Foul smell and taste from rubber seal

[NzDan]

I bought a new 25 litre plastic barrel the other week to use as a secondary,
After tasting the first batch, it tasted and smelled foul, I thought i muat have got an infection, i had been using metabisulpate, but after this started using household bleach, the second and third batches also smelled foul although not as bad as the first,
After the third batch i washed the thick rubber seal which comes out of the lid and put it in a plastic tub overnight, the next morning the smell of the rubber had permeated throught he plastic tub, i had found the cause of the foul smell and taste,
After getting in contact with the supplier, they didnt know what had caused the rubber to smell because they have sold thousands of these over six years, they asked a chemist if the bleach or bisulphate had made the rubbers composition change which is all they could put it down to, they are sending me a new barrel but im hesitant to use anything with rubber now.
Has anyone heard of this before? Does anyone recommend a suitable steriliser for rubber seals, I dont want to ruin another batch.

[danno]

what exactly do you mean by "foul"? can you narrow that down at all?

my preferred sanitizer is an acid based, food grade sanitizer called Star-San. I have no idea if you can get it in NZ. if you can't, try checking out a Farm supplies store, and ask them for a food grade acid sanitizer for the dairy industry. that's essentially the same stuff the brewing industry uses, and it won't impart any off flavors to either your equipment or your beer...

good luck, and welcome!

[NzDan]

Ok thanks i,ll look into that and see if that helps with the new seal, although im sure after six years someone must have had the same problem as most people use metabisulphate or bleach, i think,
Maybe they just think their beers no good or has an infection and not realise that the rubber stinks, im not too sure whether the rubber smelled like that from new or not but i will find out next week when i get a new one,
I think its probably just the type of synthetic rubber used and maybe the manufacturing process or the materials have changed from how they used too, or maybe just a bad batch of rubber?

The beer smells just like the rubber seal does all time, its actually quite a strong and sickening smell, the taste is drinkable, only just, i cant explain the taste,
rubbery, metallic and quite close to over ripened to rotting strawberries.

[brewmonkey]

Originally posted by danno
what exactly do you mean by "foul"? can you narrow that down at all?

my preferred sanitizer is an acid based, food grade sanitizer called Star-San. I have no idea if you can get it in NZ. if you can't, try checking out a Farm supplies store, and ask them for a food grade acid sanitizer for the dairy industry. that's essentially the same stuff the brewing industry uses, and it won't impart any off flavors to either your equipment or your beer...

good luck, and welcome!

Star-San or Sani-Clean\ (http://www.fivestarchemicals.com/brew/homead.pdf) are the ONLY chemicals that I would use on rubber seals. Homebrewers should be using Sani-Clean instead of Star-San as it is a low foaming acid anionic sani. While the contact time is a bit longer it does the same exact jjob as Star-San.

Star-San is designed as a high foaming agent for brewers using a CIP (Clean In Place) system in the brewhouse to ensure that all nooks and crannies in their brite tanks and fermenters are sani'd.

As for those outside the U.S. I would check with morebeer.com or some of the other larger homebrew suppliers on the web.


Edit- I just spoke with Chris over at Morebeer.com and he said that he can ship Star-San/Sani-Clean to NZ.

[NzDan]

Thanks for your suggestions on using acid sterilisers, ive never heard of them before and cant find any suppliers in new zealand yet but i checked out morebeer.com and was considering ordering some although the $118.00 shipping is a bit steep lol.
I will look around locally there must be some equivalent steriliser used in processing plants and the dairy industry as (Danno) pointed out, there seems to be no retail sales here but I will check out a farm supplies store.
Cheers

[zoom6zoom]

One question that wasn't asked - is this a food grade plastic barrel, and is the rubber seal intended to be food grade as well? It could be the wrong material for your intended use.

[toneyc]

I was always thinking that shipping couldn't be that much until last week when I shipped a project box to India for my company. It was just a little standard electronics project box with a chip and a few capacitors on a board, that cost me about $12 to make, but shipping was $100! Yeah, ok, now I understand the shipping concerns!

:eek:
Toney.

[danno]

Originally posted by brewmonkey
Homebrewers should be using Sani-Clean instead of Star-San as it is a low foaming acid anionic sani. While the contact time is a bit longer it does the same exact job as Star-San.
except Sani-Clean costs twice as much, since you need to mix it at twice the dilution rate as Star-San...

[NzDan]

Originally posted by zoom6zoom
One question that wasn't asked - is this a food grade plastic barrel, and is the rubber seal intended to be food grade as well? It could be the wrong material for your intended use.

According to the supplier it is food grade and has been used for six years by home brewers, ive resorted to using kling film over the top for the mean time.

[brazilhead]

NZ, my first 2 fermenting buckets were had really cheap: a 20-liter white plastic bucket just like brew kits in the states come with and a taller, narrower 30-liter black plastic drum. Both had come with olives and were found at a market. I´ve also heard restaurants will give them away. Now I´m using a 30-liter black plastic drum made for the dairy industry. It´s really easy to clean and has smooth surfaces inside and it has a threaded screw-on lid that guarantees a seal. It set me back about $40 (US) but it was a really good investment.

I´ve bought Star San through the mail but a good substitute would seem to be Iodophor which is also no-rinse and more readily available. It´s also quite cheap to use.