Diagnosing an Off Batch

Hard to say.
What is your cleaning/sanitizing procedure for bottling and what are you using as sanitizer?
Are you introducing oxygen at bottling time perhaps?

 

Well, not sure then. Perhaps you introduced something wild (bacteria or yeast) and it just took that long for it to produce flavors at a detectable level. The only thing you can really do without a lab is to clean and sanitize the hell out of everything then try again.

 

This was my thought too. Going from no off flavors to plastic-y over time suggests phenols from a developing infection.

 

Like the others have suggested, it sounds like an infection. Give the bottles a couple more weeks to condition and see if the off flavors get worse or go away, and also note if there are any changes in the carbonation of the beer. I've used S-04 a bunch lately, and typically primary for 2-3 weeks before bottling, and haven't had any of the off flavors you've seen in your batches.

Did both batches taste fine before being added to the bottling bucket and only tasted funky after bottling, or did the cherry wheat taste weird out of the primary? If both tasted fine before bottling, it could be your bottling bucket thats scratched and harboring something. If not, as suggested above, clean and sanitize the crap out of everything.

 

Give it some time to come into its own.
Two weeks in the bottle...it's barley legal.

 

Yes, but in your case, probably not. Chlorophenols (produced from chlorine) can cause a plastic-y flavor. But I'd think the flavor would be immediately off (not increasing with time), and since you're using spring water, I doubt there would be any chlorine or chloramines in it.

 

Sorry to hear about this man, I just had an infection hit my brewery and sweep through 6 batches (possibly two more). Last weekend I cleaned all my gear, sent 1/2 cup PBW into each of my fermenters with hot water and soaked 17 hours, then soaked my 2 Better Bottles in cold bleach water (3 caps per 6 gal BB) for a good 5-6 hours, my plastic conical got the bleach for 5 days. Rinsed them out really good with hot water. Buying a new bottling bucket today. I am putting off all my brews for awhile, and brewing an American Blonde Ale to split between fermenters and see what happens with it before I brew up some more of my other recipes I want to do. Sucks man, I feel for you. If you do have an infection, get it now while you can.

 

I'm going to guess that you had an infection all along and it didn't mature immediately. since all of your beer has the same off-flavor it would mean that it all had to be exposed to the same bacteria. beer is realtively stabel once it has fermented and it is difficult for infections to form after fermentation. however in the lag phase - between pitching and the yeast becoming active - beer is very vulnerable. that's why pitching rates and wort temp are critical so the yeast has the best opportunity to become the dominant critter in the wort. good luck and if you have a still throw it in there.

 

That is not a normal smell for standard vinyl tubing to have. I am wondering if something happened when you cleaned that tubing that caused that smell to show up in the tubing and it transferred to the beers during siphoning causing the plastic smell in the beer? Do the beers and the tubing have a similar plastic smell?

 

The only thing I can think of for your situation is a bacterial contamination.

“Phenolic Flavors
Phenolic flavors are perceived as a medicinal or band-aid like flavor that can be quite harsh. It also sometimes is perceived as plastic, smokey or clovelike. Strong phenolic flavors can make the beer harsh or even undrinkable in some cases.
Phenolic flavors, like astringency, can be caused by oversparging or boiling your grains. In addition the use of chlorinated tap water or presence of bacterial contamination can also cause phenolic flavors. Excessive use of wheat malts or roasted barley malts can also lead to clovelike flavors. Check your equipment and bottle caps for leaks and potential contamination, carefully control your sparging process and use an alternate water source if needed to mitigate phenolics.”
http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2008/09/21/troubleshooting-homebrewed-beer/

 

I brewed a Two Hearted clone that tasted amazing before bottling, but got off flavors like you are describing after 2 weeks in the bottle. I also posted on this website to try and figure out what I was doing wrong. I tried everything including adding campden tables to treat tap water, extra careful sanitation and tried to eleminate oxygenation(which I still do btw). I brewed it again and got the exact same results. I actually kept two bottle that I was going to enter into a competition in order to get the off flavor identified (havent yet). I also offered to send a bottle to homebrewing BAs for them to try to determin the issue.(I still will) I have since moved to kegging and have produced amazing beers with none of the off flavors. I was fortuante enough to get a keggin system for my birthday and have not bottled since. This has lead me to believe it was either a infection within my bottle bucket/spout/bottle filler or oxygenation while bottling. Good Luck!

 

Which can come from something as simple as what's on your hands...if you get my drift.

 

Not necessarily the bottling bucket. Infections don't usually show up that fast, so if it is an infection, it is just as likely due to something before bottling as it is the bottling bucket.