Have I gone wrong?

[jpnotts]

First time brew here, so please forgive any inaccuracies/stupidities.

Brewing a Wilko Golden Ale premium kit, followed a mixture of guidance on the packaging, a youtube video and some great guides on this very forum!

The starting abv was approximately 1.040 and after around two weeks, had settled at 1.012, I then (following instructions on the packet) added approximately 15 teaspoons of brewers sugar to my barrel as the beer was siphoned in.

I have now left the beer for 12 days, and decided to sample it last night to see if fit for consumption, the beer was relatively cloudy (although not too bad) and tasted nice, however there was a very strong taste of alcohol, almost spirit like!

Can anybody tell me if this strong alcohol taste (in a beer that should be around 4%) is due to something that I have done wrong? Or will this taste wear off after the beer has sat for a little longer?


Again, apologies for any stupidity involved in this post!

 

[Stapsin]

In terms of a "spirity" taste, is there any smell also? You are right that with a beer that is only 4% you should not be tasting anything like you are. What did you use to sanitise the keg, and did you rinse it thoroughly afterwards if it was VWP or something similar? My suggestions would be that it may be tasting like that as its got infected somewhere along the line or that when you have sanitised you might not have rinsed the steriliser off properly.

 

[Pjam]

So you've gone for keg rather than bottles. I think 12 days is very early, if it were bottles I would say more like 4 weeks conditioning.

Harsh taste can be down to lack of conditioning.

 

[Stapsin]

Harsh taste can be down to lack of conditioning.

When I was doing kits the beer was often consumed after something like 7 days in the bottle! Never had the kind of taste being described here due to a lack of conditioning to be honest.

 

[jonnymorris]

What temperature did you ferment at? High temps, especially in the early stages of fermentation can lend a solvent taste to your brew.

 

[pittsy]

What temperature did you ferment at? High temps, especially in the early stages of fermentation can lend a solvent taste to your brew.

Was gonna say the same , forget the instructions on the tin . You want to ferment around 18c in thr fv so if room is 20/22c then the brew would of been 24c upwards . ( the yeast heats up the wort in the first few days by around 2c )

 

[Pjam]

When I was doing kits the beer was often consumed after something like 7 days in the bottle! Never had the kind of taste being described here due to a lack of conditioning to be honest.

7 days! Blimey, Coopers kits recommend 3 months conditioning.

for 'Off Tastes' this is quite a good guide. Check the 2nd down. http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html