My first AG beer smells / tastes a bit like vodka or liquor

Hello,

I just racked my 1st all grain batch from primary to secondary and when doing so, I noticed an aroma that reminded me of vodka.

It looks fine, but again, smells a bit like vodka.

I then tasted my sample that I used to check the gravity and it tastes a little like vodka as well.

Any ideas of what could have gone wrong? I don't think that the ABV is extremely high or anything like that.

My OG was 1.070 and it's currently at ~ 1.020 when racking into the secondary after 1 week.

Here was my recipe ( This ended up being about 4.25 gallons into the primary ):

Amount Item Type % or IBU

9.74 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (1.7 SRM) Grain 95.24 %
0.49 lb Simpsons Medium Crystal (55.0 SRM) Grain 4.76 %

1 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (60 min) Hops 22.0 IBU
1 oz Chinook [13.00 %] (15 min) Hops 0.0 IBU
1 oz Chinook [13.00 %] (0 min) Hops 0.0 IBU

1 Pkgs Northwest Ale (Wyeast Labs #1332) Yeast-Ale


Although this was above the 4 gallon mark in my primary ( bucket ), it appears to be only 2 inches above the half way mark in my secondary ( 5 gal glass carboy ).


Any ideas about what I can do? I dry hopped about 1 oz of chinook when I racked over to maybe help out the flavor.

Also, I missed my mash out temp by several degrees - probably only got up to 162 or so, although from what I've read..as long as I am boiling almost immediately after it's not a terrible problem, but I'm new to this...so, what do I know

My first guess is too high fermentation temperature. It sounds like you've got some fusel alcohols (that vodka taste).

I like that strain for some mild fruitiness, but I've never fermented it above 72 degrees. If the beer got above 75 degrees during fermentation, it'll probably be pretty fruity, and it could definitely get some fusels if it got even higher than that.

If you didn't make a starter, and only used one package of yeast, you could have also stressed the yeast quite a bit. That's a pretty high OG for only one package of yeast.

Medicinal flavors can come from too much chlorine. It's either in your water or you're disinfecting with bleach and not cleaning it out thoroughly. That's my best guess, anyway.

Thanks Yooper,

That probably explains it. I'm here in Los Angeles, and it has gotten pretty warm here in the last week.

I just pulled out the thermometer and it's about 74 in here right now. I'll bet that bucket got way above that with the crazy fermentation that was going on ( started about an hour after pitching ).

Looks like this might have been just a wasteful learning experience!

I might just have to take up my friend on a free fridge offer!

Artyboy, thanks for the reply.

Actually, I used bottled spring water so I don't think it would be chlorinated, although I might be wrong.

I used iodophor for sanitizing, so I'm guessing poor rinsing wouldn't be a problem there right?

I just brewed a small batch of porter using my tap water and dry danstar windsor yeast ( which took off and made a mess ).

I guess I'll wait and see how that comes out.

I just moved my porter that I brewed into a water bath, I hope it's not too late.

There are some pretty extreme temperature swings in LA, and I know that's not a good thing either.

My previous batches came out fine however, but this was before things started warming up around her. Luckily, my apartment is completely covered with shade and there is 0 direct sun light, so it doesn't get too hot here. I think 75 is about the MAX, but the temp drops 15 / 20 degrees at night.

I'm hoping the water bath will help even out the temps and prevent this.

I really don't want to put a fridge in my apartment, but I will if there's no other choice.

[sigh]

A water bath can really help! I've seen people post pictures of their "swamp coolers" and I have an Icecube cooler with wheels that I've set up as my water bath cooler. Here is a picture:


I took off the original lid (it's hollow) and made a foam lid. It's nice because I can add a few frozen water bottles in there, and float a thermometer in the water bath to be able to check the temperature.

I like to ferment my ales at about 62-65 degrees (fermenting temp, not ambient air temperature). Since fermentation produces heat itself, the temperature inside a fermenter can easily be 5-10 degrees warmer than the ambient temperature. And, a hotter temperature makes fermentation go faster, which produces more heat, etc, so it can be an explosive fermentation if the temperature gets above 70-72 degrees. It's a challenge to be able to produce great ales in the summer, but once you figure out a way to maintain a decent fermentation temperature, it gets easier.

Let it age a month or two. My impression of your description is that it is green. After it has aged that taste and smell will go away.

If it tastes like cough syrup, chunk it, it won't get better, I know.

Yooper, that's an awesome cooler. I just saw one of those coolers the other day at the drug store, I might go pick one up.

On a brighter note, I've discovered that my downstairs storage closet is steady at about 62 degrees right now while it's 75 in the rest of the place, so I guess I'll be keeping everything in there with my ice / water bath.

Wellshooter, thanks for the reply. I'm going to let it hang out in the secondary for another week at least then bottle it up and stick it somewhere where I can forget about it. Maybe it will work out ok in the long run, I hope!

No cough syrup taste, just like I put a pint of vodka in it.

Thanks for your input guys, I really appreciate it.

Wellshooter said:

Let it age a month or two. My impression of your description is that it is green. After it has aged that taste and smell will go away.

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it may go away some, but if it is truly fusel alcohols, that will not age out. my first brew was temp controlled, but I pitched at ~80 deg, instead of at the fermentation temp. the fusel taste remained after months of aging. just learn from it.

I just wanted to send a quick update about this.

I ended up bottling after letting it sit in the secondary for a week. It smelled quite a bit better when I bottled it, I really didn't have any bad smell or anything although it was extremely cloudy.

However, I just decided to crack open a bottle after I noticed that it's cleared up considerably in the bottle.

I must say, it tastes delicious. No bad smell either!

I was on the verge of just dumping it all out, but I'm glad I didn't.

Patience is the key, see the many posts that Revvy adds... before rushing to judgement give it time. If you bottle, may I suggest that if you are truley in doupt pick up some 1/2 bottles. Saves time on beers you think may be bad when botteling.... then when we they are good, you get to drink them faster -

Yooper, I love your fermentation chamber. I have a question though....how often do you change out the ice, and what size bottles do you use? And how high do you put the level of water. Okay, that's 3 questions, sorry. I need temp control bad. Haven't brewed in two months.

mikeysab said:

Yooper, I love your fermentation chamber. I have a question though....how often do you change out the ice, and what size bottles do you use? And how high do you put the level of water. Okay, that's 3 questions, sorry. I need temp control bad. Haven't brewed in two months.

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I put the water up to the level of the beer. There are a couple of reasons for that, but the main reason is that it takes much longer for that volume of liquid to change temperatures. If I'm gone for a couple of days, it won't warm up very fast. It stays at the same temperature for a long time.

I change out the ice whenever it's melted completely, or if the temperature is rising. I just float a floating thermometer in there, and check it periodically. I have a mix of bottle sizes- a couple of soda bottles that are 16 ounces, and a half gallon milk jug, as well as an old plastic 4 pound LME container with a lid. They all fit on the side of the carboy in the water bath.

In the summer, I might change out two bottles every other day or so.