Dough smells strongly alcoholic
Affects qualityA reliable sign of overfermentation; not spoilage or unsafe on its own, but the dough's quality will suffer.
Ask yourself
- How long has the dough fermented, and at what temperature?
Likely causes
- #1
Significant overfermentation
Strongly supportedYeast produces ethanol as a fermentation byproduct; a strong alcoholic smell indicates fermentation has run well past its optimal window.
Rescue it now
The dough is usable but will bake with a noticeably yeasty, boozy flavour and weaker structure; consider it a learning data point for timing next time
Prevent it next time
Reduce yeast quantity or fermentation temperature/time to match your actual schedule
Go deeper
Guides that treat this as an outcome to improve, an environment to work with, or a flavour to understand, rather than only a problem to fix.