I think I screwed up, can I fix it?

[weir]

I brewed a Muntons Irish Stout Kit I got for Christmas a couple weekends ago. I did not follow their instructions and I think I might have a problem.

Subbed 2.2lbs of dextrose for 2lbs dark DME and .2lbs dextrose. Used Danstar Windsor instead of their silver packet of yeast. Boiled whatever volume of water they called for (4 litres maybe) and added DME and sugar, then added the pre-hopped wort slime and boiled for a bit around 150. Added all of that to the bucket and topped to about 15 litres than ran out of filtered water, went the rest of the way to 23 with tap water and had an OG of 1.036 (should have put less water in hindsight). Fermented around 62F.

This weekend we opened the bucket to rack and there was a paint thinner smell that hit me in the face then went away. I admittedly made the mistake of judging by bubbles rather than SG to rack too. Racked on top of 1L of come brewed coffee and 2oz cocoa powder and 1 vanilla been soaked n spiced rum, stirred and set it aside.

Last night out of curiosity I gave it a taste, gross. Tasted like water with tinfoil and a hint of coffee, SG was 1.02, so like 2.3% ABV. So simple question, is there anything I might try to save this? Is it even worth it? I have a friend who's a kit brewer who thinks I can just leave it a while and it'll be good, but I'm really not sure that's going to cut it at this point.

[mr x]

What was the ratio of DME to to dextrose?

[weir]

2 lbs DME, .2 lbs dextrose, the kit called for 2.2 lbs dextrose. Most of what I read suggested sub about 85% dextrose for DME so I was a bit high.

[CorneliusAlphonse]

So did the kit call for malt extract and you used dextrose? Or vice versa?

Holding the extract and water at 150 isn't boiling, it is possible that it didn't sanitize the wort and something bad made it I to your fermentor.
FG or 1.020 definitely seems too high for a regular stout, letting it sit longer may help with this, or it may not. Have you already transferred out of primary?

[weir]

Called for dextrose, I subbed the DME.

I was't going for a rolling boil, just dissolving the sugar and DME (it was boiling when they went in), then kept it 'warm' to mix the slime in.

It's in the secondary now, so most of the yeast is gone. I thought about adding some dextrose and repitching, but will that help the gross taste?

[bluenose]

I wonder if there's a chance the can it came in gave off something bad? I think they sit on shelves for a while in some stores

[HappyHopper]

The off flavour I can't help with but the sg I may have some suggestions...

It sounds like you use enough sugar to hit around 5% it's basic, where there's sugar yeast and water, there is fermentation..

i'm willing to bet I know the cause of your misreading. Assuming your hydrometer is calibrated correctly (reads 1.000 at room temp) I'd say the heavy sugars sank to the bottom leaveing the less dense sugary water on top giving you a false reading.This will self correct diring fermentaion but tou wont relize it (the friction of ferm. Will push the sugar up as well as yeast will fall ensuring a complete fermentaion.)This is most common when useing extracts and the wort is not agitated enough before testing.

9 times out of ten when a customer calls me and has a low reading I tell them go stir it really well and then test it. Magically their reading usually jumps up by about .020 give or take a little..again based off the amount of sugar you used and the finishing gravity you took (which as mentioned sounds a little high,. Do a temp correction to make sure it's accurate) it's not really possible for you beer to be only 2.3%

[John G]

Fusel alcohols can have that smell. It's unusual to have these during ferment and it should clean up when the beer finishes fermenting to terminal gravity. Normally fusel aromas are present in finished beer when fermented too hot early in the ferment cycle, but 62F is pretty low - maybe too for that yeast. You may want to whirl up the fermenting wort by rotating it to rouse the yeast and raise the temperature a bit closer to 65 to 70 to see if it will finish up drier and clean up some of those fermentation smells. No worries increasing the temperature near the end of fermentation - it will often give the yeast the chance to be active and clean up lots of unwanted stuff before they run out of food and go dormant again.

Just my 2¢

Good luck!

