anoni

Recipes 

I must suck at teh Internet. I just spent 45 minutes looking for why my beer smells like Metal. I could have sworn I read about it before, perhaps it was a dream. Anyways on Sunday I brewed up a batch of Elbro Nerkte (Pg. 196 in TCJOHB - Charlie Papazian's book) and all went well. I had a starter of White Lab's English Ale Yeast. I added a teaspoon of Gypsum to aid fermentation, but other than that I followed the directions well. After racking to Primary I allowed it to cool an extra hour. SG was 1.044, a little low, but oh well. 3 days later after the fermentation settled down I removed the trash bag that was preventing light from hitting it and found that my beer smells like Metal. I swirled the carboy on it's axis to stir up the aroma and smelt again through the fermentation lock, smelt strongly of Metal with a hint of beer. So fast forward till today. I didn't want to do it but I had to make sure it wasn't my fermentation lock so I popped the rubber stopper out and took a quick sniff and plugged it back up. Still smells like metal alright. However the smell is not as bad as it was three days ago. Will this affect the taste? Will it go away? Any ideas on what is going on? Could it be by-product of the Yeast? Possibly I screwed up somewhere? Any help is appreciated. Thanks

Nurmey

Recipes 

Brews make all kinds of interesting smells while fermenting. Let it ferment out and clear up, then take a taste. I can't promise but most likely it will be fine. We have lots of threads about the famous "rhino farts" given off by some yeasts. No on ever said fermentation looked or smelled pretty!

Welcome to HBT!

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Batch 1 Brewing
The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control.

david_42

Recipes 

I've run across metallic flavors, but never smells. Nurmey is right about not judging by fermentation smells. If they were important, no one would ever make a Belgian or a Wit.

If it tastes metallic in 6 weeks, let us know.

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malkore

Recipes 

I'm with david, and will add that smells from a primary just aren't a very reliable indicator. they can be...but often times they're misleading.

not to mention the large amount of CO2 in there is going to add a very acrid smell to the aroma.

I say relax, don't worry, have a brew.

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Malkore
Primary: English Mild
On tap: Pale Ale, Lancelot's Wheat, English Brown Ale, Steam Beer, HoovNuts IPA
Bottled: MOAM, Braggot, Raspberry Melomel, Merlot, Apfelwein, Pyment, Sweet mead, Cabernet
Gal in 2009: 27, Gal in 2010: 34, Gal in 2011: 13, Gal in 2012: 10