Ruined Wherry

[Hop Fancier]

After my disaster with the 2 can Milestone IPA kit, I decided to try Wherry as I'd read good things about it.

I brewed it to 23l using Safale S-04 rather than the 6g of Wherry Yeast.

I had hydrated the yeast before hand the the fermentation went off like a rocket. Decided to bottle after 10 days as I'm going away and didn't want to leave it hanging around.

Tested it SG 1.008, all seems good, took a sniff of the sample and got a lot of 'twang' then took a taste. Quite vinegary, decided to bottle anyway and see how it turns out.

Feeling down in the dumps as this seems like my second failure and after spending north of £40+ on kits, I feel it must be my technique.

Another thought occurs which is I am using a Coopers micro brew fermenter which has the krausen ring you are supposed to remove after 3-4 days, despite the fact I sprayed the hell out of the lid with StarSan before opening it, I could have infected it then I suppose.

I've still got 3 kits to do, but at £8 for 8 bottles of Pedigree at Morrisons at the moment is it worth it?

 

[lovelldr]

Why change yeast and not stick to the supplied yeast?

My wherry went down to 1.013, and smelt and tasted lovely when kegged (after 11 days in fv). Maybe yours isn't so good, as the yeast fermented out further, taking a lot of flavor or summit? Next kit, just use what comes with it, and see how it goes then...

 

[cnelsonplumber]

Hi

Don't be down on your results so far, you are learning a new skill set and it will take time, the fact that you are bothered means that you want to make good beer and that will ultimately lead to good results.

Have a really good taste of your Wherry and describe what is in there this will aid identifying the problem. If strong vinegar flavour is dominant then it is a safe bet that a bacterial infection is the cause. :wha:

When you sit down and think about it, infections can come from all over the place, starting with the scissors you use to open the yeast packet, fingers, the container you rehydrate in, the spoon you use to stir it with, the lid. :hmm:

If you sanitise anything and put it down make sure you put it somewhere that has also been sanitised (brew bucket etc).

I boil everything that I can to steralize the equipment then treat everything else with Videne, although when I started I used VWP and sodium Metabisulphate with success.

I am not familiar with Starsan, but I bet there are plenty of members on here that are.

Good luck with the next beer :thumb:

 

[Moley]

Don't give up on it too soon, a lot of brews have a faint vinegary smell when they are young, it's to do with some aldehydes which the yeasties haven't finished clearing up and it will go away. How long did you give it between mixing and bottling?

 

[joe1002]

Another thought, what temperature did you ferment at and would this have fluctuated much?

 

[Hop Fancier]

Don't give up on it too soon, a lot of brews have a faint vinegary smell when they are young, it's to do with some aldehydes which the yeasties haven't finished clearing up and it will go away. How long did you give it between mixing and bottling?

Hi Moley, it was 10 days, started checking the SG at 7 days.

 

[Hop Fancier]

Another thought, what temperature did you ferment at and would this have fluctuated much?

Hi Joey1002, that was a tricky bit. The stick on thermometer read over 30 degrees which was rubbish as it was reading the temperature of the plastic bucket which had just been full of hot chemipro oxi, followed by a swill around with star san.

After 2 days the strip indicated 20 degrees which is usual for my pantry under the stairs. Time to invest in a proper thermometer maybe.

 

[Hop Fancier]

Why change yeast and not stick to the supplied yeast?

Hi Lovelldr, I really was just experimenting, as I had heard great things about Wherry and of Safale-S04.

I wonder whether the 6g size is a reason some guys end up stuck.

Glad your's turned out ok. I'll probably buy another and try again if wilkinson have them on sale again

 

[beerguzzler8518]

As Moley says, don't give up yet because of the vinegar smell.

I've had extract brews that I've dry hopped and they stank to high heaven - more like Sarsons than Ale. 4 weeks later after bottling it was lovely.

 

[calumscott]

I had a thought yesterday when I tested the gravity of an IPA I have on...

...the story goes:

It's been taking longer than usual to finish, been on a good ten days and still looking fizzy with a bulgy lid. I started to worry because I'd racked it on day 7 and dry hopped it. I suspected something might be amiss. Cracked the lid and my goodness what an acidic noseful I got. I continued to worry...

...hastily did a boiled kettle over a ladle sanitisation job and took a sample. SG: 1.013, pretty much done - the last (identical) one finished at 1.011. :hmm:

So, given I'm now worried about the waft from the FV, there is one last check to make, and so the sample jar got sampled. Perfect, lovely, bitter, hoppy, malty (still yeasty and young of course...). :hmm: :hmm: :hmm:

But this thread got me thinking. That wasn't vinegar I was smelling! That was the citrus notes of the Chinook hops combined with...

...well what does CO2 give you in contact with the moist inner surface of your ultra sensitive nasal passages?

Carbonic Acid... :idea:

Now a vinegary tasting one I would be more worried about. But you've done the right thing by bottling it. It could yet be nothing and go away with time.

Give it a couple of months before you lob it. :thumb:

 

[RobWalker]

If things don't get better, I would suggest soaking all of your kit in OxyClean and then your sanitizing solution, give it a good rinse after, do this on a day when you're NOT brewing. I usually keep mine fresh with Sodium Metabi solution too, about a gallon stays in the bucket complete with any kit that won't rust, IE airlocks syphon tubes. Struggled with infections myself a few times, mega ridiculous sanitizing practice got me through it and now I don't have any problems and don't have to put any effort in.

You could consider swapping out your bucket too, bacteria can live in there if it's scratched etc, and with 5 gallon buckets under a tenner, it's not worth losing a brew over.

Failing that, where are you brewing? Pollen count is pretty high at the moment.

 

[TRXnMe]

As said by many above, give the wherry time.

I've just finished a keg of it off, 4 weeks ago I was ready to chuck it as it had a nasty after taste, it'd had close to 4 weeks to mature and it seems that's not enough for a wherry, quite a few threads about this kit seem to be about the same problem.

On the plus side, when it's ready it's ruddy gorgeous.