What happened??

I recently brewed the Gold Seal Blonde Ale kit from Austin Homebrew Supply. Its been in the bottle for 2.5 weeks so I tried one tonight. It was really bad. It has an extremely strong alcohol taste. I just don't know where I went wrong... I hope it gets better with time.

What yeast did you use and at what fermentation temperature?

That kit should be a fairly low alcohol beer. 4.5%. I agree on checking your fermentation and pitching temps. You're also drinking it very young. How long was it in the fermenter before you bottled?

Nottingham dry yeast and the temp started out at 72. The temp probably rose a bit after fermentation started.

I bottled it after 2 weeks in primary and 1 in secondary. Do you think it will get better with a lot of time?

Most likely, you got fusel alcohols from the high fermentation temp. That can happen with most yeasts and especially (from what I've heard) with Notty. Give them time and they might get a bit better, but it probably won't go away completely.

You probably want to look into temp control. Anything from the bucket of water and frozen water bottles method (my current method) on up to converting a fridge or freezer into a fermentation chamber with an external temperature controller (my future method).

If the ambient air was 72, and temps rose as they normally do during fermentation, you will have a very estery beer.

Did you have a total of 5 gallons in the fermenter?

I don't mean to jump in, but what is the frozen water bottle method?

you place the fermenter into a large bucket, pan or tub filled with water, and put frozen ice bottles into the water to keep the temp of the wort down near the ideal temps, you just change the water bottles out every day or so and replace with new frozen ones

Nottingham produces a lot of fusel alcohol if it's fermented at slightly higher temps. I had the same issue with my first batch. A month of bottle conditioning will help, but the fusel alcohol taste won't ever go away completely.

azscoob said:

you place the fermenter into a large bucket, pan or tub filled with water, and put frozen ice bottles into the water to keep the temp of the wort down near the ideal temps, you just change the water bottles out every day or so and replace with new frozen ones

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+1 That's the trick. It's pretty easy. I keep my fermenter in a spare half-bath downstairs. It can get fairly warm during the day and cooler at night. So, the water bath is thermal mass to help even it out. Then, I add ice bottles in the morning as it starts to warm up. Maybe replace them in the afternoon and then leave it at night. Keeps the temp of the beer a pretty steady mid-60's.

At the worst of the summer heat, I'll have to change out bottles every 4-6 hours to keep the temps down and might even have to put some in at bedtime if the nighttime temps are dropping very low. It takes some monitoring, but it lets me brew year 'round in an apartment with no AC.

you can also cover the fermenter with a t-shirt or towel to wick the cold water up into the cloth, then set up a fan blowing onto the fermenter, this will create a simple evaporative cooler that will further reduce fermenting temps if the waterbath and ice bottles arent quite enough.

azscoob said:

you can also cover the fermenter with a t-shirt or towel to wick the cold water up into the cloth, then set up a fan blowing onto the fermenter, this will create a simple evaporative cooler that will further reduce fermenting temps if the waterbath and ice bottles arent quite enough.

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I haven't needed to go that far, but I live in the Northwest where 85 is a really hot summer day and if you get over 90 it's the big heat wave of the year.

Thanks for the explanation!

azscoob said:

you can also cover the fermenter with a t-shirt or towel to wick the cold water up into the cloth, then set up a fan blowing onto the fermenter, this will create a simple evaporative cooler that will further reduce fermenting temps if the waterbath and ice bottles arent quite enough.

Click to expand...

This works amazingly well here during a Santa Ana when the humidity is like minus a million percent

Yea there were 5 total gallons in the fermenter.

Wildrebel said:

Yea there were 5 total gallons in the fermenter.

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Then I'd say 99% odds that it was your temperatures. 1% possible infection. Get those temps down and controlled and you'll enjoy your beer MUCH more.