Possible Star San Contamination

[fego]

I've got a disappointing brew which tastes thin and clinical, somewhat chemical with a hint of bleach which I think has been caused by over use of Star San. I'm interested in knowing if the taste is likely to condition out or if that is what it is.

The brew is a 1050 Bitter at 25 IBU, 95/5 MO/Crystal, Challenger and EKG using rehydrated S04. It fermented for two weeks and was completely bright when transferred to bottles/keg.

I normally sanitise the syphon tube in the full keg and use Star San spray for the tools. But this time, I poured neat Star San into the syphon tube and left it inside the keg which had SS mixture in it all shook up and foamy. I left it a while before using it and rinsed the syphon tube before using it. I don't think I could have rinsed it enough because on transferring the beer, the bright clear liquid turned very bitty as if it had separated yeast from solution, much like when a sauce you are boiling splits and a bit like lumpy sour milk.

I thought at first it was just CO2 being released from solution but having let the beer condition for 3 weeks, it has only recently started to clear and only the top half an inch out of 2 litres. I would normally expect it to be totally bright by now and very drinkable. However, it mostly still looks like Lucozade or orange squash and a taste from the keg produces an orange coloured beer which is completely opaque despite the beer originally being 100% clear. And, as I said, the flavour is thin and chemical like; a bit like a nasty alcohol free beer in contrast to the flavour it had when it was in the keg (I drained some from the tap to measure the FG - 1012). Other than the bleach like texture, it almost tastes of nothing as if the entire flavour has been stripped away. I've had infections before and this is nothing like an infection, just weird really.

Thoughts anyone?

[jmc]

Did you pour neat (undiluted) starsan into the tube?
If so I think that's your problem.

Its really viscous and probably wasn't washed out into other sanitiser solution.

However it sounds like it was washed out into your beer.
This may explain the protein / curdling acid reaction.

Maybe check your beers pH to see if its really low?

Good Luck.