yeast smell

[zamo27]

im bottling my first beer tonight.
its an ordinary bitter ale. when i started i hit the OG of 1042 straight away, i was very careful of times, cleanliness, racking off etc
i had no control on the room temperature and the fermentation temperature.
its summer and its 20 maybe 24 degrees in the spare room

the beer turned out clear nice and i conditioned it in the bucket 2 days ago and there is small bubbles forming

the final gravity is 1004

my worry is that its not pleasant to drink. i can get a yeasty smell and taste of it. the recipe says put away for minimum 2 weeks after bottling preferably 1 month

is my beer ruined?
if so what have i done wrong?

 

[jfk69]

You probably fermented on the warm side for an ale. Usually, I try to keep the beer temperature on the lower side of the yeast's desired range, usually 62-66 for most ales. You were in the low 70's. Remember, fermentation is exothermic so it gives off heat. Your brew could have been 2-10 degrees above ambient temperature at various points in the process. Try to keep it cooler with a swamp cooler or something similar.

As far as the taste, you may get some off tastes from the higher than desired ferment temperature. You'll have to wait and see. As far as tasting now, you have a green, flat beer. It's amazing what a few weeks in a bottle along with carbonation can do to change the taste of a beer. Get it bottled/kegged, give it 3 weeks or so, and you may find you have a very different beer than what you taste now. Congrats on the first beer!

 

[iduncant]

I've got a similar problem with my first Wit. Smells horribly yeasty, girlfriend described it well when she said "it smells like bad eggs".

However, the taste is actually quite palatable. Will these off smells dissipate with time? The green beer smelled fine, it's actually smelling worse after a week in the bottle.

 

[Cyclman]

Could be 2 things- one, fermenting hot causes lots of flavor issues. Two, it could be "green" beer just needs time to mellow. I prefer 6 weeks before I taste any of my beers, even IPAs seem optimal at that time.

If you don't like the flavor in a beer, give it a few weeks, often the issues resolve themselves.

 

[Yooper]

its summer and its 20 maybe 24 degrees in the spare room

That means that there will be off flavors and I think that's what you're getting. Some people claim that bottling it and letting it sit for a while may improve the flavor, but in most cases that doesn't really make a great beer (although it may be drinkable).

Fermentation itself produces heat, so in a 24C room your beer could have been fermenting at 29C+. That's about 11C too hot.

Depending on your yeast strain, you probably want to be more at 16C in the room for good flavor.

 

[zamo27]

Ok this has my head wrecked now. In the same room I have lots more fermenting, a hefeweissen, an apfelwein and lots more country wines

Is everything destined to the same yeasty smell / finish and taste?

Can I re-pitch new yeast and move it somewhere cooler where it's 20 or below



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[LakeErieMonster]

It depends on what yeast strains you used (what the manufacturer's suggested fermentation temps are). Some are more suited to high temperatures, some aren't. Check on the packaging or on the mfg. website.

Either way, I would not pitch new yeast, just try to control your temperature. If you do not have a dedicated fermentation chamber, search this forum for swamp coolers. That would be a cheap and effective way to increase the quality of your fermentations.

 

[fuelish]

If it's only smelling/tasting "yeasty," I personally wouldn't worry.....if it smelled like shat and tasted like jet fuel, I'd be more concerned....Give it 3 weeks to a month to carb, it'll probably taste fine....but yeah, good advice above to check your yeasts' temp ranges and aim for the low side if possible..."swamp coolers" are easy, inexpensive, fairly effective set-ups for those of us on a budget

 

[chickypad]

If they've already fermented then the damage is done. But as others said, you might be okay I'd still bottle and see what you get. Then get your temp control situated going forward.

im bottling my first beer tonight.

the beer turned out clear nice and i conditioned it in the bucket 2 days ago and there is small bubbles forming

One thing, what do you mean by the above? It almost sounds like you added the priming sugar and beer to the bottling bucket 2 days before you were ready to bottle.

 

[zamo27]

Yes chickypad I racked the beer off a third time, added the priming sugar, waited 2 days and bottled



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[chickypad]

Yes chickypad I racked the beer off a third time, added the priming sugar, waited 2 days and bottled

That's what I was worried about. The bubbles were the yeast fermenting the priming sugar. You want that to happen in the bottle so the resulting carbon dioxide will carbonate the beer, which is why you add the sugar right before bottling. So you will probably be undercarbonated. Hard to say to what degree.

You also in general don't want to let the beer sit in containers with a lot of headspace after primary fermentation. This exposes them to oxygen and again leads to off flavors. I won't get into the whole debate about secondary clearing vessels but if you are going to use one you want something like a carboy that matches your batch size leaving no headspace.

 

[jfk69]

That's what I was worried about. The bubbles were the yeast fermenting the priming sugar. You want that to happen in the bottle so the resulting carbon dioxide will carbonate the beer, which is why you add the sugar right before bottling. So you will probably be undercarbonated. Hard to say to what degree.

You also in general don't want to let the beer sit in containers with a lot of headspace after primary fermentation. This exposes them to oxygen and again leads to off flavors. I won't get into the whole debate about secondary clearing vessels but if you are going to use one you want something like a carboy that matches your batch size leaving no headspace.

This. When you add the priming sugar, you bottle immediately. Leaving it two days just gave the yeast a chance to chow down on the sugars, and you have nothing left. If you bottle it now, it will likely not carbonate, or only at a VERY low level. Transfer to bottling bucket, add priming sugar, bottle. All in one process.

 

[zamo27]

Thanks lads for the info and all the advice but hey it's my first beer and my first mistakes
It's bottled now and put away but I won't do the same mistakes
Thank you


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