Severely alcohol; Green beer the cause?

5.4lb 2-row
3.4oz cara pils

Mash @ 155

.4oz zeus hops
.5oz magnum hops

1.05oz honey

OG 1.064 @ 58 degrees F

Ferment temps are 70 - 75.

2.5 gallons finished

Bottle three days ago with, decided to give it a try. Absolutely alcohol overpowering. Is this possibly because of it not being old enough?

It will mellow out. But depending on your final gravity you could have a 7% beer on your hands. Come back to it in 3-4 weeks and see how it is.

Skullfingr said:

5.4lb 2-row
3.4oz cara pils

Mash @ 155

.4oz zeus hops
.5oz magnum hops

1.05oz honey

OG 1.064 @ 58 degrees F

Ferment temps are 70 - 75.

2.5 gallons finished

Bottle three days ago with, decided to give it a try. Absolutely alcohol overpowering. Is this possibly because of it not being old enough?

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You fermented too warm and you're "severe alcohol" is likely fusels. Try to keep it at 68F or lower for at least the first 2 days of fermentation.

I don't have a fridge for that kind of temperature. Keeping my home, where I ferment, at 65 would piss off my girlfriend! haha.

Is there a way to deal with those fussels? I've had a few beers come out that way and I've let the sit for a while but they're still pretty sharp. I've finished off all the beer (I finished off all my lighter-colored beers as the weather started cooling) but I haven't touched the cider since I bottled it at the end of June.

ETA to Skullfingr: One way to keep your beer cool is to find a container a little bigger than your fermenting container. Put your fermenter into the bigger container and add water, which will insulate your brew. For the first couple days, add some ice to the the water and that will help keep the temperature down.

The ultimate answer is to just ferment a bit cooler.

It is not difficult to buy a cooler like an igloo ice cube or other similar cooler, or even one of those small plastic tubs, and stick your fermenter in it and fill up the outside with water. Then you can use frozen water bottles to control the temperature within a pretty narrow range. It is quite easy to maintain fermentation temperatures in the 60's that way, even if the ambient temperature in your house is in the 80's or 90's.


For the lower-end fusel alcohols that make the beer taste "hot" you can usually just let the beer sit a longer time and they will fade. For the higher fusels they can be a bit more stubborn. They do tend to fade over time, but it can take a *very* long time for them to smooth out. The real answer to making better beer is to control your fermentation temperatures. You will be completely shocked what a huge effect this one variable has on the quality of your beer. Your beer can easily go from "drinkable", "okay", or "good" to "great" or "excellent" just with controlling the fermentation more carefully. That means controlling the temperature in addition to pitching adequate quantities (and appropriate strains) of yeast for the beer you are making. And I suppose aeration, but if you are using dry yeast then it's not really a worry.

Skullfingr said:

I don't have a fridge for that kind of temperature. Keeping my home, where I ferment, at 65 would piss off my girlfriend! haha.

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Don't be a puss!! If you can go no sex/raging ***** for 3 days to a week ONCE A MONTH, she can go the same amount of time with the room being a little chilly!!!




DISCLAIMER- I IN NO WAY CONDONE PISSING OFF SWMBO. DO AT YOUR OWN RISK/FUNERAL!

Brewcrew02 said:

Don't be a puss!! If you can go no sex/raging ***** for 3 days to a week ONCE A MONTH, she can go the same amount of time with the room being a little chilly!!!

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I would add that for marketing purposes you can sell these few days as "snuggle time" to your SWMBO.

Skullfingr said:

I don't have a fridge for that kind of temperature. Keeping my home, where I ferment, at 65 would piss off my girlfriend! haha.

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There are some really cheap options that can keep a carboy or bucket pretty cool. For example, I've got one of those insulated grocery bags (something like THIS) that fits a fermenter nicely- just throw it in there then put some ice packs around it. I've got a friend who leaves his fermenters near a cracked window at night (at least during cooler months) and he's able to keep them under 68F for those first couple days. Or go to WalMart and spend $5 on a large pail (usually blue or red), place your fermenter in it, pack it with frozen water bottles that you rotate out every 12 hours or so.

