My last few beers (I am only on batch 7, all grain) have a odd taste, its not bad, but I dont really like it very much. My wife who is type 1 diabetic says her blood sugars go way up after drinking my beer. After a discussion with a great local brewer, he thinks its because my beers have too much unfermented sugars. A few of my beers seem to stop fermenting in 5-6 days. While the final gravities are a bit higher than I expected. So, with his suggestions, I lowered my pitching temperature from 68 to 65. Pitched a starter 2 weeks ago sunday. OG 1.068 IPA. 24 hrs later almost blew the top off the bucket, put in a blow off tube. Checked the gravity 3 days ago it was at 15, today its at 09 temps have never been above 66-67 (its cold in my garage but I do have some heat and some insulation in the cupboard its in. is this common to have it last so long being cooler?
The cooler the fermentation temps, typically, the longer fermentation is going to take. But there are other factors at play, and a couple degrees (especially going from upper 60's down to mid 60's) usually wouldn't make a huge difference with fermentation times. What does your grain bill look like? What kind of yeast are you using? How big was your starter, and what is the batch size?
12 # 2 row 1.25 # crystal 40 .75 # carapils 1# cane sugar yeast was 1056 smash pack, put into 2 L with 0.5# dme started with 8.5 gal preboil and put 5.5 in the fermenter.
14% of your grain bill is caramel malt. That's a lot of caramel malt, IMO. 10% is pretty much my personal upper limit. What was your mash temp?
150 60 minutes but dropped to 148 at the end. my recipes are developing, thanks for the tip on the crystal,
Mash temp seems fine. If you want to dry it out take out the crystal and crapils. Also you may want to bump the fermentation temp a few degrees after the beer has settled in for a few days. Ceteris paribus, cool fermentations are slower fermenations. If you pitch at 65 give it a degree per day till you get to 72 or something like that. That will help keep the yeast active and help them finish up some of those sugars and process some of their byproducts. To be honest, the weird off flavor probably has nothing to do with too much sugar and is a problem somewhere else in your brewing process. Carapils contributes body and head retention but not sweetness. The crystal could be considered a bit high, but if you are brewing a well hopped red ale I wouldn't be uncomfortable with that much cara 40. If you could describe the odd taste we might could help you out a bit more.
I probably should have been more clear. My comment on the caramel malt was to address the excess sugar issue, not the 'odd taste'. But 150 dropping to 148 should have mitigated the sugar issue somewhat. The odd taste is likely a separate issue.
Warm it up a bit at the end. For average gravity beers I usually keep my fermenter in the swamp cooler @ about 66 for the first week or so. Then if the fermentation has slowed I take it out and warm it to about 69 - 70ish. That way the yeast will be a bit more active and do a better job of cleaning up.
I thank you all, I wish I could describe the taste better, but my palette is weak and I dont have lots of experience with off flavors, as I mostly drink good beer from brewers. Warming it up would have been easier and normal, but the temps dropped way below normal lows here, 30 in my garage so the heating element I do have does not have enough btu to cover the cold. My fermentation chamber is a double kitchen cabinet from the old kitchen, lined with 1.5" solid core foam on all sides and the doors. I use a mini fridge compressor outside the cabinet and the cooling section inside. For heat i am using a light bulb, wrapped in aluminum foil to keep the light down .... could the light be doing something to the beer at this stage?
UV light from the sun can cause skunking almost instantly. But I don't know how much exposure to a light bulb would be needed to accomplish the same thing. At any rate, skunked beer smells like, well, a skunk. Nothing I would call sweet.
Can you bring it inside for a week? Brewing in a 30 degree garage? What is the temp of the cabinet that you are fermenting in? And are you taking temp readings in the beer? I feel like it would be very easy to get hot and cold spots in your chamber, as you are saying that you warm the inside of the chamber some 35 deg above room temp (I can only assume).
“30 in my garage so the heating element I do have does not have enough btu to cover the cold.” A simple ‘solution’ to get more BTUs is to utilize a higher wattage light bulb. Cheers!
the temperature in the cabinet is about the same as the beer, I have a temp strip on the bucket, a dark thick towel wrapped around and a thermostat set and calibrated to 2 themometers. yes, more btus is the answer, but I dont like the system of using a light, I am using a 40W but anything more sort of bothers me in a confined space as it gets too hot to quickly. Yes, should have brought it inside but our house is a "beach house" style from the 50's with no insulation, open beam ceiling and it drops to mid 50's at night. guess I am better off paying attention to the weather reports and not trying to ferment in the garage with a cold snap coming. thanks again. cheers peter
In my experience, it doesn't take nearly that long. It's amazing how quickly you can turn the most expertly crafted Cream Ale into a Heineken.
Just a follow up. The fermentation seemed to slow considerably but I had to leave town for a week, gravity reading was about 1.009. threw in my 2 oz of simcoe right into the primary and went on vacation. yesterday had a taste, wow, finally a nice beer.
