Strange tasting beer.

[Frenchman]

Just barreled a Summer Lightning recipe having done several Fuller ESBs and London Prides without any problems. Have always boiled our water but other than that have done nothing else to it and had great results. However, I've noticed a smell of chlorine in the water recently so ran it through a carbon filter before boiling it this time. All times/temps and usual process was "by the book" so I'm a bit lost as to why it tastes strange. Is it going to work itself out or is it the water? Any ideas would be greatfully received. Thanks.

[trucker5774]

Can you describe the strange taste? Rubber, metal, bitter, sour, tcp, medicine, vinegar etc. How long has the beer been in the barrel/bottle?

[Frenchman]

Thanks for the response. Yes, it's a slightly sweet but dry taste, if that makes sense. A bit plasticky/metallic. It just doesn't taste as it should but it has only been in the barrel for one day. I have primed it with 50g of sugar, but none of my others have tasted like this.

[Frenchman]

John, I've just had another taste and it's slightly rubbery. What would that be?

Tim

[trucker5774]

Very hard to make a call on such a young brew. I would guess at the moment after just one day, you are able to taste the priming sugar which would account for the sweetness, the the dryness may be some suspended yeast together with the young hop flavour. There may be an element of your water change involved (didn't fill anything from a hose pipe did you) did you use a campden tablet. Maybe a residue of sanitiser, depending what you used. Others will have ideas, but the most common answer will probably be give it time. Some brews are just different to previous tastes you may have had at the same time.

Just hit enter and saw your rubber taste. I did a whole thread on rubber taste. The only thing I could put mine down to was high fermenting temperature...........over 25C

Have a look viewtopic.php?f=2&t=25225&hilit=+rubber

[Naich]

The cockup batch I fermented at 29C tasted rubbery at first and then like bananas after a couple of weeks. A few weeks after that, the off-flavours have reduced a lot and the bottles that haven't turned into vinegar are quite nice. It's always worth keeping dodgy beer in case it sorts itself out later.

[Frenchman]

I know with a young brew there is still a lot going on so I guess if I leave it for a couple of weeks I should find out if things have gone awry. No I didn't use a campden tablet. The water here is hard but I've always found a good boil the night before gives great results. Maybe I should start using them. The residue from the sanitizer may be an issue but I give everything a good rinse before it's used. The fermenting temp didn't go above 23C this time, but on that note I've had some this summer that have gone above that but still produced good results! Strange eh! Thanks for your help, I'll wait a while and maybe do London Pride while I do.

[Scotty]

I would put it down (at the moment) to the yeast eating away at the priming sugar. The yeast will produce some really bizarre flavours when undergoing secondary fermentation.

[Hogarth]

Did the fermentation go okay? Was there a lag before it started? And which did yeast did you use? I'm just asking because I've had a sweet/plastic taste a couple times, and each time it was after a delayed fermentation.

[Frenchman]

The fermentation went fine although it took a lot longer to finish than it usually does. I'm using the Safale S-04 which seems to work very well with the water/temperatures down here. It didi have a slightly different smell to it when fermenting, but no unpleasant. I put it down to the recipe.

[Hogarth]

If the beer took a long time to ferment out it might mean the yeast was struggling, which can cause off-flavours. Assuming that your Summer Lightning clone had an OG of around 1050 and you used a single sachet of yeast, it's possible that you asked too much of your yeast. I'm wondering if your off-taste is diacetyl. The usual description is butter/toffee popcorn, but when I've had it in a beer I've described it a 'sweet, fuzzy, plastic taste, with all the other flavours of the beer being undefined.'

[Frenchman]

Thanks Hogarth. I'm going to leave it and see what develops and in the meantime put another beer together.