Medicinal Flavor

[muledogus]

I have some beer fermenting and I took a gravity sample on Wednesday, had a little taste and it was as expected. Then I added dry-hops. Tested gravity again yesterday and when I tried a little sip it was very medicinal.

I've done a search but didn't get my exact questions answered so I'm making this post.

If this is an issue from my mash or sparge, would it have taken until the end of fermentation to show up?

It seems likely that it picked something up from the dry hop but turning this bad overnight seems quick to me. Is it possible to be infected that quickly?

Depending on the reason, I've heard of people storing the beer for a bit and the off flavor diminishing. I keg all of my beer so would I have to keg and keep it warm for this to work or will the flavor diminish even in cold temperatures if at all?

 

[Jayjay1976]

Sounds like the taste came from the hops. Probably not infection since it happened so quickly, what kind of hops did you use, how much, how fresh were they, have they been stored properly, and what's the alpha acid content? Maybe the flavors will mellow out in a few days, I've noticed a small secondary fermentation start up after dry-hopping, so let the yeast work on the hops for a bit.

 

[muledogus]

I used 5oz of citra at 13.3% aa. They were fresh but I got rushed at the end of the brew day so they got rolled up and tossed in the fridge, just in their packaging between brew day and dry-hop day, which of course is not a technique I'd typically use.

I hope your right and it mellows.

 

[Dcpcooks]

Medicinal flavors usually come from phenols produced by yeast during fermentation that come in contact with chlorine forming chlorophenols. Common sources are chlorine bleach or tap water that was treated with chlorine.

You can use RO water, charcoal filtered water, water treated with campden tablets. Additionally if your using bleach to sanitize that can be the source.

Chlorophenols usually won’t age out of the beer.

 

[muledogus]

That's what I was most afraid of but I use RO water and don't clean with any bleach. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

 

[Dcpcooks]

If your on RO you have a charcoal prefilter so it shouldn’t be chlorophenols.

I’d still think it’s phenol based at some level. It’s too fast for an infection to take hold overnight. So it’s yeast based. Did you control ferm temps? What yeast is it? Clove can be confused for medicinal.

 

[muledogus]

I used Imperial's Stefon which is their Hefe yeast so I'd expect a little clove but this is over the top, it's all I can smell/taste and again, it popped up overnight. Temps were controlled between 64-68.

Update: had to test the gravity again so had another small taste and the medicinal quality has already diminished quite a bit, almost completely. I've never had anything like this happen before. Maybe it was just an initial reaction with the hops/yeast. Not sure but it seems that it'll turn out ok. Thanks for the replies!

 

[RM-MN]

I used 5oz of citra at 13.3% aa. They were fresh but I got rushed at the end of the brew day so they got rolled up and tossed in the fridge, just in their packaging between brew day and dry-hop day, which of course is not a technique I'd typically use.

I hope your right and it mellows.

Just an anecdote on this. Last spring after the snow had melted I found some hop cones still on the vine that has been out in the weather all winter. I crushed a couple and smelled and they smelled as fresh as if they had been just freshly picked in the fall. The cones fell apart as soon as I release them so they were ready to disappear. With that I doubt that your handling of the hops affected them to any measurable degree.

 

[muledogus]

Just an anecdote on this. Last spring after the snow had melted I found some hop cones still on the vine that has been out in the weather all winter. I crushed a couple and smelled and they smelled as fresh as if they had been just freshly picked in the fall. The cones fell apart as soon as I release them so they were ready to disappear. With that I doubt that your handling of the hops affected them to any measurable degree.

True, it really wasn't that much time that passed and they were at least refrigerated. Still, best practices usually have me getting them in something as air-tight as possible for any type of storage. I still have some left of that bag, I was thinking of tossing them but maybe I'll just give them a nice big whiff before my next batch.