Strong apple smell

[kcstrom]

I was helping a friend bottle some of his beer night. After we finished the batch we were doing, he wanted to bottle a different type of beer that he had fermented in a 1 gallon jug. It had been in there for about 1.5-2 months.

Sorry if I'm short on details here, I really don't know too much about the beer beyond it was supposed to be a wheat and he used a whole package of dried yeast - but I don't know what type of yeast. I think he said it was some type of Muntons.

He had a sandwich bag with a rubber band around it for an airlock. When he took that off and I smelled it, there was a _very_ strong apple smell to the beer. It was really strange. I wasn't about to try tasting it and didn't suggest that he do either for fear of something bad happening, but he went ahead and bottled it.

Any ideas for what would normally cause something like this? I know this post is really short on necessary details, but I didn't want to ask too many questions as I'm quite anal in my brewing and he is pretty laid back (e.g. he never uses a hydrometer, etc.) and I didn't want to seem insulting.

Thanks.

kcstrom

 

[bpcarter]

The only thing that I am aware of that will cause an apple smell to your beer is acetaldehyde. Generally it's caused by allowing to much air to get into the fermenter, think that you might have too much air getting by your current air lock. Couple of links below discussing it and what you might be able to do.



Why does my beer taste bad? - Beer, Wine, Homebrew, and Everything Fermentable! - fermentarium.com
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/reducing-acetaldehyde-10047/

Happy Brewing!

- Bart

 

[Homercidal]

BTW - It might not have tasted great, but it will not hurt to drink it. Unless he poured radiator fluid in there...

I recommend using a different type of airlock for storing for 1.5-2 months...

 

[kcstrom]

I wondered if it might be do in part to the sandwich bag and rubber band airlock for that long of a period of time.

Thanks!

kcstrom