Someone tell me to RDWHAHB.......

...............and actually mean it.

I have learned from the great minds here that airlock activity does not mean fermentation. I was still a little worried when my belgian was continuing to "burp" every 8 seconds or so after 25 days in the fermenter. So last night I opened it up to check the gravity and this is what I saw.

The thing smelled like A$$, but I learned here as well the WLP400 smells that way, but [email protected] that was bad. The OG was 1.064, and it tested 1.013 last night. I went ahead and keged this, so someone help relieve my worries.

 

what did it taste like? By tasting, you'd know if you had an infection or not.

Pics looks like normal krausen to me....

 

Looks nominal to me, I'd say you will be enjoying your Belgian in 2-3 weeks, so RDWHAHB.

Did you have any candi sugar in this? 80% attenuation is on the high side, but candi is 100% fermentable and will drive apparent attenuation up.

 

I did not use any candi sugar. I was supprised at the OG myself. It may have been a few points high because it was a little warmer than I normally check it at due to chiller issues. I did not taste the sample (I was put off by the smell and I was already enjoying a s/n clone), but I will take a small pull out of the keg tonight. Thanks for the responses.

 

Looks yucky.....Fedex it to me and I and several of my friends will orally dispose of it

 

Do not ever smell your fermenter, unless you're dry hopping like a mad man!!!!

Primaries smell like rotten apples to me.

 

Plus the CO2 you sniff can give your nose a burn!

 

I posted almost the exact same question about a week ago.

Take a look at my thread - http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/opened-primary-saw-something-new-168453/.

I used the exact same yeast and my primary looked almost exactly the same. What you are seeing is just the krausen that did not fall. I smelled it like you and it was terrible. I guess it was the CO2 that we mentioned by Homercidal. I did taste my hyrdo sample and it was on target and not bitter or sour at all, just flat which was expected.

 

Thanks for all the support and reassurance. I normally due IPA's & IIPA's and the look/smell was something I was not expecting when I opened the fermenter up.

 

yeah, like when you lift the door to a chest freezer with a fermenting beer in it, whooo lot's O' gas to sniff.

 

did a beer with the ardennes strain, i got a whiff of the yeast cake as i was cleaning the fermenter out.
it smelled really foul. the beer tasted awzm when i was bottling it though.