Cidery smell from FWK after ferment

[bmarshall]

My second brew has a cidery smell to it. Is this normal?
Its an amarillo FWK. Its still very cloudy from the yeast i think. Its only been 8 days from pitching the yeast. Ferment stopped after day 4.
Any thoughts would be greatfull.

 

[Black n Tan]

Have you tasted it?

 

[bmarshall]

Yeh doesnt taste off. Taste like flat beer.
Does yeast produce this smell. I didnt notice it from my first berw.

 

[HBHB]

When you say ferment stopped after day 4, are you referring to hydrometer reading or just that the airlock stopped bubbling?

Chances are it's still got a little ways to go.


Cidery tastes/aroma are typically acetaldehyde and common causes include but aren't limited to: Insufficient aeration at pitching yeast, high pitching temperature, low pitch rate for yeast, incomplete fermentation and use of simple sugars such as sucrose and high loads of dextrose. I'd suggest it's too soon to judge how the brew will turn out. Best bet is to kick back with a home brew and relax while the yeast do their thing. It's not born yet, so too soon to count the new baby's fingers and toes.

Note: Acetaldehyde at this stage is the result of incomplete conversion of sugars to ethanol. Give it time.

That said......if you haven't used it before are you sure it's not just the aroma of the Amarillo?

I think you'll find the FWK's made by any of the boards sponsors are unquestionably of the highest standard obtainable. What you do with it afterwards is most likely the source of any flaws.

Martin

 

[surly]

I recently made my first FWK, was the American Brown ale from Artisan. It has a fair whack of citra in it which gave off heaps of fruity odours while fermenting.
Very tasty beer though, better than anything I have brewed to date

 

[bmarshall]

Thanks. Yeh i did pitch it at about 28. It droped to 20 after a few hours in the ferment fridge. I kept it at 20 + -1 for the whole time and used one pack of BRY-97.
I did a dry hop of mosaic and galaxy today.
My first brew i did rack to secondary fermenter after 7 days. But after doing some reading ill just leave this one in the primary.

 

[MaltyHops]

Thanks. Yeh i did pitch it at about 28. It droped to 20 after a few hours in the ferment fridge. I kept it at 20 + -1 for the whole time and ...

Why was it at 28C? You didn't boil it, did you? Winters may be getting warmer but the FWK should have gotten quite cool (unless you stored it in a warm living area)


Ed. spello

 

[bmarshall]

No a did a 5L boil with some extra grain and 30g hops to get 20L, it was 26 deg i had another look at my notes. I did have it inside.
She started bubbling away pretty hard within 12 hours. My first brew took 24 with a higher OG and spot on 20 deg.

 

[bmarshall]

This is my brew after 11 days in the fermenter.
Will it clear up after a bit more time or will it need a cold crash?
Thanks.

 

[IsonAd]

Hey Bmarshall. How did your beer end up. I had a similar experience with an extract brew I did recently that also had amarillo. It was Neils centenarillo recipe listed on herebwith an epic thread. It went nuts for 4 days then settled right down, early tastes were almost like off oj, and very syrupy consistency. Looked very much like your PIC. Also had strong cider like smell from fermenter with a big almost like rubbing alcohol kick that just about burnt my nostrils. I let it go 3 weeks in ferment then bittled about 10 beers and dry hopped the rest with zythos. I tasted one of the non dry hopped ones last week after 2.5 weeks in the bottle(early I know but I couldn't help myself) it still had the on taste and was still a little syrupy/cidery/winey. I had one of the dryhopped ones tonight prob 3 weeks in bottle and it was much better, the syrup consistency had gone and taste was much better. I haven't tasted another of the non dry hopped version yet but hopefully that will be OK too. It was my first beer with Amarillo so wondering if the oj taste was from the hops or a process issue or a combo of both. Anyway keen to here how your fwk ended up.

 

[bmarshall]

It has turned out not bad. I had a bottle about a week ago, it has cleared up a lot and the cider/ester smell has gone. It now smells great. Im not sure what it was. It was only my second brew and im learning quickly.

 

[bmarshall]

Its has little bitterness but the hop flavor blends well. Maybe a little too light on the malt side, should have ended up with maybe 20L instead of 23L.
Thats why we keep notes!