First brew with glue taste

My first brew was undrinkable with a petro chemical glue like taste. BIAB Kit Beer Pale Ale, What did I do worng?

Fermentation temps too high is one likely culprit. What temperature did it ferment at?

fermentation temp was between 66 an 72 F unless my thermocouple was not reading right. It was in ac house never below 72 F ambient.

I would also suspect chlorine or chloramine in your brewing water or a cleaning solution not fully rinsed.

I used water post carbon filter with RO Glacier water. I used the same refrigerator filtered water on second batch and it seems ok, that is so far, just bottled but so far no glue type taste. Used Iodophor for sanitizing and rinse with boiled water. Was thinking either Chlorine or infection. Used gelatin in secondary for clarification and may have used too much gelatin. I thought I was pretty careful as to sanitization but I may have mixed the iodophor to weak. The final beer was pretty nasty tasting.

Certainly two areas to consider…internal fermenter temps can be hIgher than ambient and result in fusel alcohols Described as a hot alcohol, paint thinner or acetone flavor. ?glue? You mentioned BIAB so all grain, and as @flars mentioned chlorine and chloramine can give off flavors and pre treating your brew water with campden tabs solves this nicely.
Don’t give up yet as some of these fusel/ off flavors can age out diminish with time. I’d give it at least 4-6 weeks to see if improvement occurs.

Did you chill your beer to near freezing after adding the gelatin? I’ve never used gelatin but I think chilling the beer is needed. Someone correct me if this is wrong. The glue like taste could be gelatin and the other off taste some other problem.

You are correct sir. At least as far as the chilling goes. Gelatin works by grabbing ahold of particles that were already starting to settle out because the cold. The closer to 32*f you can get the beer, the better gelatin works.
However, I don’t believe any off-flavor can be blamed on the gelatin- it’s a neutral taste, and would settle to the bottom anyways. I use cold crashing and gelatin on all my brews. I like clear beers. :wink:
islandbrewer: I would also doubt a chloramine off-flavor because of the RO carbon filtered water. So, unless there is a contamination, an elevated temperature is your most likely cause. Try harder to get your fermentation temps. down to the low to mid 60s, or use a heat tolerant (saison-type) yeast.

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Thanks for the input. For that batch I used the dry yeast with the BIAB NB Kit. Hopeing the next batch does not have that horrid petro chem taste.

I’ll go to the gelatin… made from… horse hoofs. GLUE!!!:sweat_smile: Just clowning here… I will stand along side Jim from Maine with his statement… Sneezles61

:grin: Hey sneezles- I’m a Veterinarian. Believe me when I say that horse hooves smell NOTHING like glue. More like horse poop and a sulfur smell like when you burn hair. :grin:

My few first beers i had some. Off flav due to high temp fermenting.here on island. Did switch to. High tolerant yeast. Like danstar belle saison. Yeast. Did help. Now for the last 2 years use. Kveik yeast. No of flav at all. Awesome stuff. Ok mild orange flav

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If I read this thread correct, you ambient temp is > 72* and your internal wort temp was 66* - 72*.

If so, then @wilcolandzaat’s suggestion to look at the new strains of heat tolerant yeast is a solid +1.

Those of us with cool unfinished basements may be late in adopting these strains of yeast. :slight_smile:

Works out good for example. Kveik yeast. Runs up to 100 fh. And i have good results with it. If ya intrested. Yeast bay does sell the strain. Its in liquid form so i do make a starter

Thank you all, a lot of good information here. Just to clarify, my ambient temperature was a constant 72. I had a thermocouple on the side of the fermenter that was reading from 66 to 70 for the most part. It is possible the thermocouple was not effectively situated next to the fermenter as to read the liquid temperature. I was using a five gallon food grade plastic water container for a fermenter. I used the dry yeast from the NB kit and did not make a starter. The recipe set a top temperature range at 72 F.

So, I take it you did dump it? IF not see my earlier post. It might improve. Worth a shot.

Thermocouplers sanitized and IN the fermenter are probably best(I"ve never done that), on the outside is also reasonable(what I do with my lagers in my fermigerator)…especially if foam/insulation material is used to shield it some from ambient air. For ales, I use a couple of huge Home Depot orange coolers(not blue or red :relaxed: ) to house the carboys surrounded with ice /water to reach low 60’s or whatever ale temp I’m looking for… I use a standard analog dial thermometer with the stem in the water. Not perfect, but if the water is 62 degrees, the fermenter core is not 85*.

Still not sure we have your problem figured out…brew again and soon with mitigation of temperature and quality brew water and lets hope for the best.

I did not see your earlier post. I had it all bottled up and ready to go in the frig. I dumped it and used the bottles for my second try, a NB session ale. I did BIAB on that one and pre bottling seemed to taste ok, I did not want to bottle more glue, paint thinner nasty disgusting excuse for home brew. I think I kept on bottle in the frig and I will try in six weeks or so. Thanks for the tip on tablets to remove chlorine/chloramine. I used the same frig water filtered tap water on the second brew. It will be ready to try in about 9 days. I think I will wait to try that one before I tackle the next batch.

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I lean more towards water or some contaminate, the temperatures are not that high. When I started I often fermented 70 deg ambient and never had a dumper.

I started brewing with ambient temp in the 68-70* range, then moved and now have the cool basement. Fermentation is soooooo much easier.

If I had to brew in ambient temps where 72* was at the low end, I’d either use yeasts like @wilcolandzaat uses or I’d quit brewing.

Like I said earlier:

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I agree once you get in the mid 70s everything changes. You need to do more work swamp cooler or play with yeast. There is a reason beer was traditional brewed due the cooler months