strong alchohol smell and taste during 1st gravity check.

Well I'm about a week into my first brew and I popped off the top and ran a gravity check. My OG was 1.062, and my 1st gravity check came out at 1.023 which I calculated to be at about 5.2%. Very happy I decided to try the yet carbonated beer, and it smelled almost the way a shot of hard alchohol does, and had a bit of a stronger taste than I was expecting, with maybe a hint of medicinal taste to it. After sitting for another week, and then bottling and carbonating do you think this will smooth down a bit? I wasn't sure about the taste of it, but then again I've never tasted non-carbonated beer until now. What do you guys think?

Let that sucker ferment for another two weeks minimum, then check the gravity again for a couple days, if it's steady you can bottle and wait about 3 more weeks (room temp) then chill for 2 days and you should be good to go.

Keep brewing my friend

What temp has it been at? You may have fusel alcohol if you fermented too warm.

ChshreCat said:

What temp has it been at? You may have fusel alcohol if you fermented too warm.

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Yes, there is that too.

I used nottingham yeast, and the directions my kit came with said to ferment below 75, but no lower than 65. Mine has been fermenting at around 68-70. It's a blood orange hefeweizen just to give some more insight on it.

HH60gunner said:

I used nottingham yeast, and the directions my kit came with said to ferment below 75, but no lower than 65. Mine has been fermenting at around 68-70. It's a blood orange hefeweizen just to give some more insight on it.

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68-70 ambient or do you have one of those fishtank thermo strips on your fermenter? becasue fermentation can raise the them up to 5 deg.

That could be it right there. Even if the temps were down most of the time, if it was warmer when you pitched the yeast and it took off quick, you can get fusel alcohols in the first few hours when it's warmer.

I have my fermenter in a bucket of water, with a shirt over the fermenter going into the water with a fan blowing on it to act as a swamp cooler. I was getting my temp reading off of a thermometer that I have in the water that I have my fermenter soaking in.

What temp was it at when you pitched? If it was too warm at the start of fermentation you could have fusels.

Or it could just be the alcohol standing out since it's still really young and all.

ChshreCat said:

What temp was it at when you pitched? If it was too warm at the start of fermentation you could have fusels.

Or it could just be the alcohol standing out since it's still really young and all.

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It was at about 62 when I pitched the yeast. At this point I'm going to go get more blood oranges and it to the secondary, and rack this beer to a secondary, and see how it goes.

tasted it again today and the medicine type taste is gone. I added more blood oranges into the secondary fermenter and racked it into their. Hope it turns out to be a tasty beer So excited!!!