Hi, Im a hardcore Lurker, but have a specific question I was hoping someone can answer. I’ve brewed nut brown ale extract kit. I used dannstar Nottingham yeast. This is the first brewed batch that i feel my sanitization was great through brewing and transferring to fermenter. I put it in bucket and shook it pretty good, but maybe not good enough. I pitched the yeast straight into bucket with no starter.
The first two days after I put it in fermenter the temp was about 72 or so. But then I put it in a swamp cooler and got the temp down to between 62-66 for the next two weeks. It has been 16 days since brew day and the og was 1.046 and it has been at 1.018 for 4 days now. Seems like a high fg to me. I tasted the sample and it has what I think is a slight acetaldehyde taste. It has a bite to it also, that is not an alcohol taste, or tart. It just tastes sharp. It still has patches of yeast on top and has bubbles all over the place.This is my 3rd brew. First two were Mr beer batches and came out horrible and not as horrible. If this one isn’t good, its gonna be extremely disappointing and will have to reevaluate whether its worth it to spend money to brew and it come out like crap.
I’m planning on keeping it in primary for 3 weeks total. I’m guessing the fg won’t go any lower no matter how long I leave it in for. Has this happened to anyone else? Is the fg too high? Should I shake the fermenter to rouse the yeast? Pitch more yeast? I have a Mr beer yeast pack. What if it still has an acetaldehyde taste after 3 weeks? Should I keg it anyway? Shoukd i keep swapping ice packs or can i let it warm up to 72-74 since active fermentation is finished. Iguess ill Drink on some Turbo dog in the meantime.
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Kegging on your 3 brew. Impressive. 
Off flavors from high fermentation temps are reportedly to happen in the 1st few days of fermentation. Many people like to allow the beers to warm up to aid in getting lower gravities. So go ahead and let it warm up to see if it get lower.
Have you tested your hydrometer in RO/DI water to see if it’s accurate?
Extract batches have a tendency to finish with higher gravities. You never know what grains were used and what temps they were mashed at.
Let it sit for 3 weeks. Then keg/bottle it. Allow it to age (set it and forget it carbonation) for another 2-3 weeks. Then chill and taste it. The beer will taste different chilled and carbonated. And the aging time (4-6 weeks from brew day) will make a remarkable difference in the taste.
Acetaldehyde is due to stressing out the yeast. When you started the fermentation warm and then cooled down, you freaked out your yeast. Luckily, acetaldehyde evaporates above 70 F so a rest at a warmer temperature should get rid of some of it if not all. Unless it is actually apple ester in which case it will not go away. But either way, warming it up now will not hurt and might help.
Extract often will not ferment any lower than 1.018. I think you are done. Next time add an extra 0.5-1 pound of cane sugar to help get the alcohol up and the FG down. You could even do that right now. Boil some sugar in a tiny amount of water for 10 minutes, cool and add to the fermenter. It should help.
Thanks for the help. Ill let it sit at about 72 for 4 days then keg it. I have a couple.other questions if u don’t mind answering. My 1st brew I added more fermentables than I planned on and only.let it ferment two weeks. When I bottled it, it had a hot alcohol taste and was really apply. I thought it would go away but almost 3 months later it is still sweet and apple tasting. Should I just toss it? Will it ever get drinkable?
2nd brew I made I left it in primary 3 weeks then racked to keg. It was apple tasting but not as bad as first. It seemed to get worse or at least it didn’t get better. I left it in kegerator for a few weeks then moved to 68 degree temp so it would get better faster. After a few weeks I moved it back to kegerator cause I had people coming over and wanted to drink it.it was still bad so I took the keg out and let it.warm to room temp and bled carbonation out of it. I then made a starter with left over pack of mrbeer yeast, poured into keg and left it 10 days. I then racked into spare container to get yeast out and back into keg. It was noticeably better than before but still not good. Whenever I drink the beer, it doesn’t taste good but whenever i take a drink and get a lot of head in my mouth along with beer, it tastes like a whole different beer. No apply taste and tastes good. Can you tell me why this is? Has anyone had this happen before and is it a sign that it will eventually get better? Thanks in advance
It’s hard to say for sure. Sounds like it could be yeast stress. How much yeast are you pitching? What are your original gravities? If you could post the recipes that might help. Could be stale extract too, assuming you are using extract. I bet if you did a partial mash or all-grain, the problem would disappear. I’m not being a jerk, I’m just saying that extract brewing is as much of an art as all-grain brewing. A few simple rules dealing with yeast pitching rates and temperatures might make these problems go away. I guess one other thing it could be is contaminated plastic. I’ve recently switched to glass fermenters and I am so glad that I did. But if you are a newer brewer then this shouldn’t be a problem – it usually takes years for plastic to get scratched to the point of permanent contam. Could also be a water issue. With extract you should always use 100% distilled or RO water. There’s so many possibilities… just giving you a few ideas to think about. Post your recipes and we’ll see what I/we can do to help.
I’m not terribly worried about the first two batches. They were Mr beer and cheap. I am considering tossing them and was wondering if they would get better. I thought the thing where if I drink the head with the beer, it tastes alot better than if I drink just the beer is weird.
