Disgusting Batch - Help What Went Wrong

[gmc]

Out of curiosity before transferring did you take a taste sample and if so was the taste present then as you mention a chemical taste as you described as toilet duck which I've never tasted but is it like a solvent taste similar to nail varnish/acetone which would indicate stressed yeast more so on the high side.
Did you take a hydrometer reading and if it was ok and in range and stable this may rule out an infection in your fermenter but not totally.
Your Syphon seal is leaking too and needs replaced as this is why you're seeing bubbles and this would be more and indicator of induced oxidisation and as your bottling from a bucket it would effect the entire brew.
The tap on your bottling bucket,do you strip it down and clean thoroughly as these are notorious for infection breading passing into every bottle you fill.
If all your bottles taste the same the problem is more likely pre-bottle stage and likewise with everything else but you need to be sure what your up against.
Personally I would strip every piece of equipment down and disassemble to give it a good clean,soak in thin bleach though I use hypochlorite for such things,clean gain and a damn good rinse.As mentioned above beware of garden hoses.
I hope you find your issue.

Its definitely a solvent type taste. I am fairly sure I didn't taste the beer when bottling as I appear to have also forgotten to take a final gravity reading. Sometimes I forget when I leave the beer in FV for 3 weeks because I assume if its had decent bubbling and its been sat that long, it must be done.

I don't have a tap on my bucket, I syphon from the bucket to the bottle so that rules that out. Doesn't rule out problems with my syphon though, which I think I will need to investigate.

Is there possibility the yeast was stressed for reasons other than sanitisation. Bad batch of yeast or incorrect storage or anything like that. It was gervin gv12 that was still in date. I am fairly sure I have used another packet before from the same batch without issue.

 

[Hop_it]

A bit of an outside chance . . . . . but is your water highly chlorinated? And did you treat it before brewing, e.g. with ~1/2 a Camden tablet? Chlorophenols can be produced during fermentation, and have a very noticeable medicinal/chemical taste. They can be produced when there are chlorine based sanitisers in the brewing water. These could come from your domestic water supply or from chemical cleaners that have not been properly rinsed off brewing equipment and/or bottles.
PS - The level of chlorination in some domestic water supplies is not always constant.

 

[gmc]

A bit of an outside chance . . . . . but is your water highly chlorinated? And did you treat it before brewing, e.g. with ~1/2 a Camden tablet? Chlorophenols can be produced during fermentation, and have a very noticeable medicinal/chemical taste. They can be produced when there are chlorine based sanitisers in the brewing water. These could come from your domestic water supply or from chemical cleaners that have not been properly rinsed off brewing equipment and/or bottles.
PS - The level of chlorination in some domestic water supplies is not always constant.

I use bottled mineral water for brewing as the water in my area is very hard and I don't want that to affect the beer. I cleaned and sanitised with chemsan, which should be no rinse, so I don't think that should be the cause of off flavour

 

[BridgeBrew]

Personally i don't like the sound of no rinse sanitisers, like Chemsan. I started brewing in the mid 80s, and i've always used a cleaner steriliser, back in the day it was Chempro, now i only use VWP. I've never had to dump a brew.

 

[Gerryjo]

Its definitely a solvent type taste. I am fairly sure I didn't taste the beer when bottling as I appear to have also forgotten to take a final gravity reading. Sometimes I forget when I leave the beer in FV for 3 weeks because I assume if its had decent bubbling and its been sat that long, it must be done.

I don't have a tap on my bucket, I syphon from the bucket to the bottle so that rules that out. Doesn't rule out problems with my syphon though, which I think I will need to investigate.

Is there possibility the yeast was stressed for reasons other than sanitisation. Bad batch of yeast or incorrect storage or anything like that. It was gervin gv12 that was still in date. I am fairly sure I have used another packet before from the same batch without issue.

Gravity readings can tell a lot be it over attenuating to say 1.004 or lower which some yeast may achieve depending on fermentable sugars, temperature etc but most are usually 1.014 to 1.008 and anything lower can be wild yeast or infection.
The fact that it's a solvent taste can be either of three IMO :Wild yeast,higher fermentation temps higher than 23° with G12 which is similar to S04 or residual from cleaning chems not rinsed thoroughly enough.

 

[gmc]

Gravity readings can tell a lot be it over attenuating to say 1.004 or lower which some yeast may achieve depending on fermentable sugars, temperature etc but most are usually 1.014 to 1.008 and anything lower can be wild yeast or infection.
The fact that it's a solvent taste can be either of three IMO :Wild yeast,higher fermentation temps higher than 23° with G12 which is similar to S04 or residual from cleaning chems not rinsed thoroughly enough.

I am certain the fermentation temp wasn't too high because it was at room temp for entirety of the brew. I also don't think it was too much residual cleaner.

Can you tell me more about wild yeast. I am familiar with it to the extent that it can get in your brews and make them bad but other than that I have no clue.

What steps is a person supposed to be taking to avoid getting their batch contaminated and what/when are the most likely culprits.

 

[Gerryjo]

I am certain the fermentation temp wasn't too high because it was at room temp for entirety of the brew. I also don't think it was too much residual cleaner.

Can you tell me more about wild yeast. I am familiar with it to the extent that it can get in your brews and make them bad but other than that I have no clue.

What steps is a person supposed to be taking to avoid getting their batch contaminated and what/when are the most likely culprits.

Did you check your temp regularly as temps do fluctuate.
Take a look here and this will give a better insight into yeast.

 

[gmc]

Did you check your temp regularly as temps do fluctuate.
Take a look here and this will give a better insight into yeast.

Ironically, I started paying much closer attention to temps for this rotten batch. I have those stick on thermometers which are not NASA grade accuracy, but certainly give me an idea whats going on. I have started paying much closer attention to the temperature profiles for the yeast in use and so on. I have no facilities to heat or cool, but I can at least choose yeast based on the temps I can reproduce at home

 

[Sandimas]

Here's my thread on TCP taste in the keg Keg woes: TCP taste

I deliberately left some beer in there and it's now a month later, going to open it later and see if there's any visible sign of infection: I hope there is as this would at least be some positive evidence of the cause. It can be so hard to track down these taste issues.

 

[CD]

Could it have been sabotage? You haven’t gone and spent money earmarked for a new kitchen on new brewery equipment have you?

 

[Dave's Bunker]

I've found that Milton fluid, the stuff they use to sterilize baby bottles works for me it's a no rinser and therefore easy to use, the only drawback being the product has some sort of bleach in it (can't be harmful otherwise they wouldn't use it for babies) so don't get any on your clothing, I've wreaked two sweatshirts in the past. Happy brewing everyone

 

[Dave's Bunker]

Could it have been sabotage? You haven’t gone and spent money earmarked for a new kitchen on new brewery equipment have you?

 

[gmc]

Could it have been sabotage? You haven’t gone and spent money earmarked for a new kitchen on new brewery equipment have you?

The mrs doesn't drink beer but she does treat the fermenter like a pet. She was annoyed when I bought a new air lock that didn't make the bubble sound. Had to revert to my old one.

 

[Dads_Ale]

The mrs doesn't drink beer but she does treat the fermenter like a pet. She was annoyed when I bought a new air lock that didn't make the bubble sound. Had to revert to my old one.

That's solved it then, she has been spraying it with Wee-away