First AG brew, smell?

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emr454

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I took a gravity reading of my first AG brew, a 2 row/Cascade SMaSH today. It started at 1.038 and now it is 1.016. I am drinking the sample out of the hydro. test jar and it has a very strong vegetal smell to it. It kind of smells like dark leafy greens that have been boiled, its the only way I can describe it. I brewed it on the 16th of Feb and today marks 14 days in primary. I did a 3 gal batch in a 6 gallon carboy using nottingham yeast. It doesnt taste bad but the smell is concerning me. Any ideas?

Eric
 
Did you dry hop? How many IBU? What was the hop schedule? Whole leaf or pellet?

BJCP's "Beer Faults" document says

Encourage a fast, vigorous fermentation (use a healthy, active starter to reduce lag time; this is often due to bacterial contamination of wort before yeast becomes established). Check sanitation. Check for aged, stale, or old ingredients (especially old liquid malt extract). Avoid oversparging at low temperatures.

It's still a little young and you may be getting a bit of green beer. Time heals most wounds. :D
 
I used Nottingham ale yeast.

I didnt dry hop. I used whole, organic Cascade hops that smelled awesome. The hop schedule was:
.5 oz at 60 min
.5 oz at 20
.5 oz at 10
.5 oz at flameout

I dont know what the AA's were exactly
 
If it is "green" still, then should I wait at least another week before bottling and carbing?

Eric
 
Well its a week later and its still at 1.016, still with a slightly funky, but not bad smel and still bubbles every now and then. I only used 2 row malt, so it seems right that there werent too many fermentables in it and could finish as high as 1.016. My mash temps did get a little high, about 165, could that result in a funky smell? Maybe its the Cascade hops giving it a green smell? I'll give it a few more days and see how it is. Its almost been 4 weeks now.

Eric
 
Well, maybe its been too cold in my room the last couple weeks. A soon as I turn the heater on, I start to see bubbles in the airlock, but after having the heater off overnight it stops. Hopefully the changing temps havent stressed the yeast too much.

Eric
 
With that yeast I would expect better attenuation, unless you mashed high 156-158. I think your best bet would be to heat the beer to 70 and let it work for another week. Then test your gravity again. I'm in the same boat with you right now. I have a red ale that started at 1.057 and is sitting at 1.026 now. Sit and wait is all we can do.
 
it sounds like the bubbles you're seeing are probably CO2 coming out of solution.

I bet the high mash temp (165 is _really_ high) is what caused the low fermentability.
 
it sounds like the bubbles you're seeing are probably CO2 coming out of solution.

I bet the high mash temp (165 is _really_ high) is what caused the low fermentability.

Yes, I agree with that. Higher than 154 or so would make the wort less fermentable, with about 160 denaturing the enzymes and stopping any futher conversion. I wouldn't think you'd get any further attenuation out of that beer.

Warming it up will cause bubbling, as the co2 comes out of the beer to the surface. It's not fermenting, it's offgassing.
 
So it should be ready to bottle by now? I guess I'll have to deal with it being funky smelling.

Will the addition of the bottling sugar cause it to start up again. If thats the case then I wont be able to bottle yet, correct?

Eric
 
The bottling or priming sugar causing it to start back up is what creates the CO2 in the bottles, if it doesn't start back up then you will have flat beer.
 
Or, could I dump in a little DME to see if it starts back up? It'll no longer be a SMaSH, but it may help, right? I guess next time I'll shoot for a lower strike water temp and bring it up slowly and keep a better eye on it.

Eric
 
The bottling or priming sugar causing it to start back up is what creates the CO2 in the bottles, if it doesn't start back up then you will have flat beer.

I was just worried about bottle bombs. So, roughly 2.75oz of corn sugar wont be enough to make the bottles explode?

Eric
 
Or, could I dump in a little DME to see if it starts back up? It'll no longer be a SMaSH, but it may help, right? I guess next time I'll shoot for a lower strike water temp and bring it up slowly and keep a better eye on it.

Eric
If it does start back up, you'll still have all the unfermentables from the first wort, plus new unfermentables from the DME, so the FG will be even higher. You might get your ABV up (because you will have, in effect, just given the yeast more sugar to turn to alcohol), but there is nothing you can do if your mash was too high.
 
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