# Homebrewers: Metallic taste in beer?



## n9viw (Jan 30, 2005)

Just uncapped the THIRD 'off' bottle in my most recent batch, and I'm really miffed! I thought I did EVERYTHING right this time: sanitized like mad (bleach soak followed by run thru dishwasher followed by campden tab water), stainless steel wort pot, plastic utensils (also sanitized), and steam-distilled water from the store. I got the distilled water special because the brew was a red ale, and I wanted it to turn out well!
The beer has an 'off' smell to it, almost like I got a bacterial contamination, but I made sure everything was clean, down to the siphon tube. And the TASTE! Oogh, dang! The first few bottles I tried were fine, but they were early on in the brew's life- I'm glad I got a chance to taste what it SHOULD have tasted like. Since then, every bottle has had a definite metallic aftertaste.
I looked online, and several sites state that tap water often has high mineral content in it that will cause a metallic taste, but I used (supposedly) distilled. Is there some way the minerals remain in distilled as well? Another site recommended store-bought DRINKING water, which my store did have, but is almost three times as expensive.
Last time I brewed, I used tap water, and I don't think it turned out this poorly (don't ask me about the previous year's IPA though, eew). Any suggestions?


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## caryatid (Jan 27, 2003)

Can't help you much, since I brew mead and not beer, but I always use the reverse osmosis filtered water from those little machines. It is less expensive than buying bottled, and adds nothing to compete with the taste of the brew. 

(Our water is so horrible we don't even make coffee with it!)


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

Not a beer brewer (meads and wines here) but did you taste the distilled water? I know some distilled waters actually have a metallic taste. something to do with the storage, I think. 

the stainless steel pot...is it scratched up? I've read in a couple of winemaking books about worn stainless steel being overcleaned. cleaning off the protective oxide. An acid bath restores it. now...that sounds like an old wives tale to me, but I'm reaching for straws here 

Is there any possibility that the bottles themselves have a problem? er...what about capping? I assume you've checked on that...so nothing is creeping in...

well. shoot. I sure hope you find out what's up. If you do, please give us an update?


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## blue gecko (Jun 14, 2006)

You didn't get all the bleach out of something. I've had this happen before and it leaves a distinctive metallic taste that does not improve with age. The batch is ruined. It doesn't take much, perhaps it was a racking tube. Trust your nose, if you can smell it at all it's too much so keep rinsing.


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## n9viw (Jan 30, 2005)

Well, here's what I learned last night:
* Better than 2/3rds of the batch was ruined- I'm guessing maybe 10 or 12 good bottles out of a full batch of 35. Of the 9 bottles still remaining to the current batch, only ONE was palatable, and even that one was starting to hint at 'turning'.
* A side note to the above- only one person out of ten to whom I gave a bottle complained about a 'taste'. Several of those are people whom I would credit as having slightly discerning taste. Two of them were college-age guys who wouldn't know a pilsner from a porter- neither one of them commented on a 'taste', so either they got lucky (they went through several bottles each), or they were too far gone to tell. 
* I noted that several of the bottles need new gaskets (leverlocks), because they had dried foam crust around the caps. I just got another case of "used" bottles, so it looks like I'll be stocking up on gaskets before the next batch.
* Pony! reminded me that I used campden water to rinse the bottles after the dishwasher, but I thought that stuff didn't affect the brew/vint product. Was I wrong?
* I read that a way to eliminate the chlorine and some minerals from tap water is to aerate it, boil it, then let it sit overnight, and rack or carefully pour into the wort bucket the next day, trying to leave the bottom quarter of water undisturbed. Comments?

Answers:
Wisconsin Ann: No, I didn't taste the distilled water before using it. Foolish mistake, and one I won't be repeating. The stainless steel stockpot sees a lot of action at the hands of super-cooker Pony!, so is a bit scuffed from cleaning. I wouldn't call it 'scratched', although I did read some disturbing things about using bleach on it- almost as bad as using it on aluminum! No more bleach for me! Please elaborate on the acid bath process to renew stainless, please?
Blue gecko: I've experienced a chlorine taste from unrinsed bleach, but never metallic. That's not to say it doesn't happen, only that I've not experienced it. Thanks for the insight. I don't use a racking tube (unless a leetle robber hose for siphoning counts), but as for smelling it, my sniffer isn't as finely-tuned as Pony!s. I'll make her get hi... er, sniff the equipment for chlorine scent. 
Okay, so here's the plan for the next batch (a stout or dark lager for winter, to be purchased as soon as I get this issue figured out): New bottle gaskets, scrubbed and campden-soaked bottles and hardware, and filtered water (or boiled tap, or drinking water from the store, another online suggestion). Any other suggestions?


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

Here's the scoop: I asked a couple of people I know on realbeer.com your question. They all agree with Blue Gecko that it's the bleach. ... for many reasons.

Here's a synopsis of what they said:

Most likely left some bleach somewhere. It's real hard to get out of crevices and from under lips. 

Bleach is bad for sanitizing. It's really bad on the metals. On stainless steel, it will remove the oxidation that protects the metal (the oxidation is formed from the chromium in the stainless steel...which is how it becomes stainless). ANYWAY....

A lot of the guys use something called "Star San" to sterilize (ooOOOO...just had a flashback moment to Dr. Who and the dalaks "STER I LIZE...STER I LIZE)

Acid bath produces the final finish on stainless. In production, it's a combo of 10% nitric and 2% hydrofluoric acid as a "dip". You can do the same to scratched stainless to restore that oxidation...OR, from what I'm told, Star San at a 2x dilution from what is normally done, will do the same. Also, a "pickling paste" or solution made for stainless steel wil do the same. (I use pickle to clean copper and silver for enameling).

Ithink I'd better rephrase that last paragraph...what pickling (or the acid bath) does, is removes the top layer of steel, to allow more of the chomium to the top of the pot, which then allows the chomium to mix with oxygen producing the oxide. (that's why stainless steel can rust, too. when the oxidation is removed, the steel comes to the top and can rust....that's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

OH and here's a link to a page about cleaning metals and stuff for beer making:http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixB.html


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## Nancy in Maine (Jun 24, 2002)

Until I read your post my first guess was your water.........I've always had very good luck with beer. My water comes straight from the ground and it's a bit on the hard side. I've read that hard water makes a good beer. I know my sister-in-law (who lived near Portland at the time) tried to make beer but she used town water which had chlorine in it. I tasted it after she told me about the weird taste. Yuck! She tried bottled water afterwards and her beer turned out fine. 

Good luck. I hope you figure it out.


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## BrianK (Aug 29, 2007)

I have found that harder water is generally good for darker beers (a Northern English brown ale like Newcastle) and meads. Softer water is better for lighter beers (a Bohemian or Czech pilsner).

With regards to sanitizing equipment, I have good luck using an iodine-based solution - Iodophor. It does not react with metals or plastic, requires only a 2 minute contact time for sanitation, and is no-rinse. The only drawback is that iodophor can leave a dark orangey-brown stain on light-colored plastics if left in contact for long periods of time.

Brian K


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