Dump my beer?

[hoppypoppy]

Due to some miss calculations and timing on my part I ended up with wort that sat @2 days before pitching yeast. I have pitched my yeast the following day before but with my standard speidel fermenter with no issues. This time the wort sat in an ale pail . The Bucket sat in my fridge with a heat wrap to keep temp at Pitching temps on day 1. However, that set up was causing issues with another beer fermenting, first time have two beers with different fermentation temps. So I decided to pull the pail out of the fridge and leave it on my work bench in the garage. The wort got up to 77 degrees. That night I opened up the pail to pitch the yeast and immediatley noticed a bad aroma coming from it. Also, the wort already had some foam sitting on top. I thought well maybe it was from me moving the bucket around so I pitched the yeast anyways. I did draw a sample of the wort from the spigot and it was terrible. I was hoping the yeast would do magic but everytime I open up my fridge I can smell the beer and it Stinks. The smell is like fresh cut grass that sat in the lawn mower bag overnight.

Is this even worth spending anymore time with? I already pitched the yeast so my thought is at least let it ride. However, the pail does take up a lot of room and I almost just want to say f it. It's my first batch that I jacked up. I learned what not to do.

Any chance the yeast could make something of this or no way?

 

[jdauria]

Seems strange to get bad aromas that quick if the beer was infected. but "foam sitting on top" seems to imply a wild yeast was already running amok. You say it got to 77 degrees in the garage, but was there any chances that it could have been hotter earlier in the day? Not knowing where you live, but the sun beating down a garage can really heat it up during the day.

Did you taste a sample on brew day and it was fine, but two days later it was bad? The ale pail was cleaned and sanitized right? Did you use idophor or bleach to sanitize and forget to rinse?

I would say dump it, but who knows, you could wind up with delicious sour down the road. Someone more experienced then me on sours would have to answer that.

 

[jekeane]

I would think there is no harm in letting it ride. you can let your yeast do their thing at normal temps for a few days then just put it somewhere to hide for a few weeks and see what you got. If its not terrible let it ride a little longer.

 

[hoppypoppy]

Edit

 

[hoppypoppy]

I would think there is no harm in letting it ride. you can let your yeast do their thing at normal temps for a few days then just put it somewhere to hide for a few weeks and see what you got. If its not terrible let it ride a little longer.

Letting it ride is probably the thing to do. I could use the space but it's not needed. I'll should probably give at least 5 - 6 days. I'm just so frustrated I want to forget about it.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[hoppypoppy]

Seems strange to get bad aromas that quick if the beer was infected. but "foam sitting on top" seems to imply a wild yeast was already running amok. You say it got to 77 degrees in the garage, but was there any chances that it could have been hotter earlier in the day? Not knowing where you live, but the sun beating down a garage can really heat it up during the day.

Did you taste a sample on brew day and it was fine, but two days later it was bad? The ale pail was cleaned and sanitized right? Did you use idophor or bleach to sanitize and forget to rinse?

I would say dump it, but who knows, you could wind up with delicious sour down the road. Someone more experienced then me on sours would have to answer that.

I live in Southern California and 77 degrees was was reading on the digital thermometer I taped and insulated on the pail. It wasn't going to be a hot day so I thought it would be ok. I did the same sanitation procedures I do with all my beers which is clean with oxy clean and then sanitize with starsan.

The beer tasted great on brew day but now ugh, terrible.

Never had an infected beer but I would prefer a sour taste to this funky grassy thing going on.

 

[eadavis80]

ASk yourself - what's more important - POSSIBLY getting 5 gallons of brew or freeing up space? Sorry about the batch - no fun

 

[hoppypoppy]

ASk yourself - what's more important - POSSIBLY getting 5 gallons of brew or freeing up space? Sorry about the batch - no fun

You make a good point. I guess I was just looking for someone to talk me off that cliff.

 

[day_trippr]

The "tastes terrible" thing makes it hard to be encouraging.

Sorry...

 

[Amadeo38]

This may not be helpful at this point, but it would have been a cool experiment to let it stay without yeast for a couple more days, then boil the wort again, and pitch your yeast. Probably would have made an interesting farmhouse ale / sour. At any rate, it does sound like an infection and I would be sure to mark that bucket with a sharpie note to remind yourself of that. If for some reason a nasty bug lodges itself in there and you make another bad batch down the road with that bucket, might be worth tossing it.