TrojanAnteater

Recipes 

Brewing a wit and using WLP400 for the first time and the smell coming from my fermenter is just horrid right now. She's fermenting at 68F. Generally it seems as if most smells coming from the fermenter during high krausen are pretty nasty, but this smell is traveling across the hall from one room to another.

Anyone have any similar experiences with WLP400, or any other yeasts you find particularly nastier than others while fermenting?

rsmith179

Recipes 

I actually used that same yeast two brews ago with similar results. Shouldn't last too long though. I transferred out of the primary at 1 week and there was just a little odor left when opening up the primary.

You think that's bad? Try wine yeast! That stuff stunk up my whole basement for over two weeks.

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"Brewers enjoy working to make beer as much as drinking beer instead of working."
-Harold Rudolph

snailsongs

Recipes 

this must be the third thread I've seen regarding belgian wit yeast being stinky.....not including the one I made a couple months ago.....yeah. It smells like half digested baby vomit. the weird thing is, you can still detect the same note in the finished beer, but it works well in there all toned down and mingled with the other aromas/flavors.

aubrey

Recipes 

Yep. For the first hour or two of fermentation it smelled of lovely oranges and cascade hops, then I went back for another sniff and gagged on the stench. After about a week it went back to the citrusy/bready smell. but yea... gagfest

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Elkins Creek Brewing Company
On Deck:
Primary: Air
Secondary: Bavarian Hefewizen (extract)
Bottle: Blue Moon clone, Sam Adams Boston Ale Clone, Christmas Chocolate Stout (All Grain)
Keg: AHS West Coast Pale Ale, BierMuncher's Centennial Blonde (All Grain)

aubrey

Recipes 

Oh - and keep you eye on that WLP400. It has one hell of a personality. Very calm at first then suddenly you have to rush to get a blowoff hose on, and then its calm again, and then you need a blowoff again. Its exhausting.

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Elkins Creek Brewing Company
On Deck:
Primary: Air
Secondary: Bavarian Hefewizen (extract)
Bottle: Blue Moon clone, Sam Adams Boston Ale Clone, Christmas Chocolate Stout (All Grain)
Keg: AHS West Coast Pale Ale, BierMuncher's Centennial Blonde (All Grain)

flyangler18

Recipes 

Yeah, WLP400 is a finicky and sneaky strain. I've had starters agitated on a stirplate raise 4-5 inch krausens, cresting a 2L Erlenmeyer.

ohiobrewtus

Recipes 

Certainly one of the worst smelling fermentations, and one of the only strains (along with WLP300) that I always use a blowoff for.

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Shawn Hargreaves

Recipes 

Weird... I never noticed much smell from that yeast.

I guess I'll just have to brew a wit again sometime soon and make sure to smell it more carefully :-)

Freezeblade

Recipes 

WLP400 is a monster, blows off like crazy and stinks, it's like an ogre.



it has layers......like an onion.

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Primary:Russian River Redemption clone, Kelly's Melomel, Graham's English Cider 22-23
Clearing:Apple Wine
Aging:Public House Dry Stout, Procrastination Porter, Mr. Brown Ale, Westvleteren 12 Clone, Mead, Duvel Clone, Graham's English Cider 6-21, Belgian Draak Strong Ale, Fig Melomel, Acerglyn, Restorative Tonic Metheglyn

BeerPressure

Recipes 

Mine smelled like orange yogurt, it was nice.