[weir]

The beer was stirred on the weekend when I racked to try and mix up the coffee and the cocoa, but it wasn't when I checked the gravity. I'm going to let it sit a while and see if time helps at all in fermenting a bit more. I was using an online ABV calc that does ask for the temp at each measurement FWIW.

I turned the heat on in the room (have another batch carbing in bottles there, so need some heat anyway), gave it a swirl tonight and I'll let it sit a while and see if it makes any difference.

[weir]

So I checked it tonight and the taste issue seems to be sorted, tasted like a decent stout, nothing to get excited about. That said, SG was 1.018 at 64F, still only 2.5% ABV.

I'm half wondering if I fermented this too cool in the primary so the yeast was a little slow to act, then when I racked it and it came off the yeast now I don't have enough in there to ferment the rest at a reasonable pace? Can I repitch a new packet of yeast in the secondary and let it go for a week or so then check it out again?

[mr x]

Repitching yeast can be a bit of a black art. You need to get it fermenting in a starter first before pitching into fermented wort, and even then, I've had inconsistent results.

[weir]

So is my best bet just to wait it out? I lack patience lol

[mr x]

Hard to say. Every situation is different.

[derek]

So is my best bet just to wait it out? I lack patience lol

I suspect that is the difference between all of us fantastic homebrewers, and great professional brewmasters!

[spears104]

The couple of times I've used Windsor yeast it finished at a pretty high gravity. It probably isn't going to move any more. I've tried repitching yeast a couple of times and it never really worked. I suggest you bottle and if it tastes good drink it. If not, dump it and try again.

[mr x]

If it was me, at this stage I would make a small starter, and pitch in the high 60's with a tsp of alpha amalyse. I have some in NG I can give you.

[HappyHopper]

Drop us a sample at NG. But referring to my first post the sugars are there(were there and are most likely alcohol now.)

As you mentioned you did not stir prior to checking OG this is a common mistake

[weir]

If it was me, at this stage I would make a small starter, and pitch in the high 60's with a tsp of alpha amalyse. I have some in NG I can give you.

Do I need a liquid yeast to make a starter? I'm going to Halifax for work one day this week, I could grab some yeast then. Does NG have alpha amalyse? If they do is it worth having some kicking around? It not I'll take you up on the tsp, I'll even provide the spoon.

[weir]

Drop us a sample at NG. But referring to my first post the sugars are there(were there and are most likely alcohol now.)

As you mentioned you did not stir prior to checking OG this is a common mistake

I gave it a swirl when I checked last night night and it was a little better, not sure if it was the time or the swirl that made the difference. When I get home tonight I'll give it an actual stir and see if that helps. If it's not getting better I'll bring some when I go to Halifax for work this week.

I'd say after yesterday's taste it's probably salvageable, so I'd like to at least learn from my mistakes on this one (not that I ever plan on using a canned kit again).

[HappyHopper]

Right but giving it a
Swirl now won't do anything because that doesn't help you determine what the gravity would have been on day 1

[mr x]

If it was me, at this stage I would make a small starter, and pitch in the high 60's with a tsp of alpha amalyse. I have some in NG I can give you.

Do I need a liquid yeast to make a starter? I'm going to Halifax for work one day this week, I could grab some yeast then. Does NG have alpha amalyse? If they do is it worth having some kicking around? It not I'll take you up on the tsp, I'll even provide the spoon.

You could make a starter out of the yeast you have been using. I doubt NG has AA.

[HappyHopper]

Yes we do !

[mr x]

Very good.

[weir]

Right but giving it a
Swirl now won't do anything because that doesn't help you determine what the gravity would have been on day 1

Oh, when I thought you were talking about stirring you meant each time I took the gravity, not at first. Everything was stirred up with my paddle before the OG was recorded (1.036). I'm going to grab some AA and yeast when I'm in town this week and try making a starter as x suggested.

[weir]

I just checked my hydrometer in cold filtered water and got a reading of 1.004 . . . so that's not helping anything. I'm just gob to cut my losses on this on, tasted it tonight and it's getting better everyday, and accounting for the 4/1000th's of a degree it's 2.5%, so something's happening. I'll bottle it in a week or two, worst case I can drink this with breakfast.