Father Hook - off taste - any way back?

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SteveWTBD

SteveWTBD

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Just ready to keg my 23l of Father Hook Best Bitter (festival). It has been a 15 days fermenting, only now got down to 1.009, which is Festival’s recommended bottling FG for this kit.

Started: 19 October 24
I pitched the yeast at around 24c.
Starting Gravity: 1.036 (ish)
After 5 days gravity: 1.018
Hop pellets added: 26 October
Today’s date 3 November: FG: 1.009
FV at reasonably constant 20c.

Over the last couple of days, it has been developing a distinctly chemical smell. It tastes alcoholic, with faint overtones of acetone.

When I added the hop pellets, I put them in a muslin bag, which I had boiled to sanitise it. I soaked the filled bag of pellets in boiling water before adding. I added the bag plus the hop tea. I didn’t weight the bag, so it sat on the top of the wort.

Assuming that this off-taste is fusel alcohol, is there anything I can do to save it, so all the fusel turns into esters. It seems a shame to pour it down the sink, but no point kegging it up if it isn’t going to taste nice.

All advice gratefully received.
 
I'm not entirely sure but I think fusel alcohols are caused by too high fermentation temp.
If you've followed your usual cleaning and sanitation regime I'd be inclined to think all is OK.
Tasting the beer when it is "green" is only a guess as to what it will be.
My concerns would be "vinegar " taste or visible signs of infection in the wort. As fermentation gets going its harder for infection to get a foot hold so if it's gone as planned I'd keg it.
 
SteveWTBD said:
Thanks, Clint,

Good advice. After all, what’s the worst that can happen?
Click to expand...
If it is fusel you taste then I’m afraid bottling and waiting won’t make it any better. I’m speaking from the “been there done that” point of view. You say you pitched at 24 but the actual temp when it got going could have been much higher. If you have the bottles to spare then go ahead and hope for the best.
 
I made this kit a while back and I'm afraid I was not a fan. I attributed this to what I thought was probably a harsh pronounced hop flavour. I think I probably drank it all though! Hope it works out for you.
 
Donegal john said:
If it is fusel you taste then I’m afraid bottling and waiting won’t make it any better. I’m speaking from the “been there done that” point of view. You say you pitched at 24 but the actual temp when it got going could have been much higher. If you have the bottles to spare then go ahead and hope for the best.
Click to expand...
I’ve put it in a corny keg. I will leave it a fortnight and give it a taste. If I better, it will go down the sink.

My pitching temperature might have been higher than 24c. I have been relying on my strip thermometer stuck on the side of the fermentation vessel. I managed to snap my glass thermometer and keep forgetting to replace it!
 
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Bitter_Dave said:
I made this kit a while back and I'm afraid I was not a fan. I attributed this to what I thought was probably a harsh pronounced hop flavour. I think I probably drank it all though! Hope it works out for you.
Click to expand...
So maybe it’s just the kit!
 
SteveWTBD said:
It has been a 15 days fermenting, only now got down to 1.009...

Over the last couple of days, it has been developing a distinctly chemical smell. It tastes alcoholic, with faint overtones of acetone...

Assuming that this off-taste is fusel alcohol, is there anything I can do to save it, so all the fusel turns into esters.
Click to expand...
It's complicated, those kinds of chemically/acetone flavours can be actual acetone, they can be fusels, or they can be high concentrations of ethyl acetate - an ester. So I'd assume nothing... wink...

High temperature can be a reason for them - remember that air temperature is not the same as wort temperature, and fermentation releases heat into the wort particularly in the early stages - but it can also come from stressed yeast. And a 1.036 wort taking 15 days to get to FG definitely suggests the yeast are unhappy for whatever reason. So I'd tend to look at reasons for that if I was troubleshooting for the future.

As for fixing it - with any dodgy beer I tend to give it a bit of time and see how it goes, sometimes they sort themselves out (and it costs nothing other than keg time and opportunity cost to do so), but it probably won't...
 
FWIW it does sound like yeast stress/yeast problems - was the yeast/kit particularly old? it should have only taken around 3 to 4 days tops to fully ferment down 1.036.

Although I mostly AG, I did do a kit a while back that displayed similar characteristics, slow to get going and once finished had strong medicinal aroma's. It was a kit given to me that had yeast that was prob on the very edge of its use by and probably hadn't been stored very well either so put it down to that. I ended up putting mine down the sink and didn't bother with kegging
 
There is no way that the true OG of that kit was 1.036 given the amount of fermentables included. Sometimes kits can read a lower if not fully mixed at the start (not always easy). 3kg of malt extract should get you an OG in the 1.040s. 15 days is quite long nonetheless.
 

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