So I forgot to add a campden tablet to my pilsner...

[Rev2010]

... and at the time figured maybe it will be OK since lager yeast is supposed to be very clean and not produce a lot of phenols (bound with chlorine turns into chlorophenols yes?). Just tapped up this Pilsner and it has a dominant solventy/rubbery taste to it. Not the beer lines as I just changed to Accuflex Bev-Seal and cleaned and rinsed them today and my amber ale (also tapped today) does not have this problem. Is this because I forgot to add the campden tablet? This was the first time I forgot to add it. Tastes like the very first Coopers extract kit I ever did. Ugh

*Edit - I also used gelatin for both the pilsner and the amber by adding to the fermenters. Again, the amber tastes fine so I don't believe this to be oxidation but who knows. The pilsner did come out crystal clear however.


Rev.

 

[z-bob]

... and at the time figured maybe it will be OK since lager yeast is supposed to be very clean and not produce a lot of phenols (bound with chlorine turns into chlorophenols yes?). Just tapped up this Pilsner and it has a dominant solventy/rubbery taste to it. Not the beer lines as I just changed to Accuflex Bev-Seal and cleaned and rinsed them today and my amber ale (also tapped today) does not have this problem. Is this because I forgot to add the campden tablet? This was the first time I forgot to add it. Tastes like the very first Coopers extract kit I ever did. Ugh

*Edit - I also used gelatin for both the pilsner and the amber by adding to the fermenters. Again, the amber tastes fine so I don't believe this to be oxidation but who knows. The pilsner did come out crystal clear however.

I think cyclic compounds have to be in the wort already from the grains; the yeast (some yeasts) just transform them into different phenolics. But I could be wrong... [paging one of our microbiologists]

 

[Rev2010]

Just to add, I have a very very hard time believing oxidizing might have anything to do with it for these reasons:

1. Both the pilsner and the amber were cold crashed and had gelatin added in exactly the same way. Only difference is I lowered the pilsner from fermenting temp of 55 to 42 one week earlier to give it an extra week of lagering time.

2. The amber came out fine (used a campden tablet unlike the pilsner which I'd forgotten for the first time)

3. I had a Belgian Wit that the orange peel went into the fermenter and kept clogging the spigot when kegging and I had to repeatedly blow into the tubing to restart flow. That should technically have oxidized the beer and it came out perfectly fine.

I'm really feeling it's the chlorine that bound and created chlorophenols. The tastes seem to be on point too for chlorophenols. Just stunned that missing a half tablet of campden can mean the difference between a great beer and once that is dump worthy. Not gonna dump it, I'll live with it and hope somehow the taste improves. Regardless in two weeks from today both kegs need to be available so if it doesn't improve and get drank more it will go down the drain.

The thing recking my brain is why I didn't taste any of this nastiness when I took the FG reading! It tasted awesome! Was dry, grainy, bready, and bitter... just like my preferred German Pilsners. Why now one week later in the keg???


Rev.

 

[seatazzz]

Have you checked your water profile? Most water utilities will provide one to you on their website. I've forgotten campden a time or two, but our water has extremely low chlorine so it wasn't a big deal. Sounds to me like that might be the culprit. It amazes me no end that a cheap campden tablet can make such a big difference.

 

[Rev2010]

Have you checked your water profile? Most water utilities will provide one to you on their website.

Yes, I've been using the NY State Water Report and even got a Ward Labs report recently. Been treating my water for years, since when I used to live in New Jersey. I've also been using a quarter campden tablet per 5 gallons of water for years, just happened to forget this one time.


Rev.

 

[Rev2010]

Let me ask an additional question: since I used two packs of dry yeast fermentation was quite active and seemed to finish after about a week. After 15 days I dropped the temperature down from 55 to 42 and held it there two weeks before I kegged it. Is 4 weeks in the fermenter too short for a lager? Was it too soon to drop the temperature after 2 weeks?

On a side note, interestingly the band-aid flavor is gone from the beer and it's now got the green apple acetaldehyde flavor but it's a definite improvement over the band-aid taste and the flavor of the pilsner is coming through more. Perhaps it just needs more time?


Rev.

 

[Vale71]

It's very likely you're mistaking some fermentation by-product for clorophenols. If your beer had formed clorophenols they would be there to stay forever, neither the yeast nor lagering would make them disappear. That's why they're so bad and lead to affected beer being dumped. Hard to tell what it could have actually been without tasting a sample.

As for lagering, I usually do at least 4 weeks at 33°F before I raise to serving temperature for a first taste, and that's after 8-9 days of primary and around ten more days to slowly drop temperature to 33.

 

[Rev2010]

It's very likely you're mistaking some fermentation by-product for clorophenols. If your beer had formed clorophenols they would be there to stay forever, neither the yeast nor lagering would make them disappear.

Exactly, I know they don't go away. This is why I'm quite glad to find it's changed! Guessing I took it was cholorphenols but perhaps it wasn't. That's why I'm checking to see if perhaps I just didn't give it enough time. Hoping it will condition and work out over the next week or so but we'll see. I'm more trying to figure out if going forward in the future I should give it more time in the fermenter or more time in the keg. It was in the fermenter for 4 weeks and in the keg for one week.


Rev.

 

[Home_alone1]

Good news everyone ! Enjoy that beer ! I just bottled my first Pilsner / first beer of 2019. Excited to see how it turns out !