Please Help!! Very Worried!!

Hi. ok i started my first batch of beer a few months ago, and it came out undrinkable. completely horrible, but I knew it was only my first time and i shouldnt be discouraged. the beer was an amber ale. it seemed to carb up fine, and was the right colour, but smelled and tasted like crap. not even like beer. i used a beer making kit from my LHBS. i think what went wrong was that i didnt clean the equipment well enough. I was a newbie and the guy at the store neglected to tell me how important cleaning using sanitizer really is, and didnt sell me any

So a few days ago I started my second batch. Its an Irish Stout. I went to greater lengths to clean all the equipment this time using boiling water and sanitizer, but i am a little worried. it is day 3 of the fermentation, i went to do a gravity reading, and the stuff smelled absolutely horrible. is this normal for an early stage of stout? did i do something wrong again? if it helps at all the starting gravity was 1.030 and the last time i checked it was 1.013. i dont really even know what these mean yet so some light on that would be much appreciated too. THANK YOUUU

Can you describe the smell any more? Can you provide an ingredients list? 1.030 is inordinately low for a starting OG for a stout.

i dont know, its a Muntons irish stout beer kit. the smell just smells like unpleasent, its hard to describe, but i definitely did not want to drink the hydrometer sample. i think i fu%$ed up the origional gravity being 1.030 because the first gravity test I took was the day after I started the brew, I guess i just forgot at the beginning. i dont even know what the gravity means.

is there already something wrong with my poor stout......

Agree 1.030 is a very low OG. If you post recipe, process and water volumes we may be able to sort it out. Don't intend to insult you, but are you familiar with taking gravity readings?

Also fermenting beer frequently does not smell good as you are smelling nasty co2 off gassing. The fermenting smell doesn't necessarily mean anything.

Im not sure the recipe, I am brand new to this and just bought that muntons stout beer kit, and dextrose. the water i used was tap water, which may or may not effect it i can imagine, but i got the idea that better water made better beer, but tap water was still usable.

and honestly, i dont know what the point of gravity is, i only take them because i know im supposed to.. and when it stops moving the beer is done haha. a little insight would go a long way to this poor pathetic newb haha

Muntons kit? Did you add any malt extract or sugar to the can? How much water did you use?

1.03 is definitely off.

The more info on ingredients and your process you provide, the better we can help.

You were posting while I was answering. Do not despair! If your sanitizing was good there is likely nothing wrong with your stout. If you took your first gravity reading after fermentation began that would explain your lower reading.

What the gravity means is it is a measurement of how much sugar is in the wort. By measuring the sugar before and after fermentation is complete you can find how much alcohol is in the finished product. You also use gravity measurements to determine when fermentation is complete. When it stops dropping, the yeast are done converting the sugar that they are able to.

You can still post the recipe and we'll take a look at it.

all i really used; I had the Muntons can which had some kind of syrupy looking stuff inside of it, I added 1 kg of dextrose like the can told me to, and i used 4 litres of boiling water first with it to help disolve everything and then brought it up to 23 litres with cold water - this was all told to me by the can haha. i just feel like i followed the instructions as best as i could that i was given, and am just concerned because it did not smell like somehting i would want to drink, and i see alot of other people on here saying they drank there hydrometer sample and it tasted good.

oh and thanks for the insight on taking gravity readings. i know now to make sure to take one right when i start. i guess i will never know the alcohol percentage in this baby haha

What about the yeast? What did the can call for / what did you do?

pivot, RDWHAHB

You should be OK. Your beer should be OK.

You already learned tenet number two in the rules of brewing, Sanitize.
Number one is 'Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew.' Number three is give your yeast what they want. Yeast want wort at a certain temperature and time to do their thing. If you can manage these your beer will always turn out alright and often great.

Google "How to Brew" and read the online version of John Palmer's book. The info can get a little deep, but he also will answer a lot of your questions.

Also, when taking an OG reading make sure and stir vigorously to get an accurate reading. I had a problem with low gravity readings, so my brother-in-law told me to stir and then take a reading. It worked and I got a more accurate reading. Just a suggestion on the OG reading. As far as the smell, like beerkrump said, RDWHAHB, if you sanitized properly you stout will turn out fine.

voegeli51 said:

Also, when taking an OG reading make sure and stir vigorously to get an accurate reading. I had a problem with low gravity readings, so my brother-in-law told me to stir and then take a reading. It worked and I got a more accurate reading. Just a suggestion on the OG reading. As far as the smell, like beerkrump said, RDWHAHB, if you sanitized properly you stout will turn out fine.

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While that's good information for the original (first) gravity reading, it should probably be noted that you DO NOT STIR YOUR BEER AFTER THE YEAST ARE FERMENTING! Otherwise your beer will taste like damp cardboard. Stir for the original gravity reading (which will help to aerate the wort anyway), but not any reading after that.

To answer the question about "What's the point of a gravity reading"

The main use of gravity readings are to find the abv of your beer. There's some equation (FG-OG)/(some number) which gives you your abv.

It's also a good indicator of when your beer is done fermenting. (holds steady for 3 days)

Another thing it can tell you is sweet/dry (although that's more for wines and such) the closer to 1.000 the drier the drink.

There's more the gravity can tell you, but those are the main points.

To calm your fears concerning the odor from your fermenter, active fermentation is not pretty. A gross layer of foam forms and a cloud of yeast farts and burps will fill the dead space of your fermenter. This is a good thing as the yeast has created an environment that is inhospitable to other microorganisms.

Your beer isn't going to be ready to drink for another three or four weeks. At that time you can make a reasonable determination on whether this batch was a success or not.

OG(stir and before you pitch yeast) minus FG (again DO NOT stir) multiplied by 131 will give you your ABV%.Also I'd have a talk with your LHBS owner.Half of his job should be answering questions.If you send out rookies to make crappy beer they won't be regular customers.Then again thats what HBT is for.Your beer should be fine,and feel free to ask questions.

thanks a bunch everybody, im not so worried anymore, and im glad i know mostly what the gravity reading is for.

oh and for those who asked i dont know anything about the yeast that as used. it also came in the can that was used to make the beer. well not in the can, there was a little package under the cap.

hopefully this time around I make some fantastic beer. *fingers crossed*

My first brew was also a Munton's kit and it did smell like crap in the fermenter! But after bottle conditioning at room temp for about a month it got to tasting pretty good. Just have patience (and faith!).

Also, when you move the beer out of the fermenter to the bottling bucket, dry not to smell the yeast gunk on the bottom of the fermenter or you might puke. It smells like dirty feet combined with swamp ass (IMHO).