First post here, been reading a ton lately as I approach my 10th batch. For some background, I started off with 4 extract batches and my last 5 have all been AG. The extract batches went well and I am drinking on them now as the AG batches move closer to bottling.
All my batches have been pitched with rehydrated US-05 at a temp of about 70F. All my vessels are in the same area of a basement and sit somewhere between 66F and 68F, so pretty ideal for fermentation I believe. None of my beers have been over 1.060 yet as I am trying to focus on getting the process right.
As most folks do, I started with a single primary bucket and a glass carboy. I would brew an extract batch, let it finish in the bucket (10-12 days) and then transfer to the glass for dry hopping or cold crashing. The first couple extract batches came out well, no issues and taste ok (can tell they are extract). I now have 2 buckets and 4 carboys (the fleet grows...).
Now, the first two batches that I have done AG, I followed the same process - I completed primary around 12-14 days (fully attenuated), then racked to glass secondary. They are both straightforward IPAs around 1.050 and I drank the hydro samples during transfer and they tasted and smelled fantastic. So here is where the first error may have occurred - I added about 2 tablespoons of table sugar (not boiled or sanitized) to the carboy and then racked the beer onto it. My though process was that I didn't want oxidation to take effect if I had to wait for bottles to free up, therefore I would get some more CO2 introduced into the headspace. I did this with the second AG batch as well.
Now tonight I checked on these two batches in secondary (one has been sitting for 9 days, the other 5), to grab a taste. As soon as I popped the stoppers off, it was like paint thinner smacked me straight in the face - it was super sharp and very noticeable. However, when I took some beer off in the wine thief to sample, it didn't TASTE solvent if I didn't smell while drinking, but that smell is enough to knock you over.
There are no visible signs of any infection yet (I combed the forums looking for this), but the most likely seem to be lacto or aceto, neither of which really fit the profile since the FLAVOR seems to be ok, but the AROMA is awful.
So at this point I am not sure if I am just smelling normal byproducts of fermentation or if there is really something wrong. So for kicks, I popped open two other primary buckets that had been pitched 6 and 2 days ago respectively, with similar OG's and stuck my face in to see what the smell was like. It hit me like a ton of bricks - it was the same exact aroma that I observed in the secondaries, a harsh solvent - but then the beer tastes great (on the batch that had finished fermenting - I didn't taste 3 day old
). I never smelled the primaries on my previous extract brews, so I have no basis for comparison, not sure if they would be that different.
So am I just smelling the byproducts of fermentation or is something wrong? What does your normal primary fermentation smell like? I am not sure if I am smelling green/young beer or if something else is going on.
I also am puzzled why they would taste good coming out of primary, but then take this turn unless the fact I kickstarted fermentation again by adding sugar in the secondary. But that's pretty much the same process with bottle condition too as I understand it.
I went ahead and bottled the oldest batch (21 days old), and started dry hopping the other (16 days old), so we'll see what happens.
Thanks in advance!
Justin
All my batches have been pitched with rehydrated US-05 at a temp of about 70F. All my vessels are in the same area of a basement and sit somewhere between 66F and 68F, so pretty ideal for fermentation I believe. None of my beers have been over 1.060 yet as I am trying to focus on getting the process right.
As most folks do, I started with a single primary bucket and a glass carboy. I would brew an extract batch, let it finish in the bucket (10-12 days) and then transfer to the glass for dry hopping or cold crashing. The first couple extract batches came out well, no issues and taste ok (can tell they are extract). I now have 2 buckets and 4 carboys (the fleet grows...).
Now, the first two batches that I have done AG, I followed the same process - I completed primary around 12-14 days (fully attenuated), then racked to glass secondary. They are both straightforward IPAs around 1.050 and I drank the hydro samples during transfer and they tasted and smelled fantastic. So here is where the first error may have occurred - I added about 2 tablespoons of table sugar (not boiled or sanitized) to the carboy and then racked the beer onto it. My though process was that I didn't want oxidation to take effect if I had to wait for bottles to free up, therefore I would get some more CO2 introduced into the headspace. I did this with the second AG batch as well.
Now tonight I checked on these two batches in secondary (one has been sitting for 9 days, the other 5), to grab a taste. As soon as I popped the stoppers off, it was like paint thinner smacked me straight in the face - it was super sharp and very noticeable. However, when I took some beer off in the wine thief to sample, it didn't TASTE solvent if I didn't smell while drinking, but that smell is enough to knock you over.
There are no visible signs of any infection yet (I combed the forums looking for this), but the most likely seem to be lacto or aceto, neither of which really fit the profile since the FLAVOR seems to be ok, but the AROMA is awful.
So at this point I am not sure if I am just smelling normal byproducts of fermentation or if there is really something wrong. So for kicks, I popped open two other primary buckets that had been pitched 6 and 2 days ago respectively, with similar OG's and stuck my face in to see what the smell was like. It hit me like a ton of bricks - it was the same exact aroma that I observed in the secondaries, a harsh solvent - but then the beer tastes great (on the batch that had finished fermenting - I didn't taste 3 day old
). I never smelled the primaries on my previous extract brews, so I have no basis for comparison, not sure if they would be that different.So am I just smelling the byproducts of fermentation or is something wrong? What does your normal primary fermentation smell like? I am not sure if I am smelling green/young beer or if something else is going on.
I also am puzzled why they would taste good coming out of primary, but then take this turn unless the fact I kickstarted fermentation again by adding sugar in the secondary. But that's pretty much the same process with bottle condition too as I understand it.
I went ahead and bottled the oldest batch (21 days old), and started dry hopping the other (16 days old), so we'll see what happens.
Thanks in advance!
Justin
