Homebrews taste great, but smell sweet.

[Fordiesel69]

I started brewing beer with a friend who has a little over a year experiance. Overall the beers taste great in my opinion but do not smell like beer. So basically when you do the mash indoors, your entire house smells "sweet" and malty. This is what a lot of the beers smell like.

What in the process produces the beer smell that commerical micro brews have? How can our process be improved to make them smell as good as they taste.

 

[bobeer]

are you brewing all grain, PM, or extract?
What are the final gravity's of the beer?
What kind of beer are you usually making? Recipe would be helpful.
how long are the beers allowed to ferment?
are the beers kegged or bottled?
if bottled/kegged how long do they sit to carb and condition?

There are a lot of factors that can determine the final outcome of your beer. If you could give more information on your processes, recipe, etc... it would help resolve your issue.

 

[Yooper]

I started brewing beer with a friend who has a little over a year experiance. Overall the beers taste great in my opinion but do not smell like beer. So basically when you do the mash indoors, your entire house smells "sweet" and malty. This is what a lot of the beers smell like.

What in the process produces the beer smell that commerical micro brews have? How can our process be improved to make them smell as good as they taste.

So they taste fine (even good or great), but have a distinct sweet aroma?

Off the top of my head, if the beer tastes like it has enough bittering (to counteract the sweetness of the malt), but the aroma is sweet, I would think first to look at the water you're using. Normally, what you smell is what you taste, though. What about mouthfeel? Does it feel the same as a commercial beer? Or is it "thick" feeling in the mouth?

The other thing I think of is yeast and fermentation temperature.

It probably doesn't help to come up with questions to answer questions, so I'm sorry about that. But in order to help, I think we need to get some more information on the water and fermentation schedule, and then a typical recipe where you have this aroma but not taste.

 

[Homercidal]

What kinds of beers do you normally drink, and what styles have this sweet aroma?

I'd guess that the sweetness comes from the malt. Not necessarily a bad thing for some styles. A lot of microbreweries use more hops than the macro brewers. Maybe you need to up the aroma hop amounts to help balance the aroma?

Yeast can also contribute to different flavors and aroma. Make sure the beer is fermented fully (Check FG against the expect FG and see if it's dropping low enough.) HOwever, an under fermented beer will normally taste sweet as well.

Are you letting the beers fully carb before tasting? If you tasted early, then you may be tasting the priming sugar. I'd expect this is fine since you are brewing with an experienced brewer, but I'm tossing it out just in case there is an oversight. Generally 2-3 weeks at about 70F or so will allow the yeast to carb up the beer and eat up the priming sugar.

We really need more details in order to really help.

 

[Fordiesel69]

1. All grain
2. Dont know final grav, he records it in a notebook.
3. American wheat lager, amber lager, light lager, hefewiezen, hopped amber, wet hopped ipa.
4. They ferment in a chamber with very strict temp control, heat lamp and refridge unit so we can lager at exact tempt. They allow to ferment until bubbling stops. Sometimes a week or so past the stopping of bubbles.
5. Kegged only, not bottled. Smell does not change prior to or after carbing.

Yes they taste fine, I would be happy to brew that good!

We use municiple water that is put thru a whole house filtering system which we correct the PH in the mash water. Beers are not "Heavy" in mouthfeel as in a meal in itself like some beers.

I drink anything so I am not into a certain style.

I have only brewed 4 batches and am learning fast, but am not experianced enough to really give good info.

 

[Homercidal]

At this point I'd wonder if the water was as good as it could be. A whole house system isn't necessarily ideal. Chloramines can get through it and affect the aroma and flavor during fermentation. From what I read it takes a very slow filtering through charcoal to remove chloramines.

In any case, it's one constant that you might try swapping out next time to see what happens.

 

[theowlman16]

Burger from my grill vrs. burger from McDonalds. They are not the same thing.

 

[blackbeer]

throw a couple ounces of leaf hops in the keg in a hop bag. not appropriate for all styles but i don't care about styles, i love the smell and taste of hops.

 

[chrispy321]

1. All grain
2. Dont know final grav, he records it in a notebook.
3. American wheat lager, amber lager, light lager, hefewiezen, hopped amber, wet hopped ipa.
4. They ferment in a chamber with very strict temp control, heat lamp and refridge unit so we can lager at exact tempt. They allow to ferment until bubbling stops. Sometimes a week or so past the stopping of bubbles.
5. Kegged only, not bottled. Smell does not change prior to or after carbing.

Yes they taste fine, I would be happy to brew that good!

We use municiple water that is put thru a whole house filtering system which we correct the PH in the mash water. Beers are not "Heavy" in mouthfeel as in a meal in itself like some beers.

I drink anything so I am not into a certain style.

I have only brewed 4 batches and am learning fast, but am not experianced enough to really give good info.

Hi Dis you resolve the sweet smell issue. I am having the same problem, tastes good, good head,5% alc but smells really sweet

 

[chrispy321]

I started brewing beer with a friend who has a little over a year experiance. Overall the beers taste great in my opinion but do not smell like beer. So basically when you do the mash indoors, your entire house smells "sweet" and malty. This is what a lot of the beers smell like.

What in the process produces the beer smell that commerical micro brews have? How can our process be improved to make them smell as good as they taste.

Hi FordDiesel. Did you solve the sweet smell, I'm having the same issue, tastes good, good head and 5% but smells way too sweet

 

[camonick]

Hi FordDiesel. Did you solve the sweet smell, I'm having the same issue, tastes good, good head and 5% but smells way too sweet

OP hasn’t been active on this forum since Jan. 9, 2019 and his last post in this thread was almost 2 years before that.