Is this normal?

I have a chocolate stout in a 6 gallon carboy. It's been in there for 7 days now. It was fermenting like crazy after about 5 hours, and continued for about 4 days. The trub dropped off to the bottom, and it has since slowed down to about one bubble in the carboy about every minute. The OG was 1.065, and the hyrdrometer reading today was 1.030. I tasted the sample, and it tasted nothing like stout, and had an extreme alcohol taste to it (Almost like hard liquor) This is only my second batch of beer, so I am not sure if this is what I should be tasting, or if something went wrong. Also not sure when I should transfer to a secondary fermenter. The recipe I have came out of a book of beer recipes and says 7-10 days in primary, 7-10 in secondary, and 14 in bottles. The room where I have it is ranging in temperature from 60-70 degrees, and the stick on thermometer never drops below the 64 degree range. I have been trying to keep a heating pad on the carboy if I think it is getting to cold. Any help would be apprectiated. :cross:

What is your recipie? we would need that and any other related info.

Did you use a starter? There is a chance you didn't pitch enough yeast (accounting for the relatively high FG), but the "extreme alcohol" taste would be indicative of something opposite. Are you sure you should be describing it as "extreme alcohol" and maybe not something else? Like infected...

Extreme alcohol taste can be from fermenting too warm. If you have a very aggressive fermentation it can warm your beer up quite a bit higher than room temperature. If you are getting your beer regularly above 70* this could be the culprit.

I do not know what would be causing such a high SG after a week, did it taste like there were any sugars still in or was it dry? Since it has only been a week I'd let it go another week and see where your gravity is.

Also, if you post your recipe and the yeast you used it might help people be able to better respond. Some yeasts naturally leave beer less attenuated and others take the SG down significantly further.

Thanks for the responses.

It was a Chocolate Mint Stout recipe out of a book called "The Homebrewer's Recipe Guide"

6 2/3 lbs DME
2 lbs dark, dry Crystal Malt
1 lb crystal malt (60L)
1/2 lb roasted barley
1 1/2 ounces Cascase Hops (bittering)
1/2 ounce Hallertauer Hops (aroma)
2 tsps Gypsum
6 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate
1 package Irish Ale Yeast (used Wyeast)
4 ounces mint leaves (In the secondary, so not in the carboy yet)

The OG was 1.080 at 70 degrees (roughly 1.064 adjusted according to the table in John Palmer's book) because the Hydrometer says it is calibrated for 60 degrees. The sample I took this afternoon was 1.030 at 60 degrees

It has been fermenting in a 6 gallon better bottle in a dark closet since last Saturday. I have a digital Thermometer next to the carboy and it is almost always between 62 and 67 degrees. After my first post I checked the Min / Max on the thermometer and it has never gotten above 68, and never dropped below 60. We keep our heat at 68 degrees when we are at home, it is pretty cold in Seattle right now.

I didn't taste anything sugary, just felt a burn while drinking the sample (like drinking Vodka, but not that severe) I have a horrible palate, so I'm probably not much help in this area. It did not taste dry though.

Does any of this help?

Anybody have any advice? I posted the recipe, but I think the thread got lost at the bottom of the page

BeeRad77 said:

Thanks for the responses.

It was a Chocolate Mint Stout recipe out of a book called "The Homebrewer's Recipe Guide"

6 2/3 lbs DME
2 lbs dark, dry Crystal Malt
1 lb crystal malt (60L)
1/2 lb roasted barley
1 1/2 ounces Cascase Hops (bittering)
1/2 ounce Hallertauer Hops (aroma)
2 tsps Gypsum
6 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate
1 package Irish Ale Yeast (used Wyeast)
4 ounces mint leaves (In the secondary, so not in the carboy yet)

The OG was 1.080 at 70 degrees (roughly 1.064 adjusted according to the table in John Palmer's book) because the Hydrometer says it is calibrated for 60 degrees. The sample I took this afternoon was 1.030 at 60 degrees

It has been fermenting in a 6 gallon better bottle in a dark closet since last Saturday. I have a digital Thermometer next to the carboy and it is almost always between 62 and 67 degrees. After my first post I checked the Min / Max on the thermometer and it has never gotten above 68, and never dropped below 60. We keep our heat at 68 degrees when we are at home, it is pretty cold in Seattle right now.

I didn't taste anything sugary, just felt a burn while drinking the sample (like drinking Vodka, but not that severe) I have a horrible palate, so I'm probably not much help in this area. It did not taste dry though.

Does any of this help?

Click to expand...

OK,

1.080 measured at 70* F is 1.0811 adjusted, not 1.064. If you read Palmer's table it says to ADD .0011 for 69.8*F or 21*C. Did you get the 1.030 at 60* actual room temp or is that one you tried to correct too?

I have no idea what "2 lbs dark, dry Crystal Malt" is. If I assume it is 2 lbs. of dark dry malt extract and you are making a 5-5.5 gallon batch the OG seems close to being right. I have no idea how much gravity the Chocolate will add.

According to Wyeast their Irish yeast gets an average of 73% apparent attenuation which should leave you at around 1.022 for a final gravity. 1.030 still seems a bit high to me, but again it is an average attenuation and I have no idea what the chocolate will do. Since the chocolate is semi-sweet it has a decent amount of plain sugar in it so it SHOULD lower the gravity but I'm not sure what the fats will do to your gravity readings.

If it didn't taste sweet OR dry I'm not sure what to really say. Again, if you spent a significant amount of your time in the upper range of the yeast's fermentation range the higher alcohol vodka-like flavors are probably from that. The harshness should subside with a few months in the bottle or in secondary.

If it were mine, I'd let it go for a couple more weeks and check the gravity again. If it's still at 1.030 then I'd rack to a secondary and let it rest for a couple months then add the mint and let it stay on the mint as long as recommended then bottle.

A high gravity brew still in the fermenter can be pretty harsh tasting. I'd go a little longer in the primary, maybe a couple of weeks, then bottle it and let it sit for a couple months. Pop one every so often to check on the maturing process. It'll likely settle down eventually and you'll have an awesome beer to enjoy!

WHOAH!!! You adjusted the wrong direction! I was wondering what could have happened with the G readings. If you're OG was 1.080 at 70 deg, then actual was 1.081!

This would mean you have approx 6.7% alcohol in your young beer right now! At this point, you would taste the alcohol. It needs time to blend together and meld. I would leave it for another week and then transfer to a secondary for two or three more weeks, bottle and wait a month...

Quality comes with patience.

Seems to me if the airlock is still bubbling you may still have fermentation going on, in which case you should doublecheck with a hydrometer reading.

Just an update. I had a friend who has been brewing for a while stop by, and we checked a sample. It tastes and smells great to him, very creamy and chocolaty, but he estimated the alcohol content to be around 7%, and boy is it harsh. The hydrometer reading has now dropped to 1.022, so it is still actively fermenting. He thought I should get it into a secondary container and let it sit for a few weeks before bottling it, and letting it sit for another few weeks.. Anyone else agree, or disagree. Maybe wait a few days to see if it drops further? What's the approximate FG for stout?