HELP.... off flavor issue

mexjj

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Mystery Off flavor
(Any thoughts on what this could be? )

I've been brewing the same beer a few times now (Vienna Lager) and the last couple of batches have begun to exhibit a bad after taste in the beer, very noticeable on the finish and when you burp you can notice even more of this off taste. Its very mediciny or chemicaly. I can slightly notice it in the fermented beer before I keg and carbonate, but after filtration and kegging and carbonating, I can notice it even more.

I thought it might have been a chlorine issue, and that it was chlorophenols causing this to happen, but I have a 10 inch activated carbon filter that filters all my municipality water? I Will check it again to make sure the filter is not failing after water runs through it for a while… My system is 1200 liters, so maybe its letting some in after it runs for a couple hundred liters ?

I then thought I was getting a Iron Ion reaction with the freshly cleaned stainless kettle,, none oxidized metal can do this Ive read? But haven’t had a problem in the past from this?

Then I thought the sparge water PH was maybe to high? Above 6.0 they say can cause this? So will lower it below 6 on the next brew to be sure..

Im almost scared to do another brew until I find out what this could be as I can afford to throw out 1200 liters. the taste is that bad!!!

Other things I’ve considered:
Wort pitching temp.. 24c this should be fine.
Aerating wort after pitching.. yes
Fermentation temp 24c with saflager s23 yeast have fermented at this temp before and it has worked fine for many brews. So???
Within a few hours have very active fermentation,, attenuates down to 3 brix from 12 in 6 days

Thoughts ? cheers John
 
24 C is way too high for a lager yeast. You should be pitching lots of yeast @ 10 C. Are you sure your water filter is removing chlorine or chloramines? Campden tablets remove that. Do you have PH meter? Are you using acid malt or lactic acid to lower your PH? When I brew lagers I cut my water with RO water. 70% RO and 30% tap water that was de-chlorinated with campden tablets.
 
SwampWater said:
24 C is way too high for a lager yeast. You should be pitching lots of yeast @ 10 C. Are you sure your water filter is removing chlorine or chloramines? Campden tablets remove that. Do you have PH meter? Are you using acid malt or lactic acid to lower your PH? When I brew lagers I cut my water with RO water. 70% RO and 30% tap water that was de-chlorinated with campden tablets.


Agreed. I'd try again, pitching at a cooler temp and hit your water with some campden. At the doses recommended for removing chloramine, it can't hurt anything even if that wasn't the problem.
 
Fermentation temps too high like others stated. You're getting phenol alcohol biproducts from fermentation.
 

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