What is a 'normal' brewing smell?

[Sir Real Ale]

Difficult to describe smells I know. I am brewing my third brew (Muntons Old Conkerwood). The first two (Muntons Stout and Woodforde Wherry) ended up with what I would describe as a plasticky chemically taste that made the beer somewhat unpalatable (although my brother and Dad can't seem to taste this and so are happy drinking it). With the latest brew I could smell this same thing as it was fermenting

1st two brews: used DAABs soda crystals and thin bleach approach and rinsed for England. No water treatment.

3rd brew: used Ritchies cleaner / sanitiser but didn't rinse as much (although still fairly well). Treated water with half a crushed campden tablet.

In all cases using plastic fermenter bought 2nd-hand off Ebay - allegedly only ever cleaned with soft brush (also bought) so in theory no scratches. Latest brew uses second of two fermenters, although first one used for water treatment.

Smell has subsided, and does smell better now, but wary of how it will taste.

Is this a normal smell or is this brew doomed as well??? And then is it a case of resorting to some or all of:

a) no-rinse sanitiser
b) boiled water
c) new fermenter

Thanks SRA.

[scottish69]

Im no expert but it seems that water companies can change the rate at which they add chemicals to your water supply - it could be that?

Im sure an expert will be along shortly!

[PureGuiness]

Im no expert but it seems that water companies can change the rate at which they add chemicals to your water supply - it could be that?

Im sure an expert will be along shortly!

The levels of chlorine in the water supply will change throughout the day as well. There is likely to be more chlorine in the water by volume at peak usage times for instance because it spends less time in the pipes from the treatment plant.

I also believe that distance from the treatment plant can also make a difference.

You can usually get some fairly detailed information about this and other chemicals in the water supply from you water authorities web site (along with the latest results of the quality reports.

[brysie]

not sure if i can place the smell youre describing but are you sure its not just the plastic fv itself?

down here in devon , the boffin i was talking to at south west water said that chlorine is added something like one ppm at source
and is probably down to half a ppm at the tap.
if you use the campden tablet route to treat your water it shouldnt be a problem.

you didnt say whether you kegged or bottled and what time scale youre working to, so i was wondering if youre brew was a bit young maybe.
i will say that some of my kit brews have given off some very funny pongs but turned out very drinkable afterwards,
and have improved hugely given enough time to condition.

[blankfrank]

I'm still very new to brewing only brewed 6 kits to date but my formula for getting geat beer from kits (and I'm as sensitive as you are to odd smells ect) is

I agree with brysie let it condition longer than instructions indicate, my wife allways says I start drinking it to early as it losses that "twang" after 4 weeks and is 200% better after 8 weeks. (although she may be refering to the time I start drinking in the day)!

Also I have had great results by using mineral water instead of tap water. Asda sell their Eden Falls for 93p for 5 ltr's, Tesco similar.

Try racking beer into a seconf FV after first 2 or 3 days to get it off dead yeast and avoid yeast bite.

Don't use Tate and Lyle, go for brewer's sugar or better still DSM even for priming.

I'm sure this should work for you

Frank

[alefric]

I often clean out kegs and FVs using a bleach solution and then cancel by using sodium met ( campden tablet ) and always treat brewing liquor with a campden tablet ( 1/2 per 25 ltrs ) and have no chemical smells....Bare in mind that the smell may be nothing to do with your water, some yeasts can give a sulphorous smell or it could even be an infection. Sorry if these don't address your problems directly......just some suggestions.

Best wishes and good luck

Andrew

[Sir Real Ale]

Thanks people.

I normally leave it a while in the fv, say 10 days so it clears. First brew I kegged but it lost pressure fairly quickly (yes, old boots barrels from Ebay too). Second brew I bottled. Certainly left it plenty of time before drinking, so it is not that it is too young.

I had a sneaky taste today of the brew. Obviously hardly a nice taste at this stage, but I'm a bit more hopeful because the off-putting taste didn't seem so strong - maybe not there at all, difficult to say. Will need to bottle at the weekend and wait to see what it is going to be like.

I've checked all the water info out online before - I just got the impression that people didn't worry so much about it, but maybe as suggested the bottled spring water is a way to go, although it adds about £5 a brew.

[garwatts]

Thanks people.

I normally leave it a while in the fv, say 10 days so it clears. First brew I kegged but it lost pressure fairly quickly (yes, old boots barrels from Ebay too). Second brew I bottled. Certainly left it plenty of time before drinking, so it is not that it is too young.

I had a sneaky taste today of the brew. Obviously hardly a nice taste at this stage, but I'm a bit more hopeful because the off-putting taste didn't seem so strong - maybe not there at all, difficult to say. Will need to bottle at the weekend and wait to see what it is going to be like.

I've checked all the water info out online before - I just got the impression that people didn't worry so much about it, but maybe as suggested the bottled spring water is a way to go, although it adds about £5 a brew.

I use Asda still 2 litres for 12/13p so approx £1.50 for 23 litre brew and you can use the bottles for your beer