I brewed my first all grain pale ale batch with a new system and it smells awesome, but when I taste it has a plastic finish on the back end. This is becoming more pronounced as the fermentation continues. I am going to throw out the batch. I wanted to get some thoughts, even though I have a pretty good idea what it might be. First off here is my recipe: 9# Golden Promise (92%) .5# Crystal 40 (5%) .25# Flaked Barley (3%) 1 oz Simcoe @ 10 min 1 oz Amarillo @ 10 min 1 oz Simcoe @ 5 min 1 oz Amarillo @ 5 min 1 oz Simcoe @ FO 1 oz Amarillo @ FO Mashed @ 154 for 60 min. WYeast 1056 @ 75°, but quickly dropped to 68. When I batch sparged I threw the hot wart into two plastic buckets, they read BPA free, but I feel that is probably the reason why I have this off flavor. At first I thought it was the chlorine levels, but the person that owns the home brew store I go to coincidentally lives close to me and said he never has a problem with the water. He told me depending on the style of beer he occasionally adds things to change the PH level, but does not do that for pale ales and doesn't think that is the issue. I am about to brew again on Friday, and decided to buy a second kettle, one for collecting the hot wort and the other to batch sparge with. Before I brew I just wanted some insight. I am guessing that I was so worried about sanitation, adding ingredients at the correct time, and making sure temperatures were spot on that I made the dumb mistake of letting my wort drain into something that will provide horrible off flavors. Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks
That's a good looking recipe with an excellent hop schedule to be tossing. Yep, the aroma from those hops should be magnificent. I see a couple of problem areas. As self-diagnosed, you want to drain your hot wort into a brew kettle. Not really sure you got the plastic taste here but as you noted, this should be corrected. Having two kettles for all-grain is definitely the way to go. My other concern is your pitching temp: starting 1056 at 75 is a big no-no . . . pretty sure you got fusel alcohols here. When you say you dropped to 68 was this the air temp or the wort temp (huge difference)? Ideally I like to drop my wort 1-2 degrees below ferm temp before pitching. Once the yeast take off expect 4-6 degree rise in the wort (versus the air temp). It's really easy to lose control of your temps if you don't stay on top of it. I think it is so important to keep 1056 below 66 that I normally keep it at 64.
Thanks for all of the input. The recipe besides the hops are all thanks to JohnSnow. All temperatures are definitely taken from the wort. I have a wired cooking thermometer that I used to measure all wort temps and I have the stick on temperature gauges I used for my carboy. I also took a brief fermentation temp using my cooking thermometer when I took a hydrometer reading and it was right at 68. I use my basement inside a temperature controlled Fridge, so I feel pretty good about my temperatures besides the pitching portion. I didn't have a wort chiller at the time, so I had to use bags of ice and it took 1:45 minutes to get to 75, so I pitched it then. Now I own a wort chiller, so this should help with my next brew on Friday. Any other suggestions would be great. Thanks
I get this plastic taste all the time!!! I have pitched at higher temps and not gotten the plastic flavor before?? I always blame the bucket I bottle with, but who knows? I'm going to get a new bucket before I brew my next batch and see if that helps.
In this case my plastic taste is pre bottling bucket, maybe this can help us both isolate the problem.
Below copied verbiage is from the More Beer website. I recognize you already stated: “At first I thought it was the chlorine levels, but the person that owns the home brew store I go to coincidentally lives close to me and said he never has a problem with the water.” I use tap water to brew my beers but I filter the water through a dual stage block carbon filter to eliminate the Chloramine from my tap water. It may be possible that you are obtaining something from your buckets but I would highly suspect your water before the buckets (despite what the homebrew person stated). Cheers! “Chlorophenol • Tastes/Smells Like: Plastic, Vinyl, Iodine • Possible Causes: Using chlorinated tap water to brew or rinse equipment is the most common cause for plastic-like or medicinal flavors. Medicinal flavors can also be the result of using cleanser or sanitizer that is chlorine or iodine based. Some wild yeast will contribute to a similar medicinal taste. • How to Avoid: Don’t use chlorinated water to brew or to rinse equipment that will come into contact with the beer. If chlorinated water must be used, use a water filter that removes chlorine or boil the water for 15 minutes and then cool to room temperature to force out any chlorine that may be present. Always use the recommended amount and concentrations of sanitizers. Most sanitizers will not cause any off flavors when used properly. When using bleach, use one-half ounce per gallon of water, let equipment soak for 10 minutes and always rinse with sanitized (pre-boiled) water.” P.S. I use a plastic bucket as my fermenter and I use a plastic bucket as my bottling bucket. I get zero plastic flavors in my beers.
I agree with JackHorzempa. If you did nothing to remove chlorine/chloramines, that's the most likely cause (chlorine, plus phenols from the grains and/or hops --> chlorophenols) . You may have also just learned that LHBS advice can be pretty bad.
And just to add - back in the day a common lauter tun called the "Zapap" used two plastic buckets and there was never any problem with plastic taste leeching at mash temperatures.
I had a plastic taste in some of my early home-brews. Didn't matter if fermented in plastic or glass carboy. Knock on wood its been gone for a while.. I now use carbon block filtered water.. 1/2 campden tablet in the sparge and strike water. Also I used to fly sparge and believe I was oversparging. I now crush my own grain and batch sparge with no plastic taste. Good luck!
Sorry to hear your getting a plastic note in this, and I agree that's it's most likely your untreated water. One thing I wanted to point out though, is that you used the grain amounts that are dialed in for 85% efficiency. Is your efficiency generally that high?
This was my first time brewing, so I didn't know what my efficiency was going to be. I think I got around 72%, but not entirely sure. I figured I would have a lighter pale ale, due to my lack of experience with adjusting efficiency. I am now plugging things into beer smith to change recipe amounts based on my efficiency. I am brewing this beer again on Friday, but am now trying to use Palmer's book and beer smith to plan accordingly.
Is there any way you could get even a rough approximation of your water profile by Fri.? If you use municipal water it could be easy. If you don't have municipal water, or you can't get that information in time, I would recommend using 100% RO/Distilled, and adding minerals back in. I have found Brewcipher to work better than BeerSmith for me, but use what you're comfortable with. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions, and Good Luck!
Awesome thanks man. I actually have much of the my water reports already written out. I did a bunch of research online. It is at work now, but I can send the information tomorrow.
My first few all grain batches I got that plastic almost medicinal taste. I thought it was bad keg lines (there's a huge thread about that on another website) but it turns out it was untreated water. For my last 30+ brews, I don't filter at all! just crush 1 Campden tablet and split evenly between mash and sparge water. The tablets cost about $4 for 100 and was the single best thing dollar for dollar that I've ever done for my beer. Filtering would work too but this works for me.
