Funny flavor

[akbrewer]

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

[beer_bear]

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.

[Brancid]

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.

[akbrewer]

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....

[Brancid]

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

[BeerMan]

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.

[Lufah]

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