Does it matter if I boil my water and priming sugar in a teflon coated pot?

I have two batches of beer under my belt at this point and they both have a strange "artificial" (phenolic, plastic?) flavor in them. I am trying to figure out what I might be doing to get these flavors. I'm bottling my Bell's Two Hearted Clone today and don't want the same thing to happen to it. I may just run up to the store and grab a small stainless steel pot. Any thoughts?

All the various pots I use are stainless steel, except for a little aluminium one. I wouldn't think it would happen. Maybe you need to take extra care rinseing off the sterilisers you use?

i just use a glass measuring cup in the microwave to boil water and dissolve sugar, as far as the off taste goes, we need more info. could be they just need time to mellow out.
gary

I did use a glass bowl to boil my water and sugar this go around.

It's interesting you brought up my sanitation process. Believe me, I am very meticulous and anal when it comes to this. I do rinse with hot water after sanitizing. I thought maybe my hot tap water rinse might be the culprit. Could that be a possible source of an off flavor?

So, I did not rinse this time and let bottles dry thoroughly. I did check each bottle before I filled to see if there were any left over sanitizer suds. The ones that did have suds, I rinsed with hot, boiled water. Should I rinse even though it is a no rinse sanitizer? If so, do I need to be concerned with the water I rinse with?

According to the beer judging fault troubleshooter ( http://www.bjcp.org/docs/Beer_faults.pdf ), this could also be due to too high fermentation temps, or infection. I do know that when I used to ferment around 70F or higher I had all sorts of off flavors. Not sure what temp you're fermenting at...

Curlyfat - I think you hit the nail on the head here. I am certain that I was not at 70 degrees or lower. I did not realize how critical this was. I will have to figure out how I am going to accomplish primo fermenting conditions with my limited space around the house. I just bought a mini fridge that I am going to convert into a kegerator. I may use that for the time being to control the temperature. Thanks for the eye opener.

Are you fermenting is a glass carboy of a plastic bucket?

I am using a plastic bucket for primary fermentation and a glass carboy for secondary fermentation.

What are some other methods of cooling for fermentation?
As I mentioned before, I may be able to use my mini fridge. I also have heard of using the wet towel and fan on this forum. Any other ideas?

You might try a 6 1/2 gallon glass carboy for your primary. I made the change some time ago and noticed an improvement it the flavor. I was getting an off taste similar to what you discribed and the glass seemed to fix it.

Note taken. It seems that glass would be able to cool easier than plastic anyway.

By the way, would it benefit me at this point to get my bottles in cooler surroundings or is it too late to correct any possible off flavors that may have occurred during fermentation?

Im with wild on the sanitiser and plastic. I have used buckets and now usually a 16.5 gallon plastic fermenter. They have always been great.
And a little sanitiser is better than hot water so dont worry about that. I prefer iodopher.
I dont think i would boil in the teflon though.
And your fermenter is usually a few degrees higher than the room temp from the heat generated from fermentation. So you gotta watch that.
I think time could help. If not add v-8 juice and tabasco and have them as red beers!!

I've found temp control is huge, fermented batches in a nice cool basement-awesome results, fermented in my apartment closet during summer with wild temp fluctuations-lots of off flavors, some mellow with age though so don't ever dump beer. From all the research i've done and through the minimal experience i have i feel that besides sanitation, proper fermentation conditions is the most critical aspect of brewing good beer.

+1 !

I don't have much beer experience. I'm only on my 4th batch. All turned out OK. No off tastes. I ferment at 70 degrees, only because my beer ferments in my wine room and the temp is set for my wine. The wine gets a higher priority. The temp is constant at 70 degrees.

My concern making beer or wine is the water. I am on well water. I do not rinse because I am concerned about adding bacteria. It may not be much but possibly enough to cause a fermenting beer or wine a problem. I use all bottled water and use no rinse cleansers even after everything is washed. If I were on city water I would be concerned with the other chemicals. Those teflon pans do scare me. If you look at old ones some of the teflon is missing. Where did it go? Did I eat that stuff?

My water goes through a sand filter, rechargeable charcol filter, water softner, ultraviolet bug filter, RO and I still won't use it to ferment. In the country I know what goes into the ground. I have a license to spray that stuff on my crops.