The most important thing is to keep your beer below 68F for the first 36-48 hours of fermentation, after which you can let it ramp all the way up to 72F. Also, make sure to pitch an adequate starter to give your yeast a boost. The last thing you want is a beer fermented too warm... ugh.

Cheers

Brewcrew02 said:

Don't be a puss!! If you can go no sex/raging ***** for 3 days to a week ONCE A MONTH, she can go the same amount of time with the room being a little chilly!!!




DISCLAIMER- I IN NO WAY CONDONE PISSING OFF SWMBO. DO AT YOUR OWN RISK/FUNERAL!

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That's completely inappropriate. This forum is not a place where that is "funny". Please refrain from posting like that again in the brewing forum. No off topic posts are allowed in the brewing area, and that's inappropriate anyway. Thanks.





Remember that fermentation itself produces heat, so that in a 70 degree warm, the actual fermentation temperature can easily approach 80 degrees. That's WAY too hot, and off flavors will result.

I like a "stick on" thermometer on the side of the fermenter, near the top but still below the top of the beer level, and then sticking the fermenter in a cooler with an ice bath about 1/2 way up the fermenter. Change out the frozen water bottles as needed (once a day, maybe) and you've got a perfect 65 degree fermentation temperature. It works great!

Yooper said:

That's completely inappropriate. This forum is not a place where that is "funny". Please refrain from posting like that again in the brewing forum. No off topic posts are allowed in the brewing area, and that's inappropriate anyway. Thanks.

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Inappropriate or not I was not off topic.

But to appease the sensitive, here's the main bullet-point of my previous presentation:

Better to have a lower ambient room temp (and some blankets for the GF) than ferm at room temps too high.

Yooper said:

That's completely inappropriate. This forum is not a place where that is "funny". Please refrain from posting like that again in the brewing forum. No off topic posts are allowed in the brewing area, and that's inappropriate anyway. Thanks.

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The language may have been a bit off color but I personally found it funny and on topic. Just saying.


Also, I've had ales up to 75 F in primary that came out with some heavy booze presence at bottling but it all aged out after a month and the beer turned out great.

Hello, there are lots of yeast fermenting temp options available, swamp coolers work great, but if you want to ferment at 70 to 75 deg, up to 95 deg, I would recommend looking at brewing a saison, just another option is all.

Cheers

With the cooler weather lately, I don't see how the beer was 80F (6+ degrees hotter than the ambient). With a five gallon bucket, a container bigger than that sounds expensive and rolling ice every 12 hours sounds painstakingly annoying. There has to be a better way. My other beer before this was probably warmer and didn't wind up tasting like this.

Maybe I just shouldn't brew. :/

Skullfingr said:

With the cooler weather lately, I don't see how the beer was 80F (6+ degrees hotter than the ambient). With a five gallon bucket, a container bigger than that sounds expensive and rolling ice every 12 hours sounds painstakingly annoying. There has to be a better way. My other beer before this was probably warmer and didn't wind up tasting like this.

Maybe I just shouldn't brew. :/

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A swamp cooler and 4-5 2-liter bottles is a really cheap and easy way to keep your beer cool for the first 3 days. Use 2 frozen bottles in an ice bath at a time, 3 in the freezer. Swap them out every 12 hours or so. It's not hard.

Skullfingr said:

With the cooler weather lately, I don't see how the beer was 80F (6+ degrees hotter than the ambient). With a five gallon bucket, a container bigger than that sounds expensive and rolling ice every 12 hours sounds painstakingly annoying. There has to be a better way. My other beer before this was probably warmer and didn't wind up tasting like this.

Maybe I just shouldn't brew. :/

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Just brew the beers that like high temps. I think Wile suggested a Saison. Most abbey ales and wit/wheat beers do really well at over 70. And to be perfectly honest, changing out a few bottles once or twice a day isn't that hard. If you care about the beer, you'll do what's best. And this is coming from one of the world's laziest guys.