Hello, my beer tastes like rubber. (Answered)

[FeralBrewMinster]

Hello I brewed a beer in december and kegged it about 7 weeks later. The beer now has a rubber taste, when I look up flavors this is stated as autolysis, but could this be residue from pbw or something other? I have about 400 gallons I have brewed in 5 gallon batches, and this is the first time this has happened. I do recycle my yeast, could it just finally have mutated into something foul? When i tasted it from the bucket it was VERY bitter and I thought it was just yeast bite, but after 2 weeks in keg its now rubbery and taste almost inedible(chemically?). Thank you for your time and advice. Ive been burning my candle at both end to the point of my last few brews were not as strictly handled as I am used to, 5out of the 6, 5 gallon batches I processed around Christmas came out fantastic though, but this batch of beer is just foul, will it age out or is it fertilizer? If its not salvageable I blame my lack of focus. Also to note the beer went into a new AMCYL keg that I washed with pbw.

 

[GFHomebrew]

Hello I brewed a beer in december and kegged it about 7 weeks later. The beer now has a rubber taste, when I look up flavors this is stated as autolysis, but could this be residue from pbw or something other? I have about 400 gallons I have brewed in 5 gallon batches, and this is the first time this has happened. I do recycle my yeast, could it just finally have mutated into something foul? When i tasted it from the bucket it was VERY bitter and I thought it was just yeast bite, but after 2 weeks in keg its now rubbery and taste almost inedible(chemically?). Thank you for your time and advice. Ive been burning my candle at both end to the point of my last few brews were not as strictly handled as I am used to, 5out of the 6, 5 gallon batches I processed around Christmas came out fantastic though, but this batch of beer is just foul, will it age out or is it fertilizer? If its not salvageable I blame my lack of focus. Also to note the keg went into a new AMCYL keg that I washed with pbw.

Ah no way man that sux major doggy Doo Doos!

You treat your water as in filter carbon filter use Camden tablets to treat chloramines? Chlorine and chlorimines can have a reaction with the yeast or visa versa and piss the yeast off and stress em out creating similar off flavours.

@Craigerrr Explaines it better than I....

Autolosis man i ferment and serve from the same keg from time to time.

The beer sits on the yeast cake for atleast 5 weeks on them beers and they have been lite beers and I've not tasted any meaty Vegemite umami flavors which I understand is Autolysis related.

Bandaid plastic burnt rubber is a yeast stress thing I believed.

Cheers

 

[Josh Hughes]

Made a band aid pale ale once and I attributed it my water/chloramine. I have only had that happen once. I never used my own water again. But you’ve not had that issue so im more than like off base

 

[Minbari]

willing to bet it is chloro-phenol. caused by chlorine.

as @GFHomebrew said, could be yeast stress too

 

[Blackmuse]

Hello I brewed a beer in december and kegged it about 7 weeks later. The beer now has a rubber taste, when I look up flavors this is stated as autolysis, but could this be residue from pbw or something other? I have about 400 gallons I have brewed in 5 gallon batches, and this is the first time this has happened. I do recycle my yeast, could it just finally have mutated into something foul? When i tasted it from the bucket it was VERY bitter and I thought it was just yeast bite, but after 2 weeks in keg its now rubbery and taste almost inedible(chemically?). Thank you for your time and advice. Ive been burning my candle at both end to the point of my last few brews were not as strictly handled as I am used to, 5out of the 6, 5 gallon batches I processed around Christmas came out fantastic though, but this batch of beer is just foul, will it age out or is it fertilizer? If its not salvageable I blame my lack of focus. Also to note the keg went into a new AMCYL keg that I washed with pbw.

If you've been using the same water - esp. well water than I doubt it is Chlorine - but if you use city water - it every well could be that (if they recently started treating it differently.
My judgment would be a wild yeast. It could have even been slowly colonizing in the yeast you've been reusing and have just finally won over. - Or, you could have gotten it in this one batch via a mishandle of sanitization at some point (especially if you've been busy and not as focused as usual).
Either way, I'd not use the yeast again - just to be safe and re-sanitize everything just to be safe.

As for the batch, try off-gasing and giving it some time. If you continue to taste it - dump it.

 

[Ward Chillington]

How was your yeast? Strong and enough or weak?

7 weeks isn't a crazy long time on the cake....what about your transfer into the keg...clean hoses in good condition?

