Vinegar smell??

brucestevenson916 · Feb 11, 2013

I'm getting a bit of a vinegar smell from my FV the last 2 times I've brewed, beer tastes fine and I steralise everything I use..... So why does it smell of vinegar? Also the one that's fermenting that smells at the moment is stuck at 1.016.... Any ideas?

oz11 · Feb 11, 2013

Fermenting beer can chuck out a load of strange aromas. Don't be tempted to think the worst until it's kegged/bottled and fully conditioned. That's when it matters.

brucestevenson916 · Feb 11, 2013

I did use danstar Nottingham both times.

oldbloke · Feb 12, 2013

Vinegar is made of malt and is acid,
CO2 from an active ferment can react forming acids in your schnozz when you take a sniff,
combined effect of your malty brew plus acid in your nose, smells like vinegar - but isn't

This is a theory I've heard, anyway - taste is the test, and you say yours is OK.

brucestevenson916 · Feb 14, 2013

Now I've tried the normal tricks to get my beer finished but the hydrometer still reads1.016-18, sat ontop of my boiler to see if I can get it to ferment somemore but no luck. Any ideas?

I tend to wait till a beer completely stops after initial fermentation, rack it, then leave it be for 2-4 weeks before I bottle it, resulting in a nice clean beer. Im gonna store them in my basement from now on hoping for some sort of lagering affect. Will also help the beer clear If it cooler no doubt.

Any tips or feedback?

pittsy · Feb 14, 2013

if it's ag and your mash temp was high or your starting gravity was high ish like 1055 then at 1016 it's prob finished , just a fuller bodied beer

brucestevenson916 · Feb 15, 2013

Mash temp was 68-64 at 1.046, it did have 3900 pale,500 crystal+600 sugar(I was hoping for the OG to be a bit higher but hey-ho. Old speckled hen clone minus the black malt

pittsy · Feb 15, 2013

i would bottle this weekend , :thumb:

robsan77 · Feb 15, 2013

pittsy said:
i would bottle this weekend , :thumb:

I disagree, 1016 is very high to be bottling.
You need some temp control. The fv has probably gotten too cold over night. Find some way of keeping the temp constant.

Nottingham can be a beast and ferment pretty low. I'd expect 1010 out of your beer.

bunkerbrewer · Feb 15, 2013

robsan77 said:
I disagree, 1016 is very high to be bottling.

But if it's finished, it's finished, I guess.

Notty can be very attenuative, but that's not a hard and fast rule. Maybe the pack was old? Maybe it wasn't rehydrated? Maybe a tiny bit of residual sanitiser has affected it? Maybe they chomped down that 600g of sugar and got bored with the more complex maltose? Maybe the mash spent longer at 68 than 64Â°C?

If you're worried about bottle bombs, rack it off to a secondary for a couple of days and go easy with the carbonation.

adomant · Feb 15, 2013

smelling it is one thing, vinegar is definitely not a good sign, but taste a sample as well - this should tell you right away whether you have a problem or not.

Does your FV have a tap ? this can sometimes be a place for bacteria to hide from cleaners - sometimes you have to remove it to thoroughly sanitise it.

Sometimes bacteria / spores can remain in the plastic of fvs (especially if old or scratched) and you may need to go to war on them or discard the fv (easy to do if it is a cheap bucket).

I had this in an expensive fv so had to sort it - I used intensive steam for 30 minutes followed by hot caustic soda followed by peracetic acid which slaughtered every microbe. This is quite extreme and the materials are hazardous so nitrile gloves, goggles etc...

brucestevenson916 · Feb 15, 2013

Last 2 have been Nottingham Yeast and have both smelled vinegary, but tasted fine. With this beer I left it in the same placel(at 20deg ish) as every beer I do for 3 weeks initially, then racked after 1 week of no movement. Punted it in the cellar for a week. Now on checking it was still at 1.016, so its now on top of the boiler, warming up, still no movement.

RobWalker · Feb 15, 2013

hmm...is it the smell transferring over from a previous brew? maybe a cider or a hoppy beer?

either way, give your FV a good clean with sanitizer and oxyclean (stain remover.) Bad smells can transfer over and have no bad effect on the brew except for the smell. I had an elderflower cider in a keg once and the 3 beers that went into the keg afterwards all smelled of elderflower :tongue:

brucestevenson916 · Feb 15, 2013

Fair enough! You got that recipe for elderberry cider?

RobWalker · Feb 16, 2013

elderflower mine was - it was a magnum kit with added elderflowers. it sucked! just make up a TC recipe and add either elderflower cordial or dried elderflowers. or wait until april and use real ones :thumb:

brucestevenson916 · Feb 17, 2013

Just kegged it today 1.015(corrected) with 130g sugar. Worst comes to worse it has a pressure relief valve!

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