struggling with sulfur in a califronia common
 

For my first try with a lager, I brewed a very light california common with white labs 810 (San Francisco lager yeast). Primary fermentation was 2 weeks @ 60 degrees. I let the temp rise to about 64 for three days and then put in a secondary for one week at about 64 degrees. I then bottled on 9/30 and bottle-conditioned around 68 degrees.

I cracked the first one two weeks after bottling and it looked great but had a sulfur taste. I gave it more time and tried it at the four week mark - still sulfuric, not reduced at all. I put a bottle in the fridge and tried it after a week (so 4 weeks in bottle @ room temp + 1 week in fridge). same sulphur taste.

I am wondering if it is possible for the sulphur to get scrubbed out now that the bottle is capped. I have had a friend do a california common with this yeast and just primary at room temp for three weeks and then bottle with no sulphur taste all.

Anyway to salvage this beer? How can I avoid this with my next california common? i don't have a fridge so all of my temp control is with my son-of-fermentation chamber.

CO2 scrubs out the sulphur so having a vigorous fermentation really helps. You can also use a keg and CO2 bottle to scrub out sulphor. But, once bottled its going to stick around.

What if I dumped all the bottles in a carboy and put on an airlock - would the sulphur kind of gas out or won't anything change since it is off the yeast cake?

Today i unbottled this batch and put it back in a carboy to let the co2 scrub the sulphur. I added a pound of dme to the carboy to start a small fermentation in order to prevent oxidization from having poured all the bottles back in. Sucks to do this but better than dumping if i can save it. Will report back in a while

An update --

After another month conditioning at room temperature...and bubbling even most of the time -- the sulphur is still present and still just as strong. I had a bottle of the original that had been in the fridge and it still tastes exactly the same.

I need my carboy back, so I guess this one is a dumper. I'm thinking of giving it a month in the cold but I doubt that will do anything.