Light headedness with home brewed ale

[Juan]

Hi all,


Im new to homebrewing and having some issues with the recent batches.
The ale gives me and my mates a very quick(almost immediate) and potent light headedness.
It doesn’t seem like the usually kick from alcohol.

We can usually finish 3 – 4 pints of commercial craft beer with 4% abv without any issues
But we are having trouble finishing 2 pints each.

Kinda annoying cause the beer taste kinda good.

American Ale Malt - 4000g
Wheat Malt - 1000g
Cara Malt - 200g
German - Carapils - 200g

Centennial – 40g
Amarillo – 30g
Citra – 40g

mash temp: 72 C
Yeast pitch temp: 28 C
Fermentation temp: 23 C
*fermented for 2weeks in a temp controlled fridge
*probe was attached to the outside of the fermenter

OG: 1.048
FG: 1.018

Thanks!

 

[chrisred]

Hi all,


Im new to homebrewing and having some issues with the recent batches.
The ale gives me and my mates a very quick(almost immediate) and potent light headedness.
It doesn’t seem like the usually kick from alcohol.

We can usually finish 3 – 4 pints of commercial craft beer with 4% abv without any issues
But we are having trouble finishing 2 pints each.

Kinda annoying cause the beer taste kinda good.

American Ale Malt - 4000g
Wheat Malt - 1000g
Cara Malt - 200g
German - Carapils - 200g

Centennial – 40g
Amarillo – 30g
Citra – 40g

mash temp: 72 C
Yeast pitch temp: 28 C
Fermentation temp: 23 C
*fermented for 2weeks in a temp controlled fridge
*probe was attached to the outside of the fermenter

OG: 1.048
FG: 1.018

Thanks!

hi Juan
not sure what's giving you the light headed feeling but your mash temp seems rather high 67c is around the norm looking at your recipe 1048 sg to 1018 fg that's about 3.8% strength depending on your yeast I would expect an fg at around 1012 or less which would be about 4.8% I think mashing at 72c may be cause for concern but others will know more
good luck

 

[eastgummy]

72°C is the temperature of gluco-proteinase!!!
Off the chart! Hehehe
For that beer you should mash at around 66. 68 would make it sweeter, 64 dry.

Most of the fermentables you are extracting are long sugar chains, and ale yeast doesn't eat those. That's why your FG is so high and your beer will be probably very dense and sweet.

I don't know what particular compounds are produced at that temp that can cause you a headache, but that's something you have to change 100% sure.

A part from that, the typical thing that causes headaches is fussel alcohol. This happens when you ferment too high. 23° doesn't seem too high for me, though :S what yeast were you using? Did you chill your beer to 23° before pitching the yeast?

 

[eastgummy]

Ah I see you pitched at 28. Don't know for sure but that could have been the cause...
Maybe someone else have a better idea

 

[koshari]

"*probe was attached to the outside of the fermenter"

place the probe in the air in the fridge space, then you will get tighter temp control, let the frig keep the air temp at the target and due to the big surface area on the fermenter it will follow.

prolly not related to your issue but better practice.

 

[Coalminer]

"*probe was attached to the outside of the fermenter"

place the probe in the air in the fridge space, then you will get tighter temp control, let the frig keep the air temp at the target and due to the big surface area on the fermenter it will follow.

prolly not related to your issue but better practice.

Not better. Fermenting wort will be several degrees warmer than ambient temperature

 

[eastgummy]

Agree with coalminer .

The best place to put the probe if you don't have a thermowell is directly taped on the side of the fermenter with some kind of insulation on top, a small pad big enough to cover it. Piece of Yoga mat, beercoola.. whatever you have on hand.

Keep it on the opposite side of the heating/cooling elements.

On my fridge I can't put the heating pad on the bottom so I put it on the right side. The fridge cools from the back and the door is the worst insulated part, so I put the probe on the left side. Works well for me.

 

[Grmblz]

"*probe was attached to the outside of the fermenter"

place the probe in the air in the fridge space, then you will get tighter temp control, let the frig keep the air temp at the target and due to the big surface area on the fermenter it will follow.

prolly not related to your issue but better practice.

Sorry koshari but you have it the wrong way round, air temp can be substantially different to wort temp, and it's the wort temp that is important, ideally a probe in the centre of the wort, hence thermowells, next best is the probe sandwiched between the fermenter body and a pad of insulating material (neoprene usually) taped onto the body of the fermenter at about mid wort height (I use duct tape) Cheers G

 

[koshari]

Not better. Fermenting wort will be several degrees warmer than ambient temperature

true, i use a temperature offset to compensate this.

 

[Grmblz]

true, i use a temperature offset to compensate this.

The problem with that approach is for a temp offset to work the differential has to remain constant, and a fermenting wort generates differing amounts of heat depending on what stage of the fermentation it is in, so the differential will change, if we were talking about a bucket of water which doesn't generate any heat it's a different story, but were're not

 

[Coalminer]

The problem with that approach is for a temp offset to work the differential has to remain constant, and a fermenting wort generates differing amounts of heat depending on what stage of the fermentation it is in, so the differential will change, if we were talking about a bucket of water which doesn't generate any heat it's a different story, but were're not

Totally agree with this

 

[DJR]

what was the yeast? It's possible you ended up with lots of fusel alcohol or ethyl acetate in the beer from a high fermentation temperature, which will smell like nail polish remover and can give you a headache