Plastic aroma

[Ryan.RSM]

Hey guys I need some help.
Keged my porter about a week ago. And I've noticed a slight plastic aroma. I disasemble the keg an clean with star San. The only reason I can think of would be that the town h2o has to much cl in it an it's causing this off smell. This has been the case in my last two batches also. Any input would be helpful

[mcgster]

Did you use any camden tabs or let the water sit out for a day or two before you brewed?

Chlorine has definitely ruined many a beer, i made the mistake of brewing with chlorinated water once in the new apartment and it definitely gives a unique off flavor it tastes almost like the beer has a medicinal after taste.

[Ryan.RSM]

I used spring water for brewing. The only water that had cl in it was used to mix my star San an rinse the keg

[mcgster]

Hmmm that shouldn't have caused a problem, if that's the case chlorine likely wasn't the cause.


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[CartoonCod]

You mentioned you cleaned your keg with Starsan. Starsan is not a cleaner just a sanitizer. You need to clean by other means, such as PBW, then sanitize with Starsan. What happens is that Starsan only sanitizes the surface it touches. If they are not clean (including organic film deposits) then there can be bacteria living underneath. A weird infection could definitely cause a plastic aroma.

ps. I brew with chlorinated water, and as long as you boil it (during the boil) you don't have to worry about the chlorine contributing to off-flavours.

[CartoonCod]

I used spring water for brewing. The only water that had cl in it was used to mix my star San an rinse the keg

Hmm. I do this too but for my fermentors. It's never been an issue for me, but I mostly mix the star san up in a squirt bottle and let it set for a while so the chlorine would have change to off-gas. Having said that I'm sure I've made fresh batches and sprayed my equipment before use. I'm guessing that there would be so little chlorine left that it would be insignificant. Who knows maybe the chemicals in the star-san would render the chlorine inert. My guess for your plastic aroma is something other than this.

[CartoonCod]

I used spring water for brewing. The only water that had cl in it was used to mix my star San an rinse the keg

Hmm. I do this too but for my fermentors. It's never been an issue for me, but I mostly mix the star san up in a squirt bottle and let it set for a while so the chlorine would have change to off-gas. Having said that I'm sure I've made fresh batches and sprayed my equipment before use. I'm guessing that there would be so little chlorine left that it would be insignificant. Who knows maybe the chemicals in the star-san would render the chlorine inert. My guess for your plastic aroma is something other than this.

[Ryan.RSM]

Hmmm I'll defently give the keg a good cleaning. I've had this happen to my last 2 batches, all samples tasted and smelled fine coming from the fermenter. So I've narrowed it down to a contamination in the keging process

[gm-]

Are you using new hoses, autosiphons or tap lines or something? Sometimes new plastics can give off a bad aroma.

[Ryan.RSM]

Used a new auto siphon but had the problem the batch before too. I'm really stumped, must be some kind of infection in the keg I've looked up this off aroma an the most common was cl. So when I keg my next batch I'm going to
Take apart the keg an clean with PBW, rinse with water then sanitize with star San that was diluted with bottled water to make sure there is no residual cl left from my town water

[Brewnoser]

One of the Advent beers exhibited an off thing - latest StarSan batch not good? Is it bulk packaged or individual from manufacturer.

[saosborne]

my guess would be the beerlines. unhook the keg and depressurize. open it up and take a whiff if it still smells like plastic then its probably the keg or it could be something in the gas