 

[The Brew Mentor]

Dump it, there isn't a return from where you're at.
Revisit all of your cleaning and sanitation.
Dump the yeast and start fresh. I'm assuming your yeast handling process is that of the average homebrewery and that you don't have a lab and a way to inspect your yeast.
Dechlorinate all your water going forward. Or use RO or distilled.
Good luck
Brian

 

[HighVoltageMan!]

Dump it, there isn't a return from where you're at.
Revisit all of your cleaning and sanitation.
Dump the yeast and start fresh. I'm assuming your yeast handling process is that of the average homebrewery and that you don't have a lab and a way to inspect your yeast.
Dechlorinate all your water going forward. Or use RO or distilled.
Good luck
Brian

Brian is right. $h!+ happens. Once in a blue moon you will loss a beer. It sounds to me like either a sanitization issue or phenols caused by yeast stress (low oxygen, low pitch, old yeast, osmotic shock, etc.). Autolyzed yeast at first tastes metallic and then gets more intense as time goes on. Some taste it as a "blood" flavor.

If you have notes from the beer, keep them. Should it happen again you can go back and find a correlation between the two.

I'm with Brian, dump it.

 

[FeralBrewMinster]

Thank you everyone, I will attempt Purging as I have nothing to lose by leaving the beer in the keg(I have extra kegs that are empty for new beers). I don't know if purging will do it, but it is not something I had thought of and is a great idea. Chlorine could very well be a culprit, I recently started using city water and have had no issue as I do a heavy boil off and our city uses chlorine not chloramine, so it will boil off, perhaps in my hazy tired mindset i got sloppy and i did not boil long enough, although I would say that this rubber taste is exponentially more powerful now that the beer is kegged when compared to how it tasted in the fermenter(very bitter more ibu than anticipated but not much if any rubber, just tasted yeasty)

 

[Minbari]

Thank you everyone, I will attempt Purging as I have nothing to lose by leaving the beer in the keg(I have extra kegs that are empty for new beers). I don't know if purging will do it, but it is not something I had thought of and is a great idea. Chlorine could very well be a culprit, I recently started using city water and have had no issue as I do a heavy boil off and our city uses chlorine not chloramine, so it will boil off, perhaps in my hazy tired mindset i got sloppy and i did not boil long enough, although I would say that this rubber taste is exponentially more powerful now that the beer is kegged when compared to how it tasted in the fermenter(very bitter more ibu than anticipated but not much if any rubber, just tasted yeasty)

if they truely dont use chloramine, then chlorine should boil off in 15 minutes.

that said, camden tabs are super cheap insurance.

 

[FeralBrewMinster]

if they truely dont use chloramine, then chlorine should boil off in 15 minutes.

that said, camden tabs are super cheap insurance.

Thank you, Just ordered some, in the past ive been concerned about additives, but I now use whirflock(irish moss) on top of my previously used gelatin for fining, so this can't be so bad.

 

[Donoroto]

Thank you everyone, I will attempt Purging as I have nothing to lose by leaving the beer in the keg(I have extra kegs that are empty for new beers). I don't know if purging will do it, but it is not something I had thought of and is a great idea. Chlorine could very well be a culprit, I recently started using city water and have had no issue as I do a heavy boil off and our city uses chlorine not chloramine, so it will boil off, perhaps in my hazy tired mindset i got sloppy and i did not boil long enough, although I would say that this rubber taste is exponentially more powerful now that the beer is kegged when compared to how it tasted in the fermenter(very bitter more ibu than anticipated but not much if any rubber, just tasted yeasty)

Chlorine turns to chloramine under certain conditions. Autolysis, dead yeast cells, has a taste more like chicken broth than rubber or band-aid.

 

[The Brew Mentor]

Drinking through it is a right of passage, just saying.
If you think you can learn something from it, then keep it around and study hard while suffering through it.
The beer won't get better, but maybe there's a lesson to be learned hear.
Cheers

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

I recently started using city water and have had no issue as I do a heavy boil off and our city uses chlorine not chloramine, so it will boil off, perhaps in my hazy tired mindset i got sloppy and i did not boil long enough,

Chlorine/Chloramine's biggest impact is on the mash so boiling chlorine off in the boil won't help. The damage has been done by then. Since your city uses chlorine you could let the water sit uncovered overnight to allow the chlorine to evaporate. Boiling your strike water (pre-mash) is also an option. But camden tablets are easier. Note chloramine is a stable form of chlorine and can only be removed by using a camden tablet.