Nail polish remover flavor from batch in carboy for 9 months

CornyKegs 728
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BlueSunshine

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I brewed my last batch last August (a spin off of Southern Tier Creme Brulee stout) but I only bottled in late April. The batch has a very high smell and taste of nail polish remover.

I looked and saw that this is usually caused by high fermentation temps and under pitching. I ruled under pitching out due to the fact that I make a significant starter for each batch I brew. It should also be noted that I have had another batch with the same behavior (I fermented it at a high temp accidentally).

However, when this batch originally fermented I put it in an ice bath with a wet t-shirt to keep fermentation temps down. I changed out the water bottles until fermentation died down, but after that I never kept up with it and the beer sat for months. Do you think that it sat at a high temperature and caused the off flavor? Or could it be an infection? I don't want to go go crazy and start throwing everything away quite yet.
 
I would think it could be three things: 1) fermentation at high temperatures 2)over pitching of yeast 3) or you left your beer to long on the trub
 
SD-SLIM said:
I would think it could be three things: 1) fermentation at high temperatures 2)over pitching of yeast 3) or you left your beer to long on the trub
Click to expand...

Sounds good. I did have to repitch the yeast during bottling so it would carb up and it was on the trub for a good while. As long as it's not infection I'm not too worried.
 
Have you ruled out acetobacter, which can also apparently cause nail polish remover odors?
 
rxp said:
Have you ruled out acetobacter, which can also apparently cause nail polish remover odors?
Click to expand...

I was thinking about throwing all of my tubing just in case. It's cheap enough so I think it would be worth it. My bottling supplies are less than a year old so there are no scratches or wear and tear on them that would harbor bacteria. Also, none of my batches showed any visual signs of infections nor have I had any bottle bombs or overflowing bottles. Would acetobacter show an visual signs of infection?
 
So this beer was in primary fermentation for 9 months? Or did you move it to a secondary at some point?

I'm *really* new to brewing, so don't take my word for it, but 9 months seems like a very long time to sit on the yeast cake. I've yet to brew a stout though; is this normal for stouts?

I'd still think you'd need to move to secondary at some point if you're doing extended aging like that, but again, I'm very new to all this.
 
Let's see your recipe. If you were modelling after one of ST's stouts, keep in mind that it is an 11% or 12% ABV beer. I would think that you just have heat from the alcohol and it needs to mellow in the bottle for a year or so.
 
Um, you know what nail polish remover tastes like?

Is it an high alcohol like heat? Fusel alcohols are produced by yeast under stress. Or, is it more medicinal/plasticy, that could either be chlorophenols or autolysis.
 
onipar said:
So this beer was in primary fermentation for 9 months? Or did you move it to a secondary at some point?

I'm *really* new to brewing, so don't take my word for it, but 9 months seems like a very long time to sit on the yeast cake. I've yet to brew a stout though; is this normal for stouts?

I'd still think you'd need to move to secondary at some point if you're doing extended aging like that, but again, I'm very new to all this.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it was in the primary the whole time. I got extremely sick so I had to stop home brewing all together for almost a year. Under normal conditions I don't use a secondary. Perhaps it did sit too long.

bknifefight said:
Let's see your recipe. If you were modelling after one of ST's stouts, keep in mind that it is an 11% or 12% ABV beer. I would think that you just have heat from the alcohol and it needs to mellow in the bottle for a year or so.
Click to expand...

Here's the recipe:

Code: 
Malt Extract:
9 lb Munton Light DME 

Grains:
3.25 Dark Crystal

Hops:
1.00 oz Columbus (60 minutes)
1.00 oz Horizon (5 minutes)

Misc:
1.0 lbs Lactose (10 minutes before flameout)
4.00 oz Natural Vanilla Extract (at bottling)
1 Whirfloc Tablet

Yeast:
Wyeast 1099

So yeah, with 9 lbs. of DME I aimed for a high ABV. :mug: Will that taste mellow out a bit more over time or get worse? I had a Dark Belgian I made that has a similar issue and it seems to have got worse over time.
 
beerkrump said:
Um, you know what nail polish remover tastes like?

Is it an high alcohol like heat? Fusel alcohols are produced by yeast under stress. Or, is it more medicinal/plasticy, that could either be chlorophenols or autolysis.
Click to expand...

Haha, well I haven't tasted nail polish remover but it has the same smell. It's a very high alcoholic heat almost like a cheap vodka. I wouldn't call it medicinal though, so perhaps it is from the stressed yeast.
 
It doesn't seem like it's anything that should be too hot. I've used 9+ lbs of DME before without real issues with alcohol heat, especially after 9 months. This is off topic, but what was the FG with 3.25 lbs of crystal? I would just bottle it up as normal and let it sit for awhile. It'll eventually come around.
 
bknifefight said:
It doesn't seem like it's anything that should be too hot. I've used 9+ lbs of DME before without real issues with alcohol heat, especially after 9 months. This is off topic, but what was the FG with 3.25 lbs of crystal? I would just bottle it up as normal and let it sit for awhile. It'll eventually come around.
Click to expand...

Not sure what the FG was, forgot to measure it. It's been in the bottle for 3 weeks now and I tried some last night. That's when I noticed the nail polish removers smell and flavor.
 
Nail Polish - Acetone.
High gravity beer, & green (new) beer - vodka-y, alcohol hot.

if it's acetone, it sat on the trub too long
if it's vodka-y, it will be fine. 3 weeks isn't long enough (although long enough to carb in most cases, bigger beers still need more time to mellow).

check another sample at 3 months...
 

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