I'm at my wits end and really need some help

[Semicole]

An IPA will hide more unless it's oxygen or light but that doesn't sound like your issue. The probolem your going to face is that you now have a taste and smell in your head and your brain will "make" you taste it. Hopefully you have some unbias tasters. Same issue happened to me when I changed my beer lines and got a straight up plastic taste in my blonde. It took about 3 weeks after a 2nd line change before I couldn't taste it even tho no one else could.

Hopefully your 3rd turns out good. Its a great hobby.

Yeah I think that's exactly what I'm facing right now. I even think that this smell might possibly be a normal smell in fermentation and because the first failed batch had the smell I'm just obsessed and paranoid about it, so I'm smelling it and immediately scared that the batch is ruined.

 

[deadwolfbones]

Small correction: You can use your refractometer to get a FG. You just have to use a calculator that accounts for the alcohol present in fermented beer. Check part II here: https://www.brewersfriend.com/refractometer-calculator/

With your 1.052 OG and 1.031 SG (7.8 Brix), you're looking at about 1.019 in actual gravity. Still a few points to go, but much more reasonable than 1.031.

 

[PADave]

Quit taking gravity readings so soon. Keep the fermenter sealed up and let the yeast work.

Have you read "How to Brew" by Palmer yet? If not, I suggest you do.

 

[mirthfuldragon]

Yeast will not radically alter gravity readings. Where did you get this one from?

I perhaps should have been a little clearer. In my (albeit limited) experience with kolsch yeast, late-fermentation gravity readings skew a bit high due to the poor flocculation. My last kolsch read at 1.020 instead of 1.014, until I cold-crashed the sample. I drew the sample from the fermentor spigot, so it was really turbid with yeast and trub. I have not experience anything similar with other yeasts, but I have also gotten better at taking and reading gravity samples since then. Lots of things going on there, of course, but a muddy sample does not a reliable indicator make.

 

[Semicole]

Quit taking gravity readings so soon. Keep the fermenter sealed up and let the yeast work.

Have you read "How to Brew" by Palmer yet? If not, I suggest you do.

I've been using a spigot/refractometer, so I'm just releasing a couple ounces into a small container, but like I said I'm just paranoid over the smell. I'll ry to calm it down with the samples goin forward though.

 

[Semicole]

Small correction: You can use your refractometer to get a FG. You just have to use a calculator that accounts for the alcohol present in fermented beer. Check part II here: https://www.brewersfriend.com/refractometer-calculator/

With your 1.052 OG and 1.031 SG (7.8 Brix), you're looking at about 1.019 in actual gravity. Still a few points to go, but much more reasonable than 1.031.

That does sound much better than 1.031. I was worried my fermentation wasn't going to complete, that's a reasonable SG for 4 days post fermentation though I think, so I feel better.

 

[Jwood]

If you want, you can post your whole process in detail for us to look at. Be extremely detailed, exact equipment used for anything that touches the water/wort/yeast/beer. Temperatures? Do you dechlorinate all water, even sanitizing water?, Etc. It might take you a while to type out but i would happily look at it.

I can see your other batches ruined by the tap water, a lot of new brewers make that mistake. Yeast being slow to ferment or not finishing out could be a pitching issue (not enough, not enough O2, temperatures are off, etc). Sour could be tricky but unless youve had a noticeable infection at this point im going to go ahead and say probably not an infection as long as you are reasonably sanitizing.

Also, ive been brewing for almost 10 years now. I cant say a single batch has smelled "good" during fermentation. It definitely doesnt smell anything like the finished product, thats for sure. The one you just made has the potential to turn out just fine.

 

[balrog]

"Pretend that everything you touch is infected with ebola and there are bad juju cells floating in the air around you."
+1,000,000

Lastly... Unless the [post-fermentation] smell can knock a buzzard off a crap wagon (obviously infected or soured) or it is growing some weird mold or powdery substance, keg it up, give it some time to feel the love, then taste it with carbonation and at the right temp. You will be surprised how much it changes. With your kolsch, keep in mind that type of beer really needs a cooler fermentation (even though it's an ale) and it really needs a few weeks or more in the keg/bottles to be "right"."

Also, some Kolsch yeasts are "wineyer" (white wine, sour-ish) than others. And they mellow with time.

Cleaning, iodophor-ing, 500ppm bleaching, and cleaning again, and Starsaning can be your friend. Painful friend, but friend. And even then, only use the questionable tubing, spigots, autosiphons on batches you don't care if they cross infect. Or replace all plastic/vinyl.

 

[jjw5015]

I perhaps should have been a little clearer. In my (albeit limited) experience with kolsch yeast, late-fermentation gravity readings skew a bit high due to the poor flocculation. My last kolsch read at 1.020 instead of 1.014, until I cold-crashed the sample. I drew the sample from the fermentor spigot, so it was really turbid with yeast and trub. I have not experience anything similar with other yeasts, but I have also gotten better at taking and reading gravity samples since then. Lots of things going on there, of course, but a muddy sample does not a reliable indicator make.

Did you bring it back to room temp after cold crashing? Temperature adjustments need to be made for gravity readings.