Beer Forum

Can someone help? I recently brewed a extract pale ale, fairly hoppy. I used a friends plastic conical to ferment in. It hadn't been used in a while and had some mold inside. I cleaned it (I thought) really well and used Straight A to sanitize. Here's my problem. I have bottled it and it looks great, nice and hoppy and about 7% alcohol, however, I taste a distinct mold flavor. I have had several friends try it and they think it's great. Plus, they say I'm crazy - there is no "mold" flavor. To me some bottles are so moldy strong, I can't drink them. Other have just a hint and are quite drinkable. But no one else but me tastes this flavor.

Have I gone mad? (perhaps rhetorical...) Has anyone else had an experience like this? Is there anything I can do other than give it away to people (seems to be everyone else) that can't taste it?

Puzzled in Denali

I would definately give it away and see if you could work out some kind of favors for them. As for the tasting of the mold, I'm very sure it's possible. I haven't had that flavor before, but I have heard of it showing up in beers before. It usually shows up as a ring at the top of the bottle. Check there for the real answer. It could be in your head.

Being different from bottle to bottle would suggest that it is coming from the bottles, not the fermenter. I had a similar experience a while back, only some of my bottles tasted like cough syrup and others were awesome. I had run out of star-san and had to sanitize w/ bleach. I had never used bleach before and think I just didn't rinse all of the bottles well enough.

Were your bottles put away wet? You may have developed a bit of mold in the bottles while in storage. This would give the inconsistency from bottle to bottle. For sure give it away though. I don't think it'll hurt anyone and if your buddies like it give it up. Like Jimil say's, if he has a bad batch he doesn't pour it down the drain. He pours it down Justin.

Brancid wrote:Being different from bottle to bottle would suggest that it is coming from the bottles, not the fermenter. I had a similar experience a while back, only some of my bottles tasted like cough syrup and others were awesome. I had run out of star-san and had to sanitize w/ bleach. I had never used bleach before and think I just didn't rinse all of the bottles well enough.

Were your bottles put away wet? You may have developed a bit of mold in the bottles while in storage. This would give the inconsistency from bottle to bottle. For sure give it away though. I don't think it'll hurt anyone and if your buddies like it give it up. Like Jimil say's, if he has a bad batch he doesn't pour it down the drain. He pours it down Justin.

I would agree, except that I tasted this flavor when I was testing gravity (I never let a sample go to waste!). It came out from the fermenter this way from about day 6 on. I don't have an explaination to the differences in bottles....

Man that's interesting. That kind of makes me rethink the cough syrup batch. What else could give that bottle inconsistency?

I found mold in a package of whole hops once luckily caught it before I tossed the in the kettle (love to smell the hops), it is possible it was not the fermentor.

Your going to have a really hard time getting mold out of plastic. It will seep into the pours and be almost imposible to get out. If you really want to use that fermenter I would make a caustic mix and soak it in there overnight. Or at least a good long soak in bleach.

Travis