1st All Grain Batch: What the $%&* Did I do?

[jerichobill]

I dove into my first all grain batch (Irish Red Ale) ten days ago. When I transferred to the bottling bucket yesterday the beer had a smell I can only describe as acrid. I've checked the "wheel of smells" or whatever its called but I can't find an odor that it reminds me of. Here's what I know I did wrong:

I fell short of my target SG (estimate 1.047 actual 1.038).

I hit my mash in temperature but it didn't hold (asked for 154F, fell to 148F in one hour).

I kind of splashed the transfer from from the mash tun to the brew kettle with the first draw and the sparge.

I couldn't get the sparge water up to temp, so I kept adding near boiling water for the entire ten minutes, I ended up with an extra 1.5 gallons of sparge water (dumped it to hit my target pre-boil volume).

My final gravity was really low, 1.004.

Other than that everything went great! My question is: Could any of the above be causing my acrid smell? If not, any idea what it could be? I wish I could describe it better, but I can't. Is there any possibility that bottle conditioning will clear out the odor? Thanks in advance...

 

[MalFet]

Bottling bucket after ten days sounds mighty quick, especially if you've got some nasty odors going. Is it chemical acrid, burnt acrid, decay acrid? 90% attenuation is mighty high, but perhaps consistent with your low mash temp.

 

[weirdboy]

How does it taste?

 

[rocketman768]

How does it taste?

I'm gonna bet sour. He got some hefty attenuation and it smells funky, so it's sounding like infection at this point.

 

[jerichobill]

malfet: its not burnt acrid or chemical acrid, but i'm not sure i'd call it decay acrid, either. maybe "urine acrid", if anything, YUMMY!

wierdboy: it tastes fine to me (not like urine), if not a little watery

 

[jerichobill]

no, not sour, rocketman. by the way, after three days of no bubbling, i took a gravity reading then another two days later, gravity was stable so i bottled, you think still too soon? i was anxious to bottle because i was curious to see how badly i screwed it up after a crappy brew day.

 

[MalFet]

no, not sour, rocketman. by the way, after three days of no bubbling, i took a gravity reading then another two days later, gravity was stable so i bottled, you think still too soon? i was anxious to bottle because i was curious to see how badly i screwed it up after a crappy brew day.

The watery is likely just a result of being (temporarily) uncarbonated and (permanently) a little thin from the low gravity and high attenuation. I would have left it in longer to let the smell settle, but I can understand wanting to be done with it as well. Only time will tell, I guess. The stink might have been from your trub, which can often smell a bit like meaty piss (DOUBLE YUM!). If it tastes fine, that's a good sign.

 

[Sean]

I'd be interested in seeing the recipe. That's a really low gravity.

 

[pnj]

I've had MANY beers that smelt like death when I transfered to my bottling bucket. I always make a note of it in my notes. However, the beer always tastes great. The smell of death goes away after the beer has been bottled/carbed.

I think the smell comes from my choice of yeast. Nottingham.

 

[jerichobill]

its a northern brewer kit (but remember i didn't really hit the temps shown below):

MASH INGREDIENTS
-- 7.5 lbs. Rahr 2-Row Pale
-- 0.75 lbs. Belgian Caramel Pils
-- 0.25 lbs. Briess Special Roast
-- 0.125 lbs. Belgian Biscuit malt
-- 0.125 lbs. Simpsons Chocolate

-- 1 oz. Willamette (60 min)
-- 1 oz. US Goldings (30 min)

nottingham dry yeast

MASH SCHEDULE: SINGLE INFUSION
Sacch’ Rest: 153° F for 60 minutes
Mashout: 170° F for 10 minutes

 

[jerichobill]

I've had MANY beers that smelt like death when I transfered to my bottling bucket. I always make a note of it in my notes. However, the beer always tastes great. The smell of death goes away after the beer has been bottled/carbed.

I think the smell comes from my choice of yeast. Nottingham.

hmm, this is my first brew with nottingham, maybe i can hope that that's the issue.

 

[drunkrhino]

I couldn't get the sparge water up to temp, so I kept adding near boiling water for the entire ten minutes,

You sparged with near boiling water? Maybe your thermometer is off and you extracted tannins.

 

[jerichobill]

i was adding it to my sparge water to get it up to temp (170F), no good?

