first 3 brews all bad

[bj2387]

so as the title reads ive only made 3 brews so far. my first was a 5 gallon extract. on that my fermentation temps were too warm so that was my bad.

but i just made 2-1 gallon extract kits. (caribou slobber and dead ringer). followed everything to tee. fermented at correct temperatures. towards the end of the 2 week fermentation it may have gotten up to 70 but that was the warmest.

long story short i went to bottle yesterday. and as i took the lid off of both. they both had that nose burning alcohol smell to them like they had been ruined.

so i guess my question is looking for input on where i may be going wrong. am i not sanitizing correctly? or missing some part in the process. any input would be appreciated

 

[Jaybird]

Tell us about your Cleaning and Sanitizing process. and a little about the brewing process. and the beer. OG-FG yeast ysed etc..

Cheers
Jay

 

[NeoBrew]

We would love to help you, but we are gong to need more details in order to help.

Describe your cleaning regimen. What products do you use? How did you handle your yeast? What was the schedule of your fermentation? Did you do gravity readings? What did they say? What is your water like? Are you using tap water? Did you dechlorinate?

The more you can share the better input we can give you.

 

[mliptack]

Are you sure you are not breathing in the CO2? If thats not the problem Jaybird's line of questioning will get us a better understanding of whats going on.

 

[andrewmaixner]

When you are measuring temperatures, are you measuring ambient air, or do you have as probe in/on your fermenter?

If the former, the temperature could be up to 10F higher in the wort. A common trick is to tape the temperature probe to the bucket/carboy with as bubble wrap insulation layer. I got temperature probes with digital readout off amazon from China for $3 that I keep on whatever is currently actively fermenting.

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As mentioned above, CO2 will 'burn' your nose, so make sure that isn't what you are smelling. If In doubt, bottle it then try it, then try it again a month later.

 

[rocketsan]

That or he is smelling very young beer which needs time to mellow...

 

[LLBeanJ]

If the vapors burned your nose (like burping soda through your nose), that would be CO2 and perfectly normal. How do they taste?

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

C02 burn is common, if thats the case, open let it air out for a while then smell again, should be fine

 

[bj2387]

Tell us about your Cleaning and Sanitizing process. and a little about the brewing process. and the beer. OG-FG yeast ysed etc..

i have a powder one step santizer. so i add it to warm water. and while the wort is boiling i am setting that up and sanitizing the airlock, fermenting bucket,lid all the things that need to be sanitized. so i soak those until ready for use.

they were 1 gallon extract kits from northern brewer. they did not list the OG and FG on the instructions but from doing some research on here i found what people had mentioned the OG should be and both batches matched up.

the yeast were both dry yeast that came with the quit. the yeast for the slobber needed to be rehydrated before added which i did.

I used tap water this time. My first 5 gallon extract i bought the gallon jugs from the store. i did not dechlorinate my 1 gallon batches when using the tap water.

my apartment is pretty warm even in the winter in ohio. so i had both buckets in my closet in a plastic container filled with some water. i would occasionally rotate out frozen water jugs. i have the temp strips on the bucket but that i monitored daily. but nothing high tech yet in terms of a temp gauge.

also maybe because it was only one gallon. when i opened the lids to bottle i had a lot of unsettled trub. and my auto siphon seemed to be getting clogged so i think i was just getting frusterated haha.

i also maybe had over reacted about the smell. i was able to bottle the dead ringer so ill see how it tastes in a few weeks. I obviously am new to this so i could have mistaken the co2 or vapors as an infection.

I am attempting my first BIAB of a rogue dead guy ale clone so hopefully ill be able to translate all the advice into a better finished product.

that should hopefully cover everything for now haha

 

[brick_haus]

Bet its OK. How does it taste?

 

[jnacey]

99% for sure that's what's called CO2 burn. When your beer is fermenting it throw off CO2 and makes the headspace in the fermentor predominately more CO2 than "air". When you go to smell it, you'll get a whiff of CO2. Essentially what is happening is CO2 reacts with water in your nose, which turns it into carbonic acid. The nose is obviously very sensitive and this causes a burning sensation.

It's the same thing as when you chug some soda and then burp and your nose burns. This is totally normal.

 

[SHBSJon]

Are you sniffing inside the fermenter after removing the lid? That burning, is you inhaling CO2. It has nothing to do with whether the beer is bad or not. All beers create CO2 during fermentation. I think you may be throwing away perfectly good beer.

 

[NeoBrew]

Fermentation temps are critical. Make sure you are measuring the wort temp as opposed to the ambient as described above.

Another tip would be to not use one step cleaner/sanitizer. I'm a big fan of PBW for cleaning and Star San for sanitizing.

 

[bj2387]

thanks for all the help guys! looks like i may have over reacted a little bit. i was able to bottle some of the dead ringer so we will see how things turn out in a few weeks.

doing my first BIAB tomorrow so going into it with a little more confidence after thinking i didn't completely ruin everything with those batches over the weekend.