Strong alcohol smell and taste

Hello,

I am brewing my first batch ever. It´s Coopers Traditional Draught. It´s been in the fermentation bucket for five days. The original density was 1040. For the last two days it´s been 1010. So I think it´s time to bottle and kegging.

The odd part is that when i took the last hydrometer reading this morning, I smelled it and it had a strong alcohol smell.

So, I took out my pint glass, poured half a pint, and tasted it. It had a very strong alcohol taste, too.

Is this normal? I originally added 950 grams of sugar to the kit. When kegging and bottling, should I add the standard 6 grams per liter? Or less?

Is my beer ruined? (Sorry for the topic, but I am really excited about brewing my own)

Thanks.

You are not tasting finished beer. You are tasting uncarbonated, green beer, which often is full of perceived flaws that will not exist in the finsihed product.

If I were you, I would give it another week - you CAN bottle after five days if gravity is stable, but you will likely get better beer if you give it a little more time (especially if you are getting a strong alcohol taste).

How warm did the beer get during fermentation? If it got hot (~75 degrees Farenheit or more), you may be tasting fusel alcohols (give beer an extra boozy flavor) that can take some time to condition out.

Thanks for your quick reply!

The beer got a maximum of 75 Farenheit and a minimum of 71 F.

I am going to do exactly as you suggest, I am going to give it another week in the ferment. bucket.

Thanks again!!