 

[JeepDiver]

hmm, this is my first brew with nottingham, maybe i can hope that that's the issue.

The one beer I've done with nottingham stunk like crazy (sour wet sock smell) while in primary (3 weeks), but ended up fine after being bottled.

 

[marcycaulkins]

I dove into my first all grain batch (Irish Red Ale) ten days ago. When I transferred to the bottling bucket yesterday the beer had a smell I can only describe as acrid. I've checked the "wheel of smells" or whatever its called but I can't find an odor that it reminds me of. Here's what I know I did wrong:

I fell short of my target SG (estimate 1.047 actual 1.038).

I hit my mash in temperature but it didn't hold (asked for 154F, fell to 148F in one hour).

I kind of splashed the transfer from from the mash tun to the brew kettle with the first draw and the sparge.

I couldn't get the sparge water up to temp, so I kept adding near boiling water for the entire ten minutes, I ended up with an extra 1.5 gallons of sparge water (dumped it to hit my target pre-boil volume).

My final gravity was really low, 1.004.

Other than that everything went great! My question is: Could any of the above be causing my acrid smell? If not, any idea what it could be? I wish I could describe it better, but I can't. Is there any possibility that bottle conditioning will clear out the odor? Thanks in advance...

hmm, a lot of what you have said here was stuff i did regularly with no ill effect on the beer. The low gravity.. well, poor efficiency is it's own problem that needs to be worked out (or not, if you don't mind using a couple extra pounds in your mashes)

mash temp... will almost always lose a few degrees. you could have brought it back up by adding some boiling water, but I doubt it adversely affected anything, other than making the wort more fermentable than you expected.

splashing while transferring... eh, used to do it all the time with my old set up. made a mess, but that's it

you added the boiling water to the sparge water? No prob. Hell, I used to sparge with 190 degree water with my old set up, because it lost so much heat it was the only way to keep the grain bed hot.

I am thinking, as others have said, if it tastes fine, then forgetting about it for a little while will likely take care of the smell. I think this calls for a tall order of RDWHAHB

 

[shamrockdoc]

Congrats on the move to AG. You've made beer my friend. Maybe bottle it all up and send it to me. I'll tell you if its bad.

 

[iaefebs]

Sounds to me that you took a healthy snort of Co2. It will burn and smell horrible. Do not snort Co2.... it will make you think your beer is bad when it is probably OK.

 

[Dick562]

the one beer i've done with nottingham stunk like crazy (sour wet sock smell) while in primary (3 weeks), but ended up fine after being bottled.

+1

 

[jerichobill]

Sounds to me that you took a healthy snort of Co2. It will burn and smell horrible. Do not snort Co2.... it will make you think your beer is bad when it is probably OK.

i don't snort Co2, and what if i did. don't judge, we all have our hangups. the stink went beyond that. i poored my beer from the gravity reading into a wine glass, swirled it around, and snorted it for a long time. it still smelled.

 

[mpjardim]

just smell and taste it...if it really smells and TASTES overwhelmingly like horseS&*#& you may want to dump it...

otherwise if it tastes like flat warm beer that has a slightly funky odor I would bottle it and see, you can always dump it later but the odors might mellow out a great deal

 

[iaefebs]

i don't snort Co2, and what if i did. don't judge, we all have our hangups. the stink went beyond that. i poored my beer from the gravity reading into a wine glass, swirled it around, and snorted it for a long time. it still smelled.

I wasn't judging I was giving you my experience with a acrid smell. I opened up a pail of fermented beer that I had dry hopped and took a healthy wiff to see if the hop aroma was there. I about burnt my nostril out with a heavy acrid smell. I thought all kind of bad thoughts about what may have happened to my beer. Then I realized it was Co2.

 

[jerichobill]

I wasn't judging I was giving you my experience with a acrid smell. I opened up a pail of fermented beer that I had dry hopped and took a healthy wiff to see if the hop aroma was there. I about burnt my nostril out with a heavy acrid smell. I thought all kind of bad thoughts about what may have happened to my beer. Then I realized it was Co2.

i know, i was just kidding. i appreciate the feedback. i took the majority of poster's advice: bottled the stink, drank a beer, and brewed another batch. will wait a few weeks and see what i have.