Belgian Blonde with Ardennes - **** HIT THE FAN.

[sflabrew]

Hey Guys,

I'm looking for some opinions on this one. **** really hit the fan on me with this one and I'm not sure which one is causing the taste that I hate.

Some details to keep you reading:
1 week of fermentation so far
OG - 1.055
current gravity - 1.006
tastes - corny, possibly hot alcohol or skunkiness... keep reading.

Last weekend I brewed an all grain Belgian Blonde Ale. The started well but **** hit the fan when my time was running out (had dinner plans at a friends house) and suddenly I realized that my wort cooler was leaking water at the nozzle and it had dripped an extra gallon of water in my wort as it was cooling to below 80.

I discovered this about 5 minutes before I had to leave so, though I was pissed, I poured it into my 6.5 gallon glass carboy and pitched my belgian ardennes starter in there. I threw on a blow off tube and split. The OG was 1.055 (with that extra gallon of water)

I won't get into the details of why but I didn't get to look at it again until the morning when I found a pool of beer/krausen pouring out of my blow out container. I cleaned up and did my best to maintain my composure.

Also, my fermentation was probably between 76 to 80F. Well above what I would like.

Now, tonight I transfered to secondary and the gravity was 1.006. My fiancee thought it tasted skunky but I thought it tasted like hot alcohol.

What do you guys think happened? Infected? Hot alcohol from hot fermentation? Why the hell is my gravity 1.006? Did the extra gallon during the cooling cause a lower gravity reading now somehow?

Thank you for reading. Cheers!

 

[bovineblitz]

Hard to say what went wrong with the reported off flavors being skunky or hot alcohol. Your temp was probably a little high for the yeast but not way way off, then again I don't know how tolerant that yeast is. That's also a likely reason for the low FG... also are you sure it was 76-80? I'm not sure how hard LA got hit with that heat wave but my apartment got up to 97 for three days straight.

Transferring it after 1 week of fermentation is early, it's definitely green beer right now and that might be why you're finding the taste so off. Also you racked it off the yeast before it could clean up after itself so hopefully there's enough yeast around to finish the job. At this point you don't have a finished beer, let us know how it tastes after a few more weeks.

 

[Houblon]

I realized that my wort cooler was leaking water at the nozzle and it had dripped an extra gallon of water in my wort as it was cooling to below 80.
->
Also, my fermentation was probably between 76 to 80F. Well above what I would like.
->
Why the hell is my gravity 1.006?

1 gal of hose water? right there I would have dumped the beer, just sayin

Those temps are at the high-end for that yeast, thus your going to have fusel & "hot alcohol" , skunky comes only from being light struck.

The gravity is well within range for the yeast.

As to why you transferred so soon is beyond me, the yeast need some time to clean up after themselves.

At this point I would let the beer sit for 2wks and then bottle or keg and drink fast as your likey to have gotten some `critters from the hose water.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

You definitely need to give it another couple weeks to mellow out. With an extra gallon of water that's definitely going to lower the gravity but I would also be concerned that you might get an infection from unclean water coming through the chiller.

 

[Reno_eNVy]

Yeah, as bovine and apache said 1 week is not enough for flavors to mellow or marry together. Also, you reeeeaally didn't want to rack your beer off the yeast cake early. If there are off-flavors they're the ones who clean them up!

 

[bovineblitz]

1 gal of hose water? right there I would have dumped the beer, just sayin

Those temps are at the high-end for that yeast, thus your going to have fusel & "hot alcohol" , skunky comes only from being light struck.

The gravity is well within range for the yeast.

As to why you transferred so soon is beyond me, the yeast need some time to clean up after themselves.

At this point I would let the beer sit for 2wks and then bottle or keg and drink fast as your likey to have gotten some `critters from the hose water.

We don't know if his chiller uses hose connections or if he clamps tubing onto the ends. If it's tubing it's probably okay, and if he uses trailer hoses meant for potable water (like I use) then he's probably okay there too.

 

[gdkersey]

I've used that yeast for a saison and fermented in the upper 70s/low 80s - it took a few weeks to mellow about but turned out great, so I think you will be fine with the hot fermentation.

Probably a wait and see game with the tap water contamination though.