Help first two batches just don't taste right

Rookie here,

Just tasted my dead ringer extract… sort of alcohol tasting, phenol type taste to it… almost tin metal like, metallic like taste?? The taste sort of stays with you a bit.
used wyeast ale yeast and used a starter

The previous amber ale that came with kit was similar.

On well water, and carbon filtered, water tastes good.

Followed recipe to a T and even used a converted fridge to maintain temps.

What do you guys think… A bit discouraged

g

Give us your fermentation time and temperature. Did you bottle or keg? When did you dry hop? How long has your conditioning time been?

What you are describing sounds like chlorinated water was used for your brew. What is your cleaning and sanitizing process?

Most carbon filters aren’t effective at removing iron, especially if you filter it quickly. If your well water is high in iron this could be your issue. Also, what are you boiling in?

Edit to ask:
What is the pH of your water?

Thanks for the reply.

Both Extract.
the amber was again well water, unsure of PH, just bought a PH meter, did primary ferm for 4 weeks, in a fridge set at 67-68 degrees. Bottled with corn sugar and conditioned at room temp for 4 weeks. Boiled in a stainless steel stock pot nothing fancy. Did top off with water straight from well/filter.
I did try and be anal about sanitation. Starsan was used through out and did try and avoid detergents.
I did however rinse the bottles in a starsan rinse (bucket) first when bottling. I my daughter would dunk shakeout and then we would fill. certainly wet with starsan… not just foam… shoot think that would do it?
never dry hopped the first beer. stayed in primary the whole time…

thanks for helping me through this:-).

will post more about second beer in a sec essentially same although dry hopped 10days before bottling.

greg

So with what you have said, nothing seems really abnormal. This would probably make your water suspect. Why do you use the carbon filter. Unusual aroma from the water? Sulphur aroma?

When I bought the home back in 2000. Or well was tested and showed a bit higher levels of radon and was pretty hard. I know carbon is involved in the filtration and another system to pulled the radon out. I have to check into that a bit more.

Starsan drenched bottles wouldn’t course this would it? I know not to fear the foam…

Also opened two 12 oz bottles and one 22 oz. the 12 oz had a quick head then gone. The 22 oz had thick head that hung around longer through half the time it took me to drink it… Why would the 22 oz show or produce difference in head retention?
G

Two different beers with the same off-flavor, and what sounds like good practices might very well be due to water. The star-san is NOT the issue, unless you are leaving a LOT of it in the bottles. Simply wet won’t affect the flavor.

Try a third brew using distilled water; you can buy gallon jugs of it from lots of places, and extract batches work very well using distilled. That will tell you definitively if the problem is water or not.

Foam problems are usually due to one of two things: soap residue on the glass (or bottle), or carbonation problems. How did you add the priming sugar? If you added it to each individual bottle before filling (or using carbonation tabs or something like that), it is easy to make mistakes when changing bottle sizes. Mixing all the sugar into the beer just before you start bottling (dissolve in some water and boil it first) works much better for producing consistent results.

Another thing that I don’t hear often is try to fill all the bottles leaving the exact amount of head space. I shoot for about an inch in 12oz and a tad more in bombers.

Get a bottle filling wand and stop the flow just as the beer reached the bottle lip. Once you remove the wand, the beer is at the proper level.