Payno Posted June 16, 2019 Share Posted June 16, 2019 Hi all long time since I’ve posted, haven’t been brewing a lot as I needed to drop a bit of weight. anyway, just been getting back into it a bit and had 3 failed brews in a row due to off flavours - a nasty chemical type almost medicinal flavour..... yuck! Just bottled a brown ale I brewed a couple of weeks ago and sampled a little - and same off flavour again! So annoyed as it wasn’t a cheap brew given all the ingredients. Thought the previous ones might be due to poor hygiene so sanitised the hell out of everything before I made it. I know my fermenter is getting a bit old but also happened with a smaller fermenter I used for a small batch which hadn’t been used much and I did do a FWK recently which came our fine - so can’t be the fermenter. Doing everything else the same as I always have before Any ideas or suggestions before I throw it all away and give up would be most welcome thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackSands Posted June 16, 2019 Share Posted June 16, 2019 (edited) 30 minutes ago, Payno said: - a nasty chemical type almost medicinal flavour..... yuck! Always a disappointment losing a batch, but three in a row is very disappointing! I'd be borderline suicidal! Off-flavours usually described as being 'chemical' are either fusel alcohols or phenols. The most common cause of high-order alcohols in a beer is too high a fermentation temperature. You don't mention your fementation details or the yeast used? Phenols can give the beer a spicy, medicinal-like off taste - cloves, band-aid flavours etc. The presence of chlorine (bleach) can contribute to this but I believe fermentation temperature and yeast strain can also play a part. More info, recipe, fermentation etc might be helpful... Edited June 16, 2019 by BlackSands 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Payno Posted June 16, 2019 Author Share Posted June 16, 2019 I brew in a fridge with temp controller so they have been held at about 18-20c yeast has been reliable us05 or last one was bry97 plus can yeast. Recipe was can (dark ale) plus Amber ME then hop boil of cascade and centennial dry hop; nothing out of the ordinary really Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirtman Dan Posted June 16, 2019 Share Posted June 16, 2019 Hey payno I know the agony and the flavor your talking about. I had this a few times when I started brewing with us05 which every batch ended up in the drain, the rankness just got worse with age. We were having a drought in QLD at the time and I spoke to my brew shop guy who told me they use more chlorine in the pipes to prevent algae etc. I started popping 1 Campden tab in strike water per batch and didn't have this particular off flavour return. Good luck mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackSands Posted June 16, 2019 Share Posted June 16, 2019 (edited) 33 minutes ago, Payno said: yeast has been reliable us05... Hmmm... you might be an unfortunate member of a small percentage of us brewers who have had ongoing issues with US-05. There's a few of us (that I know of) here on this forum that have abandoned this yeast because of recurring issues with phenolics. Just type into google the search terms 'US-05' and 'phenolic' and you'll see what I mean! e.g. It's even been reported as an issue among the pros: https://discussions.probrewer.com/showthread.php?47787-US-05-Issue "We've just started having very phenolic off-flavors in some of our beers - band-aid, medicinal, smoky - and have had trouble identifying the issue. Any input would be greatly appreciated! The strange thing is that it only seems to effect the beers that we use US-05 dry yeast" A large percentage of the brews I fermented with US-05 were heavily 'band-aided' for no apparent reason and after exploring various avenues in search of a solution I eventually gave up on the yeast. I turned to alternatives which as it happens they turned out to be superior strains anyway. I haven't had an issue with 'band-aided' brew since dropping US-05. However, you think one of these brews actually used BRY97 so that could discount this as possibility. Edited June 16, 2019 by BlackSands Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben 10 Posted June 16, 2019 Share Posted June 16, 2019 Chlorine. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Payno Posted June 16, 2019 Author Share Posted June 16, 2019 4 hours ago, Ben 10 said: Chlorine. In what? The water? ive had lots of success with us05 in the past - done hundreds of brews with it no problem - and the recent one wasn’t us05 but bry97. I have moved house recently- that’s the only change I can think of - but only a couple of miles down the road so I’m sure the water is the same Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer Baron Posted June 16, 2019 Share Posted June 16, 2019 I am one of the brewers who haven’t had any issues with US-05. It’s my go-to yeast and I love it 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MitchellScott Posted June 16, 2019 Share Posted June 16, 2019 6 minutes ago, Beer Baron said: I am one of the brewers who haven’t had any issues with US-05. It’s my go-to yeast and I love it Me too, I haven't brewed for very long, but I have used US-05 every time but once and never had a problem. Just went out and checked my IPA in the FV, and all the little yeasties are flying around in what looks like a convection 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted June 16, 2019 Share Posted June 16, 2019 If it's chlorine related which it sounds like it might be then it doesn't really matter what yeast is used. If there's enough chlorine in the brew then that off flavour will present in the beer. As mentioned above the water can be treated with campden tablets to remove it. Just let it sit for a day before brewing with it to allow the sulphur dioxide to evaporate out. I've also had no issues with US-05, except for one time when I reused it too many times. That brew tasted off but it wasn't medicinal. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben 10 Posted June 16, 2019 Share Posted June 16, 2019 20 minutes with ascorbic acid does the same thing. I had the issue and tipped out 4 breas. We have so much chlorine in our water you can smell it in the shower. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackSands Posted June 16, 2019 Share Posted June 16, 2019 (edited) 12 hours ago, Payno said: In what? The water? ive had lots of success with us05 in the past - done hundreds of brews with it no problem - and the recent one wasn’t us05 but bry97. I have moved house recently- that’s the only change I can think of - but only a couple of miles down the road so I’m sure the water is the same It's a tough one and I know the frustration all to well. I too had some successful brews with US-05, but just too many turned bad in my case. I have this hunch that US-05 has an elevated sensitivity to something that triggers it into over producing phenols - and it could be chlorine. I often thought the dosage in our town supply varied, because some days I could smell it, other days I couldn't but I did try the campden tablet treatment and still ended up with a band-aid beer. I don't know what else to suggest, it's a difficult problem to resolve and you could end up tossing out a lot more batches in your efforts to try pin down the cause. As mentioned, I gave up trying to figure it out. Perhaps try a different non-Fermentis yeast for a while and see how things go. Nottingham worked well for me as do some of the Mangrove Jacks strains. Edited June 16, 2019 by BlackSands Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDT2 Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 Maybe buy a cheap filter or buy some bottled water from Woolworths. Might be a little expensive but try it for one batch and see what happens, it will tell you if it’s chlorine or not. I doubt it would be the yeast, I love US05 I’ve used it with filtered and non filtered water with no probes and can smell chlorine in the shower here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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