is this right or wrong?

[alfie09]

hello all

i have been using for years thamas fawcets and warminsters for nearly 2 years now and i have recently changed to bairds and i am seeing something werid. i am making the same beer and same methods and sticking to nothing over 5%. but christ the beers i have made from bairds malt seems to get me so drunk and ill the next day?
i have made pendle witches brew and a worthingtons white shield from a book from bairds malt. but they goto taste very much similiar and taste alcholic after 6 weeks and get me so drunk i feel ill. i only have to have 3-5pints and i am sp drunk i need to sleep. there only 5% BREWS and i have never ever been so bad after any other grain is it the grain making me ill? i can usually drink a good 5-8pints of this stuff!

[Beer O'Clock]

Either you are getting older and losing your tolerance to alcohol ( I have heard it happens to some people ) OR your grain bill needs looking at. How accurate are your scales etc ? Maybe you are brewing stronger beers and not realising ? Greater efficiency ?

[alfie09]

i am using a hydrometer that tells me that my beers are usually 1050 1052? which usually will make a good 5% beer. going to try and knock them down a bit now say to 3%. i honestly beleieve my beers are a bit ropey since i started using bairds malt and even people have suggest when they have had a bottle or 2 of my beer christ how strong are you making this stuff these days and they have gone off it to. the only thing in these recipes though is sugar "household" sugar. silverspoon i think. and they have a 1kg of sugar in each of them its what the recipe called for when i scaled the recipes out the book upto 40litres. maybe its sugar causing these vile taste? and to be honest the worthington white shield is quite repulsive very very sour i think the hops were dodgy or something. and the pendle witches is going worse by the week more and more alcohol flavour coming through and both recipes used complety different hops but taste very very simialar?

[WishboneBrewery]

3-5 Pints is normally enough for me

We use Bairds at work, brewing 5x 20BBL brews per week, Its just malt, we used to use Fawcetts.

[mysterio]

It's the sugar, it turns into pure alcohol, near enough. Your beer is probably in the 6.5% region at that gravity with that amount of sugar. 3 pints is probably the equivalent of a bottle of wine. Brew lower gravity beer if you want to drink so much and not get ill.

[gnutz2]

Too high ferentation temps over summer?

I've been struggling to keep temps down below 21 this summer and some of my beers have a alcaholic solventy whiff.

If the beer is deteriorating maybe you got oxygen in by splashing, oxidised beer will turn solventy and probably give you a bad head too.

Just some suggestions

[gregorach]

and to be honest the worthington white shield is quite repulsive very very sour i think the hops were dodgy or something. and the pendle witches is going worse by the week more and more alcohol flavour coming through and both recipes used complety different hops but taste very very simialar?

Sounds very much like you have some sort of infection problem. Bad hops wouldn't cause sourness - that's usually caused by some sort of lactic acid producing bacteria. The fact that these off flavours are getting progressively worse also points to infection with anaerobic bacteria of some kind. Or it could possibly be some kind of wild yeast...

What sort of final gravity are you getting?

[alfie09]

i near always get about 1010-1012 FG. fermenting @ 18oc in a cool under stairs cupboard. its funny this i had it last year summertime. the worthington white shield is ok in some bottles some are terrible. the pendle witches is in kegs and tasted ok in the beginning and now its getting very ropey kind of no tatse and a little yeasty? maybe its just the end of the barrel? i have noticed though i aint drunk any pendle witches for a few weeks and it seemed to have alot more pressure in the barrel and the beer looks fizzy in the glass. maybe its started to ferment again?

[gregorach]

i near always get about 1010-1012 FG.

Yeah, but what did you actually get for these specific beers, and are they still at that gravity now? Many infections will continue to reduce the gravity long after you think fermentation should have finished, often resulting in a higher than expected alcohol content.

[jimp2003]

I brewed a Gales Festival Mild from BYOBRA which I bottled and I too get a solventy aroma and strong alcohol like taste. One bottle is enough to give me a headache - literally within hours of drinking it and three or four and I feel really bad in the morning.

I put it down to bottling it too quickly. The brew hit FG within 4 days and was bottled within a week of the brewday. Maybe I should have left it longer in the FV for the yeast to clean up a bit more...?

[gregorach]

Solvent aroma, strong alcohol flavour, and bad hangovers points to high levels of fusel alcohols, usually produced by fermenting too warm. FG in 4 days and bottled in a week is not that unusual. They yeast won't clean those up.

[jimp2003]

Solvent aroma, strong alcohol flavour, and bad hangovers points to high levels of fusel alcohols, usually produced by fermenting too warm. FG in 4 days and bottled in a week is not that unusual. They yeast won't clean those up.

Hmmm...I fermented in a temp controlled fridge set at 19 degrees C so maybe something else caused the problem in my case?

(sorry for the thread-jack alfie09)

[gregorach]

There are many other potential causes... Temperature is just the most common.

[alfie09]

not tried the gravity now its bottled wouldnt the fizz cause off readings? my beer is always left to ferment for 2 weeks and then bottled. i most always have a whiff of alcohol and a hit of it in the back of the throat to??? in all brew?? i aint got a brew fridge but i try to ferment in the shed always around 18-19oc

[gregorach]

The fizz can be a bit of a problem - you can spin the hydrometer to get the bubbles off, or (probably better) you can try and degas the beer by shaking it.

And to climb back on my hobby horse, the temperature of the area where you're fermenting is not the fermentation temperature. Fermentation is an exothermic reaction - it produces its own heat, and potentially quite a lot of it. Fermenting beer at high krausen will be several degrees above the ambient temperature.