Need help with possible off flavors.

[kingdona]

I need some help in trying to pinpoint the cause and hopefully a solution to some off flavors I seem to have in my wheat beer I have had bottled for about 2 weeks.

I really hate to ask any of you to drink less than stellar beer but it would help a lot.

If I bring some to the meeting tonight would some of you be willing to try it and help a brewer out?

Thanks!

Don

[brick]

Yes do bring some. One of the things that we expect to do during the meetings is help each other with our brewing. Sampling each others brews good and not so good is how we can give each other the benefit of our experince.

[kingdona]

Great! Thanks Brick.

[Rob Martin]

Don - I've definitely have brought some off-flavored beers to meetings for the sole purpose of gettng some help in improving them. While I'm not particularly good at it, some are very good at it.

By the way - the IPA and Stout you gave me were very impressive.

[kingdona]

Thanks Rob. And thanks for the kudos on the beer. I am glad you enjoyed it.

Don

[kingdona]

Just an update for anyone that is interested, Brick thought my issue is Chlorine and that I need to use filtered water. At least two others concurred including Rob that said he detected the taste as medicinal like band-aids.

Rob shared an excerpt from John Palmer's How to Brew

Medicinal
These flavors are often described as mediciney, Band-Aid™ like, or can be spicy like cloves. The cause are various phenols which are initially produced by the yeast. Chlorophenols result from the reaction of chlorine-based sanitizers (bleach) with phenol compounds and have very low taste thresholds. Rinsing with boiled water after sanitizing is the best way to prevent these flavors.

I plan to use filtered water from now on and to make sure that my equipment is thoroughly rinsed after cleaning and of course sanitized when used again.

Thanks to all who provided feedback. I learned a lot from this, the main reason I joined the Guild.

Don

[DJ in KC]

If you have chloramine rather than chlorine, filters won't help much. 1/2 Campden tablet will precipitate both out for 10 gallons of water quickly. Way back when I occasionally used bleach to sanitize I would rinse with a solution of it (potassium or sodium metabisulfite - same thing). Better than a tap water rinse since it is also a sanitzer - better ones are out there now.

[kingdona]

Actually, one person did mention Chloramine so I appreciate the information. I have been using Star San for sanitizing but just recently started using Oxi Clean just for cleaning fermenters and bottles. My guess is that I need to rinse that better as well. Thanks for the tip.