Smells like a Belgian

[Grummle]

I've done two beers recently/ever and both have ended up smelling like belgians. Problem is one was an APA and the other a 'classic english ale'. Both are Brewers best extract kits. Dose that smell indicate anything?

Now I'll list the myriad of ways I screwed them up

Fist batch: pitched at ~85(WAG) and fermented at 79(LC thermo on side of pail). I pitched so high cause my thermometer broke half way through my boil. (Digital POS) After putting it in the pail the LC thermo on the side wasn't showing any thing and I was like WTF? Then after awhile the temp came down enough for it to register on the LC. I didn't realize my house was so warm so it sat at 79. Oh yeah missed OG as well. Has as much alchol as a MGD 64 Doh. It tasted like 'Santa Clauses anus' + yeast. Took three days to start bubbling and blew its wad in pretty much one day. Hydro readings a week later showed it was done. Apparently that can happen when you ferment at to high a temp. Ah well it was fun to fill the house with hop smell. Its currently sitting in a corny. I'll let it sit there just as long as I don't need the corny. See what time does for it.

Second batch: alright lets try this again. New thermometer, NuCool for fermenting we should be ready to roll. Pitched this one at ~80 cause I was using a immersion chiller and I didn't realize my damn tap water is 80 deg. DOH. Would have figured it out last time if I had a damn THERMO. No ice so what ya gonna do? After that I put it in the fridge and its been at 68(LC thermo on pail) since. open up the fridge and it reeks of belgian.

As a side note the second kit did have the recalled lot # for notty. The first kit was notty but no idea what the lot # was. I haven't been through the whole notty thread yet but I will get through it as soon as I can.

Why do my beers smell like belgians? Ferm temp is my best bet.

 

[thomascena09]

APA and classic bears can start smelling like a Belgian, if you take that.

 

[middleofnowhere]

Your first one probably missed the OG because of improper mixing of the wort. The denser wort sits below the top up water. I am a noob, but that is the one thing I have really learned from the forums. You can't really miss your OG with an extract kit unless you add too much water, or not enough water.

 

[Grummle]

Yeah I read about that. Got a paint mixer for my drill for the second batch. For mixing and aeration before I took OG. Glad I played with it in a bucket of iodophor first though. Had water EVERYWHERE. Wort would have been a pain to clean up.

 

[middleofnowhere]

Yep...that would have sucked.

 

[erock2112]

I'm betting the smell of the first one is due to the fermentation temperature. If the fermenting fridge on the second brew smells like a belgian, my guess it's just the smell of fermentation. It's pretty yeasty, like a belgian beer. If this is the first time you've used the fridge for fermenting, you probably just haven't noticed the smell before. My guess is the first batch will probably be pretty estery, and the second batch will be just fine.