Hey, all.
My first taste of my first batch was disappointing.
No head, no carbonation at all besides the slight “psshht!” Upon prying off the bottles.
Tasted kinda soapy. With an almost metallic under the tongue after taste
When I rinsed put the bottle, it got soap sudsy.
Not that I didn’t drink it. I did. Definitely beer, definitely alcohol.
But not good beer. Not sure I’d share it with anyone.
Here are some of the specs.
NB’s red Irish ale recipe.
The initial fermentation was classic - krausen, self-agitating in carboy, many airlock bubbles.
A week in, the temp dropped to 37°F. Long story. The heat went out, we were gone.
I put the heat back on and swirled it a bit. Fermentation started up again.
Racked to secondary.
Used Star-San. No soap anywhere. At all.
Bottled in 22oz pry offs.
Any thoughts on what happened?
Any ideas are super welcome.
You’re right about the 1 week= incomplete carbonation, but I was wondering about the source/treatment of the bottles. Could they have been soaped and not rinsed well sometime in the past?
In the past, they were only bottles from other beer, collected over time. I never washed them with soap. So that’s where I’m confused.
And Denny, that’s good to know what the soapy character/flavor can come from hops and yeast. but the sudsy rinse out? Could that have come from the fermentation process? not rinsing out star-san? From what I’ve read, star-san does not have to be rinsed. Am I right on that?
Of course, I’m going to give it time.
I’ve got 23 22oz of the stuff. Can drink that all in one night afterall…
[quote=“masquelle”]In the past, they were only bottles from other beer, collected over time. I never washed them with soap. So that’s where I’m confused.
And Denny, that’s good to know what the soapy character/flavor can come from hops and yeast. but the sudsy rinse out? Could that have come from the fermentation process? not rinsing out star-san? From what I’ve read, star-san does not have to be rinsed. Am I right on that?
Of course, I’m going to give it time.
I’ve got 23 22oz of the stuff. Can drink that all in one night afterall…[/quote]
“never washed them with soap” doesn’t tell us the whole story. How did you clean them? How did you sanitize them?
You mention using Star San, which is great, except that it can’t sanitize unclean equipment (not that it’s likely that first use equipment will be dirty, but you never know). What do you use to clean your equipment?
Depending on what you mean by “soapy sudsy,” it could be normal… whenever I rinse out a bottle of homebrew, I get bubbles. Not a thick mass of dishsoap suds, but I do get bubbles. I’m leaning towards the bubbles being normal, carbonation being incomplete after a week, and perhaps some of the “homebrew/extract twang” folks talk about. Give it some time to mellow out and it will probably taste much better. I’ve learned most of mine don’t taste very good until they’ve been in the bottle a month or so.
It’s so hard to know what’s really causing the off flavors. OP mentions soapy then says “kind of metallic”. Maybe he is using an aluminum boil kettle who knows?
As to many (virtually all?) brewers love of Star-San, you can have the foam! I hate it. Star San is virtually impossible to remove it sticks to everything. Probably a great surface spray like many use it for. For carboys and bottles, it foams way too much. Yes I fear that foam.
Personally, I find iodophor a much easier product to use for carboys and bottles. It doesn’t foam, that is a good thing. Let your bottles and carboys sit full with it a while, then drain them well. Those bottle trees are a great thing to use. Not for a carboy of course lol.
The other thing I dislike about Star San is that it is slick. This makes for keeping a rubber cork soaked in Star San in the glass opening of a carboy a challenge. The last thing I want is that cork coming out during fermentation. You are obligated to cover with foil and hope the cork doesn’t slip up and out.
Plus, iodine in small amounts is a nutrient. It drains so well we are talking small amounts.
Palmer’s How To Brew says that soapy off-flavors have 2 common causes:
Poorly cleaned bottles.
Leaving beer in primary for too long, which can result in soapy flavors from the breakdown of fatty acids in the trub. To be fair, I know plenty of people who leave beer in the primary for months with no complaints of soapiness. However, all yeast are different, and some are finicky creatures.
As far as metallic flavors go, are you on well-water? Might have something to do with it…
Several years ago some friends and I split a brick of East Kent Goldings. All of our English pale ales came out tasting like pink dish soap from a dollar store. All these beers were brewed on different breweries, by experienced home brewers, and even a pro brewer. A few years later I heard a pod cast with the late, great Greg Noonan, and he talked about how low sulphate levels in your brewing liquor can cause soapy flavors. Check out your water report and see what your sulphate levels are.
