off flavours!

[kay-jay]

hi,

i opened a bottle of my first all extract brew last week and it was very nice except for a very slight after taste. difficult to describe but was a bit floral, kind of a bit talcum powder like. at first i thought maybe it was a characteristic of the yeast or perhaps the hops (gervin and ek goldings).

i also have done a coopers kit lager with spraymalt and a brupaks flavapak yeasted with muntons gold i opened one of these last night and again there is this slight floral aftertaste. admittedly in the lager it is only there for a split second then the flavour of the lager comes through. in the extract ale the flavour lingers for 2 or 3 seconds.

does anyone know what this could be or experienced something similar???

the only other thing i can think of is some kind of soap residue though i'm sure i was pretty thourough in rinsing off the soap before sterilising and thoroughly rinsing again.

the only other thing is the fact that the f'vs i use were originally my grandads, then my dads and they have not been used for 25-28 years. do you think it could be residual mustiness from all that time ...and dust?


hope someone can help!


KJ

[mysterio]

Floral? Are you sure you're not just tasting hops? Goldings are usually described as floral.

[kay-jay]

hi,

thought it was until i tasted the lager. on reflection i think it is a bit more soapy floral. than floral. it is nothing like the floral tastes of beers such as pale rider and hydes anvil which is definately because of the hops. this is what leads me to believe it is something else!

KJ

[mysterio]

What are you using to clean and sanitise?

Soap can either be (most likely first):

Soap residue

Some hops can cause soapy flavours, especially when young. A little gypsum can combat this (according to Greg Noonan). Is your water quite soft?

Yeast autolysis/stressed yeast (lipids)

[kay-jay]

hi,

clean with hot water and a very weak washing up liquid solution. sanitise with youngs sanitiser.

KJ

[kay-jay]

hi,

currently my money is on a residual mustiness from 20odd years of collecting dust in the f'v's. i think this because the taste is more prominent in the first brew than in the 2nd. but both followed the same cleaning routine.

the test will be my 3rd brew which is in a new 32litre bucket fermenting away. if i get the same taste then its inlikely to be soap as i only sterilised the new bucket. if there is no taste then i guess it will be more likely to be a musty smell from the old kit.

KJ

[OldSpeckledBadger]

hi,

clean with hot water and a very weak washing up liquid solution. sanitise with youngs sanitiser.

KJ

Overkill. The sanitiser also contains chemicals which have a cleaning effect.

[kay-jay]

hi,

i'm pretty much convinced that it must be soap residue. last night i drunk nothing but my lager. about 4 and a half litres. most of it was superb but on 2 of the 750 ml bottles the funny taste was there. as its hit and miss it rules out my first thought of it being residual mustiness from very old fv's.
will defo be more thorough in rinsing next time.

KJ

[pas8280]

Were you blowing bubbles then this morning K J

[kay-jay]

Were you blowing bubbles then this morning K J

still am

KJ

[badgerdan]

Sounds like the same taste i get from my extract brews. All my equipment was new and sanatised very well but I've put that extra taste down to it being an extract brew. I still like the taste and think my beers have turned out great for the easiness of it all but think the difference in taste is down to me using extract; the kits had the same taste but was much more prominent. I also find that the beer out of a 500ml bottle tastes much better than out of a 330ml bottle.
I could be wrong however but will find out as soon as my mash-tun and boiler are ready for me to start all grain

[JayBee]

Interesting that badgerdan. The Belgian I brewed definitely tasted better out of the half dozen or so 750ml bottles I used than the 500 ml bottles the rest of the batch went in. I thought I was imagining it but I`m convinced I`m not.
Strange for sure.

[badgerdan]

yup is strange but I've had quite a few now of both (some side by side for trial) and the bigger ones are better. Can't work out in my head as to why there'd be such an improvement.
I've been using the coopers carbonation drops in my brews, 1 for the 330ml and 1.5 for the 500ml not sure if that does anything though.
The beer out of the 500ml bottles just tastes more smoother, more finished just an overall better taste/feel

[kay-jay]

now you mention it, the bottles of lager i drank on saturday night that were referred to as being rather good came out of 1 litre glass bottles. the ones with the funny flavour was from 750 ml ones.

re the funny taste, it was miles more prominent in the extract ale i brewed than in the kit lager. but the kit lager had 1 bag of malt and the ale had 2 bags so you could be onto something there.

ive got a coopers stout on the go at moment cos a lot of folk on here rave about it. but after that i'll be all grain so i'll report back.

KJ