Champagne Smell?

[lagernaut]

Hi All!
Long time reader, first time poster hehehe long story below - skip to the bottom for short version....

Well as a bit of an introduction l'm from Newcastle, just bottled my second batch last night - so l'm a proud father of 60 longies. First batch was stock standard Coopers Lager, just used everything in the micro brew kit when l bought it. Had a taster at 2 weeks, ok - cidery but drinkable l suppose....tastes ok but from what l have read this is a result of using the brewers sugar that came with the kit? Hoping it settles in the bottle.

Anywho, second time round l went and visited the Oracle (Mark from Marks home brew in Islington - champ) and got the ingredients for a Dark Ale. From memory 12g fuggles, 1 kilo of Dried Malt Extract and a tin of Ironbark l think dark ale? l'm not at home so don't have the ingredients list...

After sitting in the fermenter for 3 weeks (l read ok to leave for this long, and possibly the longer the better) at 18 - 20 degrees. l decided to bottle last night. By the by, l get all the signs of fermentation however the airlock does not bubble, l squeeze the side of the fermenter and l can hear a small amount of air getting out not matter how hard l try to seal it l can't l really doubt any nasties can get in though! Anyway, took my reading can't remember what it was but l was happy with it at the time. I was really concerned about the smell, my first batch was quite sweet smelling and turned out cidery - this batch l have smelled and got the better half to confirm my suspicions and it smells exactly like champagne! It is amazing, lovely dark colour and the taste straight from the fermenter is quite good quite charcoaly and smooth l was seriously impressed however the smell, my friends should l be worried? Will the smell change in the bottle?

Anyway, l apologise for the ramble!! The short story is the beer tastes great however smells strongly of champagne - is this an indicator of anything l should be worried about?

Thanks & Cheers,
Lagernaut.

 

[peas_and_corn]

Firstly, don't worry about not having an exact seal- while the blooping of the airlock is nice, it's not really necessary- I am one of several who don't bother with an airlock.

With the aroma, what yeast did you use? If you used the yeast that came with the kit, then it's possible that it may be the culprit, as they have been known to impart some not-desirable flavours/aromas into the beer.

How did you use the fuggles? Did you put them into the fermenter while fermenting? If so, then it wouldn't be much help, since the CO2 would 'scrub' away the aroma/flavour that the hops would impart. If you are dry hopping, then putting the hops into secondary is the best bet. If you boiled the hops with your ingredients, disregard.

 

[Koikaze]

Mine also usually turn out with a champagne smell (we said it smelt like goon), but i attribute that to either getting too warm in fermentation (as with my first one), or being green. I found with my brews they were much better with a bit more age, the estery/champany smell disappeared and there was still a bit of a bad taste there but with a bit more age that disappeared.

So I think it will be fine, just chill out, have a drink every week and im sure you will see is fade away! If its anything like my beer

 

[lagernaut]

How did you use the fuggles? I was told to make a 'cup of tea' with the fuggles (it came in a tea bag) so l just did that - made my fuggles tea then chucked the entire lot (not the cup though hehehe) in to the fermenter....

Thanks for the calming advice re: the smell...l'm sure it will go away l just wanted to make sure it wasn't anything to nasty!!

Cheers,
Lagernaut