mathemagic
New Member
Hello all!
I'm new to brewing, and everything on here has been invaluable. Everybody seems pretty nice to newcomers, so I thought I'd post my plight here, see if I can get any help.
I'm from Washington, where there was a great local raspberry mead that was delightful and readily available. You can't get it here in Arizona, and I haven't been impressed with what I can get locally, so I decided to brew my own. I scoured the internet, found a recipe that sounded manageable (on here, actually!), headed over to my homebrew store and started a batch of mead. The guy at the home brew store was super helpful--helped me pick up some tools I wouldn't have thought of, picked out yeast with me, etc. Everything is fermenting along delightfully! I've got a bubble every 6-10 seconds through my S-lock, and it is starting to smell vaguely alcoholic.
Then I got cocky--I decided I was going to start up a batch of hard cider. I ordered up a bushel of apples, ran them through my juicer to make into cider, and plopped them into the (santitized) carboy. I added some campden tablets (and the pectin enzyme that was recommended to us) to kill anything in there, and waited over night. While waiting, we got the yeast started--with a cup of the fresh apple juice and a package of Danstar Nottingham Ale Yeast (recommended by the guy at the brew shop). The fresh apple juice was not sterilized (just came straight out the juicer), but I assumed the plethora of yeast would take over anything that was in there.
I pitched the yeast on Sunday night, and now that's it's Tuesday morning the carboy is sitting in my kitchen fermenting like mad--a bubble every half second or so. It also smells very strongly--of apples, almost, but also of some strange gross sweet smell. It does not smell tasty.
So, brewing hive mind, what's the deal? I remember the first guy mentioning I needed to be careful about the temperature, so he gave me a yeast that was more forgiving about temperature for the mead. Since it's starting to cool off, I wasn't too worried about the temperature, but now maybe I'm brewing too hot? Does Ale Yeast just smell worse than Champagne yeast in general and I'm over reacting?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
I'm new to brewing, and everything on here has been invaluable. Everybody seems pretty nice to newcomers, so I thought I'd post my plight here, see if I can get any help.
I'm from Washington, where there was a great local raspberry mead that was delightful and readily available. You can't get it here in Arizona, and I haven't been impressed with what I can get locally, so I decided to brew my own. I scoured the internet, found a recipe that sounded manageable (on here, actually!), headed over to my homebrew store and started a batch of mead. The guy at the home brew store was super helpful--helped me pick up some tools I wouldn't have thought of, picked out yeast with me, etc. Everything is fermenting along delightfully! I've got a bubble every 6-10 seconds through my S-lock, and it is starting to smell vaguely alcoholic.
Then I got cocky--I decided I was going to start up a batch of hard cider. I ordered up a bushel of apples, ran them through my juicer to make into cider, and plopped them into the (santitized) carboy. I added some campden tablets (and the pectin enzyme that was recommended to us) to kill anything in there, and waited over night. While waiting, we got the yeast started--with a cup of the fresh apple juice and a package of Danstar Nottingham Ale Yeast (recommended by the guy at the brew shop). The fresh apple juice was not sterilized (just came straight out the juicer), but I assumed the plethora of yeast would take over anything that was in there.
I pitched the yeast on Sunday night, and now that's it's Tuesday morning the carboy is sitting in my kitchen fermenting like mad--a bubble every half second or so. It also smells very strongly--of apples, almost, but also of some strange gross sweet smell. It does not smell tasty.
So, brewing hive mind, what's the deal? I remember the first guy mentioning I needed to be careful about the temperature, so he gave me a yeast that was more forgiving about temperature for the mead. Since it's starting to cool off, I wasn't too worried about the temperature, but now maybe I'm brewing too hot? Does Ale Yeast just smell worse than Champagne yeast in general and I'm over reacting?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!