New brewer here and have had a few batches turn out bad... realized that I have probably not been aerating enough and will try more of that next time. But wanted to know if anyone knew if this dish liquid could leave a bad taste if I wash with it before sanitizing? http://www.walgreens.com/store/c/ology-fragrance-free-dish-detergent/ID=prod6183817-product Thanks
Can you describe the off flavor? Most of us probably use PBW http://morebeer.com/products/cleaner-pbw-1-lb.html
My wife described it as soy sauce. I read on a previous thread that could be attributed to not enough aeration and figured that would be it since I've been just pouring the cooled wort vigorously into the carboy and giving it a little shake. Reading more into it I learned it should probably be agitated more.
As a side note I read bad extract could be the case and it was a Dead Ringer extract recipe from Northern Brewer. I'm under the impression Northern Brewer is a very good source and could not find any complaints about their ingredients on a quick google search. Am under the right assumption that they are a good source for supplies?
I have always used dish soap and have not had any problems. It's important to rinse well and then use some sort of sanitizer to finish the process. If you are getting a soy sauce flavor in your finished beer then I think something else is the cause of that.
Agreed. Soap residue doesn't sound like the culprit. How long was your beer in the primary fermenter?
I doubt the dish washing liquid would cause a soy sauce flavor. But on the topic of dishwashing liquids, the only one I use on my brewing equipment is water. The key for me is cleaning immediately after use and a little elbow grease when needed.
ETA: Should have mentioned that I'm talking about kettles and chillers. For my carboys, I do soak in PBW, then rinse the bejeezus out of them.
+1 on water. Unfermented beer is, essentially, sugar water. A good, hot water rinse is all that is needed to clean the pre-fermentation equipment. It cleans up pretty easily post-fermentation, too, but that's where the bugs become significant. That said, when I need a little something extra, I use dish soap. It rinses pretty easily, so residue is not a problem. If I need a bigger something extra, it's PBW or Barkeeper's Friend, depending on the task. I agree that your problem is not likely dish soap. I suspect it's also not an aeration issue. While lack of oxygen can, indeed, impact the beer, soy sauce is not a likely result. I'd lean more toward old extract and/or an infection as the source of your problem. Northern Brewer's reputation leads me to suspect the latter.
Since PBW seems to be an alkaline cleanser, judging by its "slicky" feel, isn't rinsing with StarSan, which is acidic, a good option?
I have never used dish soap, always PBW for cleaning and Star San or Isophor for sanitizing. I would just quit using it and rule it out, I don't think its your problem tho.
Not unless you plan to use even more StarSan afterwards and dump your rinsing StarSan (don't reuse it). When you mix a base and an acid it neutralizes, thus the acidic nature of the StarSan (the part that makes it an effective sanitizer) is rendered useless. Just use water to rinse well. Any residual Oxi/PBW left on equipment can neutralize the StarSan (though large amounts of StarSan and small amounts of PBW should be okay in the long run).
It was in primary fermentation for 3 weeks. I soak everything in StarSan for quite a while before anything. I chill the wort in an ice bath with the lid on when temp drops then pour directly from boiling pot into the cleaned carboy. Is that short time of pouring from wort to carboy enough for an infection?
Lenghty discussion on soy flavor in homebrew here... http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/ris-with-a-soy-sauce-flavor.40937/
