NE IPA with taste of tcp

[Lawrence R]

Have successfully made this beer several times to the extent that my son wanted to get his friends to taste it,; he’s trying to get into a group of beer fans. So I brewed up another batch in a chronical, bottled a doz pet bottles very quietly, squeezed the air out and screwed them tight with a small dose of sugar in each. After a week the bottles were tight and there was a head of gas in each. I tried one and it was good. I shipped them to him, they were 3 days in transit. I told him to let them settle in a fridge for a week then try one. He pronounced them undrinkable with a odour of TCP. I had kegged the rest and that is fine
So clearly something happened in the bottling process and. I think a tcp pong is a phenolic issue. Is bottling ne ipa and shipping it likely to cause this repeatedly or have I just loused something up in my cleaning schedule? Or are there some people with different taste buds? Unfortunately he’s in cornwall and I’m up north So we can’t do a taste comparison.I’ve asked him to send one back via another son who is visiting this week and I’ll see what I think but we can’t drink from the same bottle.

 

[RichardM]

If is a phenolic issue then this may be relevant "
One problem in trying to detect phenolic problems in your beer is that many people are insensitive to these aromas and flavors which many find objectionable.". So it could be in all the beer, but you are insensitive to it compared to your son. This may be useful Phenolic Flavors In Beer-How to Identify and Prevent Them - Winning Homebrew

 

[Northern_Brewer]

He pronounced them undrinkable with a odour of TCP.

The "C" in TCP stands for chlorine, which can come into beer either from bleach used for sanitation, or chlorine in the water. So - have you used bleach (or similar chlorine-based sanitiser) and what water treatment have you used?

 

[Lawrence R]

If is a phenolic issue then this may be relevant "
One problem in trying to detect phenolic problems in your beer is that many people are insensitive to these aromas and flavors which many find objectionable.". So it could be in all the beer, but you are insensitive to it compared to your son. This may be useful Phenolic Flavors In Beer-How to Identify and Prevent Them - Winning Homebrew

That is v interesting. I have another son who lives local to me who is visiting the distant son this weekend. I'll get them to see if they can both detect it, then get my local son to taste mine next week when he returns. From that we should be able to work out if its the beer or the people. Thanks

 

[Lawrence R]

The "C" in TCP stands for chlorine, which can come into beer either from bleach used for sanitation, or chlorine in the water. So - have you used bleach (or similar chlorine-based sanitiser) and what water treatment have you used?

I tend to clean things with VWP and sanitise with starsan. I see VWP is a dilute bleach so maybe I didn't rinse the bottles enough, maybe with a combination of different sensitivities in different members of the family. Our water is rock hard with v high RA. I use a lot of CRS but no more this time than previously and he has drunk this exact recipe before with the same water treatment. Our water is chlorinated but not chloraminated, I use SMB in every water prep. Depending on the sensitivity experiment with my other son ( see reply to Northern Brewers post) I may try again but with more care with the bottles. PET bottles should be OK shouldn't they? They help to keep the transport costs down. I also discovered in all this that DPD won't transport beer, but they will transport barley juice.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I tend to clean things with VWP and sanitise with starsan. I see VWP is a dilute bleach so maybe I didn't rinse the bottles enough,

Always possible. As part of my preparation for bottling, once they're physically clean I always run my [glass] bottles through the dishwasher without soap, and don't use anything too nasty on them after that stage.

PET bottles should be OK shouldn't they?

They're not ideal, they do seem to be somewhat more prone to oxidation than glass bottles which of course is the great enemy of NEIPAs. It does seem to help if you tighten them, then leave them a bit, then tighten again. And if other son can physically transport glass bottles, then that might help present the beer in the best condition, and also act as a control against funny things happening with the PETs.