Five gallons of pure Nasty

[Jammybstard]

I have properly cocked up my latest brew.
I brewed on sunday; everything went very well apart form two new additions to my process.
The first was the new Airstone and the second was the aquarium heater.

I put the Airstone in too early and by the looks of it for too long while the Boiler was draining into the FV; but it was too hot to pitch so several houres later I aerated again and then pitched.
For the first day everything seemed fine and then I went away on Biz for three days. while I was away the temperature dropped sharply so I guess the auarium heater would have kicked in. It was supposed to be set to 23'C but it is a two part heater with a seperate temperature sensor for the thermostat. I'd not thought about the relative position of the heater and the temperature sensor. The heater is hanging in the middle and the sensor is stuck to side.
When I got back last night and smelt the airlock it almost knocked me over. It was like old organic tupentine, it really burnt the nose.
So I was doing a bit of a autopsy on it today trying to work out what went wrong.

The krausen was sticky like wall paper paste and smelt like paint thinner

There was no sign of infection in the FV but Palmers "How to brew" attributes solvent smells to high temeratures and oxygen.
I waited for the heater to click on again and measured the temperature in the middle of the FV. It seems by the time the outer reaches about 24'c and the thermostat clicks off again, the center of the FV near the imersion heater is pushing the 30'C mark. I guess this coupled with the over aeration on day one will have caused tons of nasty Fusel alcohol to be produced.
It really reeked poaring it down the sink!

I'll have to try it again next week but fix the imersion heater, possibly in a bath of water that the FV then sits in and carefully trial it first with Tap water.

This is my first really cocked up batch; Mainly because I wasn't around to keep an eye on it! I was really looking forward to that too!

 

[rickthebrew]

Unlucky - it really hurts pouring it away doesn`t it

 

[Tony]

and then I went away on Biz for three days

see .. that's your problem, you're supposed to stay at home and watch the brew, 24 hours a day.

Really sorry to hear it JB, I had a brew many moons ago that smelled of turps, never did manage to nail down how it happened and what caused it.

Hope the next one goes well!
:

 

[robsan77]

I had a similar when i moved into a new house and under the stairs was about 6c so i wrapped a sleeping bag around the fv. Turns out that kept the exothermic heat in and the beer fermented at around 32c. very solventy

 

[Jammybstard]

The worst bit is the smell is stuck in my nose/mind and everything smells solventy now; even my cup of tea.

 

[jonewer]

The worst bit is the smell is stuck in my nose/mind and everything smells solventy now; even my cup of tea.

Drink some beer instead

 

[Jammybstard]

Way ahead of you!

Does Trashy Blond taste of Fusel to anyone else?

 

[dennisking]

RIP

 

[Mark1964]

Ive never used any heater to ferment beer will ferment happily at room temp. You can cure the aeireation problem by dropping your boiled wort in to your fv from a height. :

 

[unclepumble]

Unless you are areating with pure oxygen I doubt you have over areated you will be lucky to get above 5-6ppm dissolved oxygen with natural air, it is very difficult to over oxygenate wort and the yeast (if liquid) will have used all the dissolved oxygen up within the 1st hour of pitching, usually within the first 30 mins,( you can introduce oxygen at a later stage by poor handling/transfer of the wort though).

The 32deg C temp will be the culprit of the dodgy flavours, I think your idea of putting the FV in a temp controlled bath is a sound one, If your after a clean tasting beer pitch you wort at around 18degC and control the bath at 20Deg C.

UP

 

[Jammybstard]

Sound advice pumble, I'm at the mercy of our night storage heating for the base temperature, without a fridge (I've asked) I can only keep the temp up at the higher end of the range, at about 22-24'C and try and smooth out the dips with a heater. Which is why I went with WLP001 as it's ment to work well up there.

 

[Jammybstard]

MKII
Heater in large plastic bath that the FV is sitting in.
The FV is raised an inch off the bottom.
The temp probe is attached to the side of the FV,
and just because I can, the aquarium pump bubbles under the heater 15 min every hour to move the water bath around a bit.
Currently trialing with water in the FV, Hope to rebrew next weekend!

 

[craigite]

Sorry, never like to hear a brew going off the rails.

I like the bath idea, but just remember you have to lift out a 5 gal FV and the bath unless you have room to lift out straight, ie no shelf above.

Look forward to updates. :)

 

[Jammybstard]

It had occured.
Typically though I would syphon from the FV into the keg in it's current position.
I can also empty the bath with the syphon if I had to get it out full.

and our-lass is strong, I'm sure she'll manage!