rinse afterwards, so back to, how clean is your water.
Starsan is a highly effective no rinse sanitiser (after you have cleaned thoroughly beforehand, otherwise you're just sanitising the surface of the dirt).
So you clean first (Oxy, VWP, Youngs, PBW), then sanitise (StarSan, Miltons, bleach/water mix).
If you use a Campden tablet in your water, it will eliminate the chlorine/chloramines that are added by local authorities in water threatment. These can be a cause of the medicinal smell when brewing. Components of the hops react with the chlorine in the water to form chlorophenols (the CP of TCP) giving the medicinal smell. One tablet for 50L or 1/2 tablet for a 23/25L batch.
https://byo.com/hops/item/472-clearing-chloramine--historical-hopping-mr-wizard
Cheers for the replies guys.
I used Star San after cleaning first. Not sure of my mash PH tbh. Fermentation was pretty stable around 20c.
The reason I am blaming the water is that I did another brew the same wk using bottled water from lidl and it is fine. The same cleaning, sanitizing and fermentation methods were used.
Guess I need to get some Campden tablets
Great response pob! Wasn't aware that miltons is also a sanitiser. Need to get some Oxy/VWP!
W5 Oxy Powder from Lidl, Chris. Cheap as chips and you can actually see the dirt jumping off in sheer terror.
-Barry
Quote from: sub82 on March 05, 2015, 12:26:48 PM
Great response pob! Wasn't aware that miltons is also a sanitiser. Need to get some Oxy/VWP!
If it's good enough for baby...
Quote from: Bazza on March 05, 2015, 02:44:21 PM
W5 Oxy Powder from Lidl, Chris. Cheap as chips and you can actually see the dirt jumping off in sheer terror.
Sheer terror sounds right up my street! ;) A trip to Lidl then to peruse the Oxy powders.
@Johnrm Good point - has done us well to date but may check out some of the other ones.
Since I found W5 I haven't looked back. Just dump it in with some warm water, a quick scrub and walk away. When you come back, a quick rinse and it's sparkly clean again.
Thanks for the replies
W5 is find with laundry aids.
I scratched my head many times in Lidl looking for the stuff.
Mr H*ppy set me straight.