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Dropped into HBS yesterday, and took a bottle of the offending (offensive ). And the diagnosis? Chlorophenols. Yuck!
Hands up those who said Chloropenals at the beginning. 1,2,3... OK, so there's a few of you. But seriously, thanks to everyone who offered advice. Without this forum, I'd probably have thrown in the towel. Glad to have this finally licked, and looking forward to getting stuck into some decent (and consistent) brewing.
Now we have to identify where the chlorine is coming from. I am going to eat a bit of crow on this but, are you using bleach with plastic bottles? And are you using a plastic secondary?
I have just finished an experiment where I packed half in glass and half in PET which were sanitized using the same solution. The plastic had chlorophenols, the glass didn't. I am drawing the conclusion that the chlorine is adhering to the plastic and not the smooth glass.
Also as my secondary fermentation is done in glass, I don't get the chlorine and phenols together under this assumption but if your secondary is plastic, well maybe it could be suspect to.
Nasty stuff those chlorophenols
Dogger
"Listening to someone who brews their own beer is like listening to a religous fanatic talk about the day he saw the light" Ross Murray, Montreal Gazette
At a guess, I'd suggest the chlorine was coming from the water I was topping up my fermenter with. I wasn't filtering or boiling the water.
I did wash everything with bleach, but I was rinsing, then washing again with brewers' detergent, then rinsing, then dosing heavily on the Sodium Met., and then finally rinsing with water again. Seems paranoid, I know. But I had two concerns: that my beers were getting infected; and that the bleach I was using to kill those infections was hanging around and attacking the yeast. So I really tried to rinse the fermenter and parts well.
But, as you say, the plastic may have also been holding onto the bleach (and hence, chlorine). One thing I never tried was washing the gear and setting it aside for a while to allow the chlorine to evaporate. Might be a test for later on.
I only use glass bottles, and apart from the last brew, only ever used Sodium Met. to sanitise.
This seemed to marry up with my previous experiences: All the brews that were tipped, were buggered well before the bottling stage. And those that were OK, were bottled and consequently consumed. It was only the last one that fowled in the bottles.
I agree that this chlorophenol stuff is nasty. For the next few brews, I'm going to eliminate all sources of chlorine that I can think of, including the bleach.
I never use bleach,as it always leaves a smell,even after rinsing a couple of times.I have been using generic brand nappy san,and have never had an infected brew yet.I also pop the taps apart to clean them,as shit gets stuck between the turning body and could cause infection in the bottle.
The other source of infections is your air. Yes, your air. Do you have air-con? If so, it might be worth checking it out for any mould colonies. Also, I believe that certain areas of the US are unsuitable for homebrewing during summer due to proximity to certain types of forest that naturally create a really high mould spore count in the air. In these regions, they need to do completely closed fermenation (i.e. everything is purged with CO2). But that's going a bit over the top!
). And the diagnosis? Chlorophenols. Yuck!
