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Hey everyone,
Looking for some advice from the pros here. I just brewed a batch of porter that leaves a phenolic/band-aid after taste on the back of the tongue. We've brewed 100+ batches on location, and this is the 3rd batch I've dumped due to this problem. Fortunately, we brew small batches (3 barrels), and I am far more comfortable dumping this than trying to pass it off on tap.
I thought I had it narrowed down to a poly fermentor, so I decommissioned it. We use only stainless vessels now, and we CIP with caustic at 150 degrees, and run a sanitizer cycle with acid. I personally confirmed that the tank was clean and sanitized immediately prior to use. All valves and fittings were removed and disassembled. I don't believe the phenolics in this batch were a result of bacterial contamination in the tank. If the phenolics are bacterial in nature, it was not in the tank. This leads me to question our hoses and chiller. My process for those is to back-flush them with caustic and then pasteurize them boiling hot wort. Honestly, sometimes I run acid through them and sometimes I don't. In this case, I did not document whether or not the hoses received a sanitizer cycle. However, all hoses and equipment used to transfer the wort from the tank to the fermentor get a closed-loop cycle of wort at 200 degrees for 10 minutes or so. The entire chiller heats up to over 190 degrees or so during this process. It seems unlikely to me that there is an contamination that occurs in this stage, but I am seeking advice from you guys for a reason. This batch of beer is causing me to re-evaluated my whole process.
We remove chlorine from the water with a charcoal water filter. I will need to ask my water department about chloramine.
I believe at least one of the phenolic batches I dumped was due to a dirty heating element in the RIMs system. Admittedly, I didn't realize the importance of keeping them SPOTLESS for recirculating. The rest of our system is gas fired. We only use a heating element at this part of the process. The first time I realized that the heating element could be contributing to the off-flavor was when I used it to heat my mash water and left the water recirculating longer than I usually do before I dough in. The water itself had a smokey odor, which would certainly carry over into the beer. Another time, after mashing our IPA for an hour, the entire mash tun smelled smokey, like burnt cigarettes. Obviously, I dumped that mash. I have been scrubbing the element and soaking it in caustic ever since, making sure to remove any bits of char. I am pretty sure the element was spotless when I used it for the porter, but it did develop a bit of char during the mash.
Right now, I'm feeling like the culprit is more than likely the RIMs system, but I'm not certain. I'm considering switching to HERMs for the peace of mind. What should my next course of action be? I'm not sure if it's the hoses, chiller, element, or water.
Looking for some advice from the pros here. I just brewed a batch of porter that leaves a phenolic/band-aid after taste on the back of the tongue. We've brewed 100+ batches on location, and this is the 3rd batch I've dumped due to this problem. Fortunately, we brew small batches (3 barrels), and I am far more comfortable dumping this than trying to pass it off on tap.
I thought I had it narrowed down to a poly fermentor, so I decommissioned it. We use only stainless vessels now, and we CIP with caustic at 150 degrees, and run a sanitizer cycle with acid. I personally confirmed that the tank was clean and sanitized immediately prior to use. All valves and fittings were removed and disassembled. I don't believe the phenolics in this batch were a result of bacterial contamination in the tank. If the phenolics are bacterial in nature, it was not in the tank. This leads me to question our hoses and chiller. My process for those is to back-flush them with caustic and then pasteurize them boiling hot wort. Honestly, sometimes I run acid through them and sometimes I don't. In this case, I did not document whether or not the hoses received a sanitizer cycle. However, all hoses and equipment used to transfer the wort from the tank to the fermentor get a closed-loop cycle of wort at 200 degrees for 10 minutes or so. The entire chiller heats up to over 190 degrees or so during this process. It seems unlikely to me that there is an contamination that occurs in this stage, but I am seeking advice from you guys for a reason. This batch of beer is causing me to re-evaluated my whole process.
We remove chlorine from the water with a charcoal water filter. I will need to ask my water department about chloramine.
I believe at least one of the phenolic batches I dumped was due to a dirty heating element in the RIMs system. Admittedly, I didn't realize the importance of keeping them SPOTLESS for recirculating. The rest of our system is gas fired. We only use a heating element at this part of the process. The first time I realized that the heating element could be contributing to the off-flavor was when I used it to heat my mash water and left the water recirculating longer than I usually do before I dough in. The water itself had a smokey odor, which would certainly carry over into the beer. Another time, after mashing our IPA for an hour, the entire mash tun smelled smokey, like burnt cigarettes. Obviously, I dumped that mash. I have been scrubbing the element and soaking it in caustic ever since, making sure to remove any bits of char. I am pretty sure the element was spotless when I used it for the porter, but it did develop a bit of char during the mash.
Right now, I'm feeling like the culprit is more than likely the RIMs system, but I'm not certain. I'm considering switching to HERMs for the peace of mind. What should my next course of action be? I'm not sure if it's the hoses, chiller, element, or water.
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