The dreaded wet cardboard taste

Get advice on making beer from raw ingredients (malt, hops, water and yeast)
lord groan
Lost in an Alcoholic Haze
Posts: 509
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2012 12:34 pm
Location: Hampshire

Re: The dreaded wet cardboard taste

Post by lord groan » Sun Jan 22, 2017 9:02 pm

You haven't been ill (coughs/colds/flu etc) during this time have you, or been taking any medication? Illness and or medicines can affect the sense of taste, might explain why the bad taste was there for a while then disappeared.
Just a thought

BrewHouse

Re: The dreaded wet cardboard taste

Post by BrewHouse » Mon Jan 23, 2017 7:50 am

Good point, but both my wife and neighbour tasted it as well and so it was not just down to me or in my head. I think I will notch this down to one of the mysteries of home brew.

Capped
Under the Table
Posts: 1928
Joined: Fri Mar 20, 2009 11:08 am
Location: Barnsley,SouthYorkshire

Re: The dreaded wet cardboard taste

Post by Capped » Mon Jan 23, 2017 8:34 am

BrewHouse wrote:I just thought I would post a quick update on this.

I was about to throw this away yesterday and had another taste test just to be sure. The Cardboard taste had completely vanished. I feel like the little boy who cried wolf, but I know it was there a week ago and was overpowering.
I am completely baffled.
I normally bottle everything - hence my username - but after a flurry of brews leading up to xmas I was short on bottles, so I deployed a minikeg I've had knocking around for ages to accomodate the excess. Upon testing it last week, it too had an overpowering, in-yer-face wet cardboard taste. No malt,no hops, just wet cardboard. Utterly dreadful and undrinkable. Don't know why I didn't chuck it out there and then. But... it was still there last night so I took a small glass and drew a little off. In about a week it had gone from swamp water to something really rather nice with no trace of 'cardboardyness'- a keg version of the portion that went into bottles and which,as always, never suffered the same affliction. I can't explain it, not being in the habit of using kegs doesn't help, but there you have it.

BrewHouse

Re: The dreaded wet cardboard taste

Post by BrewHouse » Tue Jan 24, 2017 5:27 pm

Thanks for that Capped. It seemed that I was the only person in the homebrew community who had been to cardboard and back in a week. I was starting to think it had all been a bad dream. Clearly not.

User avatar
Mashman
Lost in an Alcoholic Haze
Posts: 675
Joined: Sun Jul 16, 2006 7:00 pm
Location: Canterbury, Kent

Re: The dreaded wet cardboard taste

Post by Mashman » Tue Jan 24, 2017 10:41 pm

Has anybody actually tasted a piece of wet card ?

Having spent many years in the paper making industry card or cardboard doesn't really exist, technically under 170 grams per square metre (gsm) it is paper, over 170gsm it is board. Hence Paper mills or Board mills.


Sorry to be pedantic, I have been drinking and I'll get me coat............
Two Valleys Brewery

Brewing up trouble

gnorwebthgimi

Re: The dreaded wet cardboard taste

Post by gnorwebthgimi » Wed Feb 22, 2017 4:17 pm

Glad your beer is all good now.

I was going to suggest that it could have been light struck... I think that can cause off flavours in that time frame. You shouldn't get oxidation within two weeks and never so long as there are active yeast to eat the oxygen.

Hot side aeration isn't a myth for the homebrewer; it's either complete b*****ks or complete b******t, I can't decide.

My next beer might be called wet cardboard in honour of your knowledge of the paper making industry Mashman.

Post Reply