Brew down the drain?

[Stephenj]

So after 1 week in Primary and no activity for a while I check gravity before dry hoping. Gravity is 1.014 target was 1.009. OG Was 1.048 so I'm OK with the numbers.

Notice the eggy smell when taking off airlock and I've just tasted the sample which is pretty disgusting tbh. It tastes like pint you would get from lines which aren't cleaned - a bit like a urinal smell/taste.

Does this batch need chucked, or would further warm/cold fermentation fix this?

 

[Stephenj]

to add. I am a real stickler for sanitising so pretty sure its not this. Only this different about this batch is I sprinkled the yeast on top of the wort, rather than rehydrate as I have always done so before. Yeast was Wilkos Gervin which I have used previously without issue.

 

[Brew_DD2]

Give it a bit longer. I've had some yeasts give off horrible eggy sulphur smells. I think it's to do with underpitching/lack of yeast nutrient.

Give it a chance to clear up after itself. If after another week it's still rank then chuck it.

 

[terrym]

Why are you even considering dumping it at such an early stage in spite of the the effort you have put in and the money you have spent?
Why not at least leave it alone for a few for more days, which won't do it any harm at all, rouse the yeast perhaps, put it somewhere a bit warmer, you might nudge it down a couple more points perhaps, even now its managed 71% attenuation which is still OK although a little low, but even at 1.014 might only be a bit sweet to the taste after conditioning. And further on the taste, give it the benefit of the doubt, it's only a week in ffs and maybe the yeast is still cleaning up.

 

[Stephenj]

Keep it at about 20c ish? It has had no activity at all for the best part of 3 days now.

 

[BeerCat]

In have made a lot of horrible beers i have thrown away. I now taste the wort end of fermentation and before bottling and have noticed it does taste good. I have bottled many beers that tasted horrible that i have had to chuck at a later date. I have never had a beer that tastes horrible turn into anything nice but i have hgad nice beer eventually. What are you brewing? What temp and what yeast? What was the OG and how much did you pitch? I think most of my bad beers have been down to a bad fermentation causing off flavours rather than infection. Some lager yeast produce farty smells but they clean up when you raise the temps?

 

[Stephenj]

Amarillo SMASH using extra pale malt (same malt used for a Simcoe which turned out great). Used same Gervin yeast as previous brew although as I said I sprinkled on top of wort rather than re-hydrate as I have always done previously. Can't remember how much I pitched, but it was per the recommended in brewersfriend calculator. OG was 1.048.

 

[Druncan]

I only do ales and ciders and tbh, But as said 1 week is really early days for what I brew. I do not open anything if I can help it until dry hopping and until it slows to 1.016
Just put four down that have been bubbling 12 days, but some of mine do 15-20 days occasionally. I usually start with no heat as the yeasties do it for themselves, but I always pre-start them. But, increase temps to finish on 22-25*C, then cold crash to 6-8*C .
Dunno that yeast. I stick to CML AM or CML Ale yeasts now.
I was also just wondering what your temp profile has been like? and brewing liquor PH and PPM?

 

[Stephenj]

Why are you even considering dumping it at such an early stage in spite of the the effort you have put in and the money you have spent?
Why not at least leave it alone for a few for more days, which won't do it any harm at all, rouse the yeast perhaps, put it somewhere a bit warmer, you might nudge it down a couple more points perhaps, even now its managed 71% attenuation which is still OK although a little low, but even at 1.014 might only be a bit sweet to the taste after conditioning. And further on the taste, give it the benefit of the doubt, it's only a week in ffs and maybe the yeast is still cleaning up.

Yeah I am going to leave it. Initial reaction just got me a bit worried, this is the first brew that hasn't gone perfectly to plan and caught me off guard I suppose. I split the wort into 2 separate FV so I could DH one and leave other. Both have exactly the same smell, taste and OG.

 

[Stephenj]

I only do ales and ciders and tbh, But as said 1 week is really early days for what I brew. I do not open anything if I can help it until dry hopping and until it slows to 1.016
Just put four down that have been bubbling 12 days, but some of mine do 15-20 days occasionally. I usually start with no heat as the yeasties do it for themselves, but I always pre-start them. But, increase temps to finish on 22-25*C, then cold crash to 6-8*C .
Dunno that yeast. I stick to CML AM or CML Ale yeasts now.
I was also just wondering what your temp profile has been like? and brewing liquor PH and PPM?

