Help me troubleshoot my first beer? (EdWort's Haus Pale)

[DickSledge]

Howdy folks! So I just popped the lid off my first attempt at a real beer (EdWort's Haus Pale, all grain), and the results are not appetizing. Gravity is still at 1.02, and should be at around 1.01. Strong smell of grass and fart. Taste is acrid. Bubbles and some debris floating at the top. It's been in primary for over two weeks.

Potential problems that I can think of:

Mash temp started about 10 degrees higher than it should have, and ended maybe 5 or more degrees lower than target.

Yeast was washed from a previous batch of graff, and pitched about 9 days after refrigeration. No starter. No airlock activity for about three days, then 2 days of tepid bubbling, then nothing for another 2 days, then vigorous bubbling for about a day.

Any insight would be very appreciated. Bummed that it looks like I'll have to chuck my first beer.

 

[Lefou]

My first guess ... Stressed yeast and a serious under pitch. Second guess would be you have no temperature control and the fermentation is, or was, at ambient.

Treated right, your yeast can be strong enough for 3-5 re-uses before giving up the ghost.

 

[DickSledge]

My first guess ... Stressed yeast and a serious under pitch.

In that event, would this batch be salvageable?

 

[JHoward]

I'm wondering if it's a combination of things. What kind of yeast did you use for the graff? I've only really had the farty smell when I've fermented cider or anything with fruit, so I'm wondering if somehow some of that is coming through from the previous batch.

Also, you said that you mashed about 10 degrees too high. What was your original target? The higher you mash, the more unfermentable sugars you will get. That could account for a higher FG.

I wouldn't worry about the airlock activity. Usually I get a day or two of activity from the air lock and it settles down.Temperature changes could also account for the reinvigorated bubbling a few days later.

The acrid taste could be a result of water chemistry as well. What kind of water are you using?

Sorry I have more questions than answers, but I think there are quite a few things that could be at play.

 

[Lefou]

I just looked at Edwort's recipe. It's a fairly hoppy pale ale, SRM estimated around 5.
Soft water would be OK to use, but with the hopping level, the water needs treated and would benefit from gypsum additions in the mash/sparge.

 

[DickSledge]

I used Nottingham for the graff (Brandon O's recipe). No fruit or anything; I followed it to the letter.

Target mash was 152F, and I think I started around 165, maybe higher.

Water around here is pretty hard, so I didn't figure it needed any additives. I did run it through a fairly comprehensive RO filter though.

 

[balrog]

165? That is quite high and will denature the enzymes converting starch to sugar!

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

A pic of the primary would help to see what the bubbles and debris is all about.

Could be stressed yeast and under pitch as mentioned. But a mason jar ( if that's what you used) would be plenty without a starter after only 9 days.

I doubt is your water. If it taste good on its own it would taste as bad as you say in a beer...A little more info would help...fermentation temp...yeast slurry amount etc

 

[DickSledge]

A pic of the primary would help to see what the bubbles and debris is all about.

Sorry for the delay and the thread necro, but here's a pic of what it looks like now (about a month after pitching).

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

Sorry for the delay and the thread necro, but here's a pic of what it looks like now (about a month after pitching).

Questionable infection. Take a sample with a turkey baster below the surface. Does it still taste nasty. A month later and it should taste like a good warm flat beer. Will taste a tad off from a cold carbed beer but not bad.

I would cold crash ASAP. A month is twice as long as I leave my beers. I've had beer like that and scoop the "crud" off the top with a ladle just to be on the safe side and make me feel better