My latest batch of IPA has been in the keg for 1 week (after being in the fermenter for 31 days). I had my first taste last night and it has a decidedly ‘sanitizer-like’ taste to it.
Any ideas what might cause this? I use Star San for all my sanitizing - and even though it’s no-rinse, I usually rinse a bit.
It’s similar to that ‘young’ type taste I get in some homebrews if I taste them too early, but it’s more prominent this time. Anyone else experienced this? Will it dissipate over time?
I was planning on dry-hopping this batch in the keg. Would that help to reduce that sanitized-like taste?
Can you describe that taste a little better? Starsan doesn’t really have a flavor. Is it medicinal? If so thats maybe from a too-warm fermentation temp or sometimes from using chlorinated tap water. Or if its apple (acetaldehyde) or diacetyl (butter, butterscotch) its typically from racking early but sounds like this isn’t the case. Maybe the ferm temp was cool and the yeast quit early?
I never know if a municipal water supply might not have seasonal differences in chlorination levels. Maybe they had a bloom of something or a test came up positive for a bug and they’re reacting to that. It could result in higher levels of residual chlorine at times. I don’t know thios for a fact but if you are sure there was no other way to have introduced chlorine, it seems possible.
Maybe you got some old hops, those can produce some odd aromas. Seems unlikely to be an infection unless you saw a scum growing on top of the beer at some point.
Here in Des Moines our water gets very high in chlorine every Spring during flood season. It hasn’t been bad this year (yet) but I really need to watch it. Sometimes its almost like pool water.
Unless you treat your water to deal with chlorine every time you brew you may not want to rule it out so quickly.
If it’s chlorine-like, I’d look at your water first. Maybe have someone else try it and see how they perceive the taste to be sure it’s chlorine-like, and not just too young beer. I’m pretty sure it’s not the Starsan. It tastes more citrusy to me.
Not sure theres much to do if its chloramines. Dry hopping might help, it’d be worth a shot since hop prices are reasonable.
I think a lot of people run their tap water through activated carbon as a preventive measure for chlorine. Or you can pretreat with a little potassium metabisulfite, that quickly reacts with chlorine and turns it to salt.
OK. I’ll try the dry-hop. I’ve just never had this flavor nearly so prominent before - as in it was 100% un-noticeable before but it’s really there in this batch. Thanks.
I can’t either - I just wanted to mention what I used for my sanitization so you’d know I didn’t use bleach to sanitize & not rinse enough or something.
I haven’t seen you mention it but just what do you do about de-chlorinating your water? Also, since you rinse when you don’t need to, what about chlorine in the rinse water?
I don’t treat my water - but again, I’ve never, ever had any ‘chloriney’ taste in any of my beers before - ever. And it’s pretty prominent in this beer - to the point where I would have easily been able to smell chlorine in the water as I was preparing to brew - and I definitely did not smell any at all.
The problem is that the chlorine in the water probably combined with wort constituents to form chlorophenols, which have a much lower flavor and aroma threshold than straight chlorine. So even if you can’t smell or taste the chlorine in the water, it can create noticeable amounts of chlorophenols which can smell like bleachy sanitizer.
Invest in some campden tablets, it’s a cheap way to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
I recommend investing in an active charcoal/sediment filter which will remove the chlorine and any relatively large size particles from your water. They are well worth the money and will give you peace of mind.
True. Seattle Public Utilities used to supply my water though, and they use chlorine, not chloramines. Still, the low flow rate of most carbon filters would make me lean toward campden tablets anyway. It might be worthwhile to have both so large quantities needed in a hurry can be done with tablets.