Soapy flavors

[rollingskone]

Hi all,

I've been brewing on/off for a couple of years now. Most of my brews apparently have a slight soapy flavor. The most recent batches have less of that taste. Does anyone have any reason why this is happening? Any advice?

 

[gwapogorilla]

John Palmers book attributes soapy flavor to 2 reasons.
1) Not washing/rinsing your glassware(bottles/carboys) well enough.
2) Leaving your beer in the primary fermenter too long after the primary vigorous fermentation is done. Soapy flavors result from the breakdown of fatty acids in the trub.

I had a light beer get those flavors...I was doing 3 weeks in the primary. I have since cut it down to 2 weeks before I rack to secondary.
But, it also depends on the beer style as well. Some folks here don't use a secondary at all, and have very good results.

 

[unionrdr]

With yeast autolysis being a thing of the past,I'm left wondering what constituents of a beer make fatty acids that are prone to break down in such a short time?! Soap is made from fatty acids,so what you're tasting is litterally soap. I've never really gotten that off flavor before. So maybe part of the blame is how the extract is brewed,& what with? Besides the quality of the extract to start with. It'd be great to get to the bottom of this situation so as to provide some clear cut answers...over & above using soap instead of PBW or the like to clean with & not rinsing properly/sufficiently.

 

[Cyclman]

Do you rinse your glassware extensively? I rinse everything in very hot water six or more times. My serving glasses are hand washed with detergent, rinsed six times.

Serving glasses can be a big issue if you put them in the dishwasher.

 

[32Brew]

My my soapy flavor i had in some batches came from water chemistry. My tap water tastes fine, but it is alkaline and hard. This flavor was most apparent in the batches that had American, citrus hops. I had to go to RO water and build it up. Check your water profile. That could be the culprit