Don't know about PH and PPM (something Im going to consider getting to understand more moving forward). pitched at 22 and its been reading on the FV thermometer at 20c pretty constantly.

 

[MyQul]

Give it more time, then bottle it. Although Wilko ale ferments fast, another week in the FV and some more weeks in the bottle and you'd be amazed at what several weeks of conditioning can do to a beer.

It's probably not sprinkling the yeast rather than re-hydrating either. I'm far too lazy to re-hydrate yeast and always just sprinkle when ever I use dried and never had a problem (mostly due to the fact that a packet of dried yeast has loads of cells in it and I usually make lower ABV% beers)

 

[LarryF]

Amarillo SMASH using extra pale malt (same malt used for a Simcoe which turned out great). Used same Gervin yeast as previous brew although as I said I sprinkled on top of wort rather than re-hydrate as I have always done previously. Can't remember how much I pitched, but it was per the recommended in brewersfriend calculator. OG was 1.048.

I've used Wilko Gervin a lot and just spread it on top of the wort a lot as I've not really noticed any difference between starter and dry with that yeast. It's always gone off just fine for me with no adverse results.

 

[GerritT]

Come back in a week and let's know how it turned out! :thumb1:

 

[Cwrw666]

Always sprinkle yeast on top of wort but never stir it in as all the oxygen is in the top layer of wort. I've never understood why `hydrating' yeast in a jar is any different to doing it on top of your beer.

 

[Drunkula]

Always sprinkle yeast on top of wort but never stir it in as all the oxygen is in the top layer of wort. I've never understood why `hydrating' yeast in a jar is any different to doing it on top of your beer.

Because osmotic shock kills about half the yeast in beer and it doesn't happen with water. I've just been listening to Jamil Zainisheff ranting about not hydrating on a podcast.

 

[Drunkula]

I've had some yeasts give off horrible eggy sulphur smells. I think it's to do with underpitching/lack of yeast nutrient.

Yup. When I just started I wondered why you couldn't make a yeast starter from just sugar so gave it a go and it keffed like the divil's drainpipe, so it did. It was after that I found out about the lack of zinc and other things stressing the bejaysus out of the yeast. Even using yeast nutrient it's got good to make a starter for beer with it as you grow a colony of yeast that likes eating sugar and aren't fussed on the malts. It's like giving your kids the choice of Haribo or turnips. By the time their teeth have rotted away they ain't gonna but scratch the skin while gummin' on them turnips. That's the way John Palmer explains it in How to Brew.

 

[rats_eyes]

Another vote here for leaving it for longer. I rarely open up a fermenter before the two week mark these days. Yeast activity isn't always visually impressive, but it can still be working away regardless. Give it a week in a warm space and see what you think.

 

[Stephenj]

Another vote here for leaving it for longer. I rarely open up a fermenter before the two week mark these days. Yeast activity isn't always visually impressive, but it can still be working away regardless. Give it a week in a warm space and see what you think.

Defo going to do this. Cheers for the advice.

 

[ITMA]

I've not much to add, but glad you're keeping it I think it will improve. The eggy sulphur smell will definitely clear. I concur it's caused by lack of yeast nutrient and whilst it's not a good thing, it doesn't infect the taste of the beer and by the time you bottle the smell will be long gone.

Given the smell in the air when you were tasting, it's highly unlikely you would have liked the taste even if the beer was actually perfect. My guess is that it tastes better than you thought at the time.

Try not to think of the airlock as a fermentation indicator. It's satisfying to see the bubbles in the early stages, sure, but after that you can have radio silence from the airlock and the yeast is still busy. Converse can be true - even when totally finished the airlock can be busy (trapped co2 escaping). The two weeks is a good rule of thumb/starting point for a minimum before taking samples - and use the hydrometer as a guide to when it's ready to move on.

Hope you'll report back when the first bottle is cracked open!

 

[Stephenj]

Thinking about it, not sure why I took a reading, never have done before when I've gone to dry hop. Think it was the smell that made me lose my brewing thought process and I took the sample to check if an issue. Looking for a stalled fermentation I suppose.