In primary too long?

[curtw]

I had my first real brew disaster yesterday. Okay, I've had lots of problems in the past 1.5 years of brewing (bottle bombs, forgot this or that), but everything's ended up drinkable.

But yesterday I was *finally* going to bottle an American Wheat that I brewed up on July 7 -- I didn't rack to secondary, so it was on primary for 5 weeks + 1 day. A week ago I checked the gravity, and it tasted pretty darn good. Yesterday though -- it smells and tastes foul.

Really high alcohol and acetone aromas, just nasty. I don't have a fermentation chamber, so it's been at room temperature, probably between 72-75F for the entire time. From what I read, it sounds like it's either oxidized or it's just been on the trub for too long. Autolysis?

This was a 3.25 gallon batch, fermenting in a 6 gallong bucket w/ airlock, pitched healthy WLP320 yeast (no starter). I had big problems with my mash, the OG was really low, after a day on the yeast I added 2# of honey to get something for the yeasties to eat. But it all seemed to be doing fine, up until I checked it yesterday.

Any ideas what went wrong? Is 5 weeks on primary just asking for trouble? Do I just have too much air space in my bucket with a small batch like this?

Thanks!

 

[Johnnyhitch1]

You were going good till i read the 3 gal in a 6gal container...

This is most likely you culprit on aroma, when you went to take the first taste a week ago you let the "protective" co2 blanket up top escape, thus risking infection/oxidation.

Using 2 pounds of honey in a low OG beer will bring that beer down VERY dry. Since honey is 100% fermentable your left with nothing that it added to body/flavor. Next time if you have some DME or LME sitting around use a pound or 2 of that. It wont dry the beer out and at least provide dextrin's to help the body also.
Your smeling intense fusels because of of 2 things...
1. Your high ferm temp (should be mid 60s)
2. The honey left the beer dry and for nothing to stand on.

EDIT: I also didnt mention time for a reason. Im a big believer in that with the systems we use, homebrewers dont have to worry about autolysis or off flavors from extending the primary. I have done 4 weeks with no problems.

 

[kh54s10]

I am not sure of the source of the problem but sitting on the yeast that long is not the problem.

Autolysis is not a common problem in homebrewing. It usually is encountered in commercial brewing where huge volumes of beer (weigh) is sitting on top of the yeast. Oxidized is a possibility given the very large head space though I think that would mostly be a cardboard taste, not an acetone smell.

Your fermentation temperature was quite high also, I would expect off flavors but I don't know about the smell.

There is a thread somewhere that describes off flavors and possibly smells also and the likely causes.

 

[duboman]

http://www.beerjudgeschool.com/uploads/Beer_Characteristics_Flash_Cards.pdf

Look under solvent and you can evaluate your process from there as one of those is your issue