Varnish / nail polish smell

bottle top · Post by **bottle top** » Sunday Sep 16, 2007 11:40 pm

Hi guys

Just finished bottling my Cooper's sparkling ale and I noticed a strong smell similar to nail polish (i.e. strong sweet chemical smell).

I have noticed a similar smell/flavour in one of my previous brews which rendered it all but undrinkable for a couple of months before it disappeared.

The only thing the two brews have in common is that they were both made from Cooper's kits (canadian blonde and sparkling). They have different yeasts (kit vs recultured from CPA), different fermentables (honey and dex vs LDME) and different hops (Amarillo vs PoR).

Anyone have a clue what could be happening here?

gregb · Post by **gregb** » Monday Sep 17, 2007 4:45 am

Try Palmer

Cheers,
Greg

rwh · Post by **rwh** » Monday Sep 17, 2007 12:10 pm

Sounds like fusel alcohols to me. How warm did you brew, and how stable was the temperature?

Kevnlis · Post by **Kevnlis** » Monday Sep 17, 2007 12:14 pm

I bottled the brew I did with the recultured yeast not but 10 minutes ago and I noticed the same smell. Mine was kept at a constant 16C for 15 days (racked after 7) then rested at air temp (average 22C or so) for 2 days. I pitched a VERY active starter and it went off like prawns in the sun for the first couple days, I think the yeast may have been overactive and was not given enough time to eat all the products of this before I bottled it?

I am hoping it will come out in the bottle after some aging? I probably should have rested it at room temp for longer, I think this would have solved the problem, but I am no expert

rwh · Post by **rwh** » Monday Sep 17, 2007 12:24 pm

Yeah now you mention it I noticed some fusels in both my Coopers Vintage and Coopers Sparkling clones, both of which were done with the Coopers bottle yeast. The good news is that a few months down the track, these are now some of my smoothest, cleanest ales.

I suspect that the problem is too small a yeast population, which may be stressing it. Like I said in another thread, I'm going to step up my next lot of recultured yeast a few times before I do my next CSA clone.

Kevnlis · Post by **Kevnlis** » Monday Sep 17, 2007 12:33 pm

Thanks for the reassurance mate, I had the feeling it would come good

Problem is, do I want to wait a few months to drink them?

I still have a 2L starter that I have kept going over the last few weeks, the colony is getting HUGE, and it definately does not have any fusels in it. I will pitch this in an SNPA on Friday and let you know if it helped to build it up for a while.

rwh · Post by **rwh** » Monday Sep 17, 2007 12:57 pm

You're using the Coopers yeast in an SNPA clone when you could use the exact same yeast as the Sierra Nevada brewery (WYeast 1056 or White Labs WLP001)? Why?

bottle top · Post by **bottle top** » Monday Sep 17, 2007 1:21 pm

rwh wrote:Sounds like fusel alcohols to me. How warm did you brew, and how stable was the temperature?

Temp was 20* plus or minus a couple.

I'm not sure about blaming the recultured yeast, as like I said, my other brew that had the same problem used the kit yeast.

I'm going to reuse the yeast cake for another brew so I'll see if I have the same issues.

Kevnlis · Post by **Kevnlis** » Monday Sep 17, 2007 1:29 pm

rwh wrote:You're using the Coopers yeast in an SNPA clone when you could use the exact same yeast as the Sierra Nevada brewery (WYeast 1056 or White Labs WLP001)? Why?

Two reasons:

#1. I had intended to do this brew yesterday and did not have time to get the yeast posted, I could now but this leads me to...

#2. I want to use the starter I already have going and I want to see if this yeast will still produce the fusels.