strong Alcohol taste and smell

Brewed a Blonde Ale extract... Sanitized like crazy.

Use US 05 yeast.. hydrated and pitched @ 70 degrees... Been fermenting @ 64-66 for 9 days...

Took SG sample... And tasted beer. Had really strong alcohol smell and taste... Beer was not good tasting.

OG was 1.044 SG was 1.015 ..... Don't think its done....

Can I attribute the taste to the fact I haven't reached my ideal FG ? ( shooting for 1.009 or 1.010 )

Will this go away ?

Noob here...

The beer is still green. Give it another week in the primary to let the yeast finish its job & then package it. If everything else is right the beer will be fine... Cheers!!!

hamiltont said:

The beer is still green. Give it another week in the primary to let the yeast finish its job & then package it. If everything else is right the beer will be fine... Cheers!!!

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Thanks for the encouragement. I'm sure it is the first time nerves LOL.

I Made sure to check on the temp at all times.

Should I Even bother take another gravity reading in 3 days ?? Would think no point in doing so and opening to air... Prob just let it sit another week before taking reading ?

Your beer may have gotten two warm, pitching at 70 degrees. If this is the case then some of the flavor will age out, but probably not all of it.

Just let it ride. Every time you open the fermenter you open the door for an infection. As long as I know fermentation took off I never check my Ales until week 3, Lagers week 4. Cheers!!!

afr0byte said:

Your beer may have gotten two warm, pitching at 70 degrees. If this is the case then some of the flavor will age out, but probably not all of it.

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Pitched at 70... But has fermented @ 64-68 the whole time.... Gravity still has some movement needed.... But no active signs... Krausen has gone away.. no bubbles in airlock...

hamiltont said:

Just let it ride. Every time you open the fermenter you open the door for an infection. As long as I know fermentation took off I never check my Ales until week 3, Lagers week 4. Cheers!!!

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Word. Prob will let it set til week 3. Should I leave temp @ 64-66 ?

pollykraker said:

Pitched at 70... But has fermented @ 64-68 the whole time.... Gravity still has some movement needed.... But no active signs... Krausen has gone away.. no bubbles in airlock...

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Is the 64-68 ambient temperature or wort temperature? If it's ambient then the temperature could have gotten 5-10 degrees warmer than 64-68. Also, how long did it take to get down to 64-68 from 70?

afr0byte said:

Is the 64-68 ambient temperature or wort temperature? If it's ambient then the temperature could have gotten 5-10 degrees warmer than 64-68. Also, how long did it take to get down to 64-68 from 70?

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Wort. Using swamp cooler. Water temp was about 60 ... Wort was measuring 64-68 at max

2nd don't fully remember... That's the one thing I didn't write down... Wouldn't have been too long . Worse if it took long or worse if it changed quickly

pollykraker said:

Wort. Using swamp cooler. Water temp was about 60 ... Wort was measuring 64-68 at max

2nd don't fully remember... That's the one thing I didn't write down... Wouldn't have been too long . Worse if it took long or worse if it changed quickly

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Worse if it took longer. It doesn't sound like this is a situation where you'd get a strong alcohol flavor, so it's strange.

afr0byte said:

Worse if it took longer. It doesn't sound like this is a situation where you'd get a strong alcohol flavor, so it's strange.

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Well, will see how it is after another week. If still same issue than I must have inaccurately measured temp of wort in some manner

Let the beer age, that is most likely the issue. Was this an AG batch? On some of my lighter beers I will get an HOT taste if I mash at a too low of a temperature. Just a thought.

zeus53219 said:

Let the beer age, that is most likely the issue. Was this an AG batch? On some of my lighter beers I will get an HOT taste if I mash at a too low of a temperature. Just a thought.

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Nope. Extract.

If it stays the same, my thinking is I did not utilize my swamp cooler correctly.

pollykraker said:

Word. Prob will let it set til week 3. Should I leave temp @ 64-66 ?

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I'd let it rise up to room temp to finish out. Cheers!!!

I am in the same boat. My Pale ales have been getting slight off flavors and my belgian is smelling like alcohol with some of the traditional esters/phenols in the background.

Good luck

Sounds like you produced some fusels, produced generally from to hot of a fermentation. You can age these out over time, I use the lazy mans approach and try to hide them by oaking.

What type of water did you use? does it smell like plastic/bandaids?

jperry said:

What type of water did you use? does it smell like plastic/bandaids?

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Not the issue

After trial and error, I believe my wort temp did get too high at some point. When water in.swamp cooler was 59-60 degrees the wort was 65-66 degrees... I think one day while I was at work swamp cooler water got up to 65-68 degrees meaning wort easily would have been 71-74 degrees...

I assume this is reason for alcohol taste to beer. After 6 more days in primary it died down a bit , but not enough to matter. 2 weeks in primary... Should I even bother waiting another week?; or just dump

Bump

Or should I let it go to 3 weeks in primary, bottle it and forget about it for awhile

Never dump it until you've tried everything at your disposal. Right now I'd say that's time. Leave it in the primary for the full 3 weeks, 4 wouldn't hurt. Then package it and forget about it for a month. THEN let's see what you have... Cheers!!!