Hi all,
So, a delicious batch of Winter Warmer. At least, so it seemed when we tasted a sample during bottling.
Last night, just a week later, we opened a bomber and it REEKED of iodine. It’s difficult not to suspect “no-rinse” Iodophor is responsible, though I usually give individual bottles a quick rinse after immersing in Iodophor for awhile…
We’re hoping this problem is limited to one bottle, but haven’t experienced this before. And dang, we really wanted to give this as gifts, but now…
My questions are:
Have others experienced this?
Any hope the iodine smell will go away with more bottle conditioning?
Any suggestions for damage control?
I use Iodophor exclusively for sanitizing. I’ve never noticed iodine flavor in the beer. If I had to guess, I would say your solution was too concentrated and/or you left more than a residual amount in your bottles. I don’t think it will dissipate over time, but I’m not basing that on anything but a SWAG.
up until now I have used Iodophor exclusively for sanitizing…I have never had a problem. I just bought my first jug of starsan and hope to find the same - no problems.
I’d suspect water chemistry or contamination before the iodophor.
Iodine has almost no solubility in water, so I’d bet you could uncap and/or pour the beer a while before you intend to drink it and off-gas most of the iodine.
We’ve used it in eight previous batches with no problems, which is one reason this was such an unpleasant surprise… blechhh!
I’m still hoping it was a weirdness with one bottle, not the whole batch. Or is there something that would manifest as iodine later in the process? We didn’t notice any unexpected iodine taste or odor when we bottled (but it could have been masked by the expected iodine smell that happens with sanitizing equipment.
Yeah, most likely not iodophor, assuming you mixed it properly.
There’s an old experiment floating around where homebrewers did blind tasting of water and Sierra Nevada Pale spiked with iodophor at high levels because they were concerned if it was truly no rise and that draining until mostly dry was sufficient… I think they couldn’t really taste it in water until about 4x recommended levels and twice that amount in the Pale Ale.
I have tasted this in beer before, but not very often. Fortunately, my most of my brewing buddies rinse when they use iodophor. Hopefully, that was the first bottle that was filled, and just got a little extra run off from your filling hose.
What good does it do to use iodophor as a sanitizer if you are going to rinse afterwards?
And for the record…been using iodophor at recommended levels for 12 years and never had an infection or a problem with iodine tastes in my beer. My guess is there is something else at fault here if you were using it at the recommended levels.
doubt it was the iodophor. i use to use 2x the recommendation because i thought a capful + was easier than stealing SWMBO’s measuring spoons. never tasted anything remotely like iodine.
also this is a pretty useful interview with mr. iodophor:
Strange. Likely something OTHER than the Iodophor, assuming proper concentration levels.
Also, no need to rinse (seems to defeat the purpose, no?). Simply air dry.
My favourite all-around sanitizer. Works very well if used correctly and if your equipment is CLEAN before sanitizing.
I was told many years ago that the solution should look like weak tea. But, have found that a cap full (the 32oz bottle cap) is about right for 5-6 gallons of H2O. Minimum 2 minute soak time then air dry. I can tell you that its strength will begin to wane over time. So that old bottle of Iodophor you have in the cabinet may require more than a cap full to bring to proper concentration.
I also think pH has something to do with it. My water is over 8 pH. I think iodophor needs to be used with pH in the 6 range. I have definitely had iodine flavored beer. I agree with the idea that rinsing defeats the purpose, buy I have had very few bad batches after rinsing. Most of my bad batches were because of something stupid I did like reusing old (dead) yeast. In my opinion though iodophor flavored beer is just as bad as an infected beer. My friends that use iodophor regularly usually rinse with autoclaved water. Others just use star san.
