Off flavours after heat wave

[Jon.Martin]

Hi again.I'm just after tasting two different brews that I put on during the heat wave, a Coopers and a Bulldog brew. Both of them have a 'hospitally' sort of flavour 'Phenolic I think is what its called'. Im curious though has anybody else had the same problem i.e. is it due to the heat? Or did I manage to brew to infected batches.

Cheers

[BrewCity]

Would you say it is "medicinal" tasting, like cough syrup? If so, that is caused by chlorine in your water supply.

[mr hoppy]

I'm guessing your looking at flavour some where between cloves and TCP?

If it's not chlorine from water (or not rinsing a chlorine based sanitiser/cleaner) it could be from squeezing your grain bag / oversparging.

If none of these sound likely it sounds like it could be a wild yeast infection.

Infections are more likely in hot weather unfortunately.

[Ciderhead]

Where are you based(water source)?
What was the highest ambient temp of your fermentation area when you were fermenting?
What treatment or process, if any, do you do on your water?
Do friends that visit say you water tastes heavily chlorinated?
What's your exact detailed  process for cleaning bottles?

[Ciderhead]

http://www.bjcp.org/docs/OffFlavorFlash.pdf

Page 14

[BrewCity]

Oh my god, that's terrifying. I've never had a beer grow creatures on top of it!
The medicinal taste can come from wild yeast, but I'm pretty sure not from bacteria. Though there are bacteria that prey on sweet wort which is left in warm temperatures, but the off flavours they give are usually either sour or cidery.

[Shanna]

Why oh why would you let this kind of thing live? Was it out of morbid curiosity that you let it continue for 8 weeks? Surely it would have been better off draining this down the nearest drain and not let whatever bacteria was in there continue to multiply and thrive.

Don't get me wrong it is a cool picture but just can't understand  why you let it live ;-)

Shanna

60% of all my infections to date have resulted in medicinal flavours. If left for long enough the beer develops visible colonies on the surface. Yeast does not does this and neither does tap water.

The other 40% have been wild yeast which will have a more banana or clove flavour, but the beer still looks ok.

THIS is my most recent infection when left for 8 weeks. Phenols eat your heart out!

[Ciderhead]

Jesus that should be on the discovery channel

[LordEoin]

but how does it taste and smell?? it might be the ncest thing you've ever made 

[mr hoppy]

Tube's snap would fit right in here: 114 pages of pellicle porn.

[Padraic]

I think the top is most likely a combination of high chlorine in your water (due to the drought we had recently!) and a higher fermentation temperature which could cause your yeast to produce (more) phenols.

I don't know the exact science but chlorine + phenol production = chloro phenol is how I understand tcp...

[Ciderhead]

You bacteria cultivator you
I'd be pouring them in the drain down the road.

[Jon.Martin]

Awesome link to off flavours Cider head. Thanks

Where are you based(water source)?
What was the highest ambient temp of your fermentation area when you were fermenting?
What treatment or process, if any, do you do on your water?
Do friends that visit say you water tastes heavily chlorinated?
What's your exact detailed  process for cleaning bottles?

Based in galway
Ambient temp: 28c
Brouwland chemipro oxi is no rinse sanitiser which I think is peroxide based
Bottles are cleaned with soapy water and rinsed thououghly and dosed with chemipro just before bottling.

Oddly I have the same off flavor in some brand new mini kegs that I got and they hadnt been used previously.

Really bugging me, two whole batches of barely drinkable beer.
Any chance this problem might clear up with enough time conditioning?

[BrewCity]

I think the top is most likely a combination of high chlorine in your water (due to the drought we had recently!)

The chlorine concentration is still within limits, and I'm not sure it increases with drought anyway. Is it not added just prior to distribution, where there is very little scope of concentration by evaporation?

What do the micros do who source their water from the domestic supply and use it unfiltered?

In my opinion it would add so little in the way of TCP that you wouldn't notice it unless you had been trained to spot it.

I think the cause in this case is something living that shouldn't be there.

8 Degrees doesn't treat, as I understand, and if you taste beers contract brewed with them (Muckish Mountain, original run of Mountain Man Green Bullet) you can detect the chlorophenols. Not sure why they're not treating, as it is noticeable to those with some beer tasting training.

And for some reason you get more chlorophenols in summer, possibly because of higher temperatures being more conducive to bacterial growth so water is dosed more... not sure.