Off flavor gonna toss the batch, help.

So I open a bottle of my Bavarian hefe, 6lb. Wheat dme-.5 lb. Cara pils-.5lb. Pilsen, pour it and take a wif. Banana aroma from far away when pouring but up close, smell of matchsticks. Taste more of the same with a slight bleach finish. What did I do to create this? Hind site my issues with this batch were.... 1. I made my first starter with this batch per mr malty calculation. Using a stirplate and not seeing any activity at about 12hr. I stopped the sirplate and restarted it only to have it erupt out of my flask from agitated co2 in the starter. Possible infection but I was sure not to disturb the starter until I poured it.
2. Had my first boil over with this batch, although I lost very little volume my of finished higher than expected. 1.062 vs1.052 target. I then boiled and cooled 1liter of water and added after pitching. That should have dropped of to about1.060.
3. My auto siphoning tube came up at 1 point and had to restart the siphon so I might have got some aeration there.

Those were the major things that come to mind here so Im wondering is this infection, aeration, or something else?? I'm about ready to pitch it and redo this batch all together.

learned that lesson waking a starter from the fridge.




i believe the sulfur type smell is from yeast autolysis (decay). you may have substanitally over pitched?

Really?? I had a 1 liter starter for it made froma fresh white labs 300 vial. I guess this could be the case, but according to mr. Malty this was proper pitching rate for my batch. Should I just do a solid yeast pitch without starter next time??

its best to use a starter. 1L is about right. when you bottled, did you get a crap load of yeast sediment? how long has it been bottled?

according to https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/if-your-beer-smells-like-term-source-may-137353/

Rotten eggs (Hydrogen sulfide)
Yeast autolysis

Felt like I got a fair amount of yeast sediment in to the bottling bucket, at least more than I would have liked. It has been in bottles for about 9 days now. The beer I had wa in the bottle for about 7. However I did notice a swirly sediment in the bottle once held up to the light prior to going into the fridge. Once I took it out today it looked like it had settled out fairly well. I think I'll try another on tuesday but I won't pour out the yeast in the bottom of the bottle and see if that makes a difference.

a week in the bottle isnt even a dent in the ammount of the time required for carbonation and conditioning to take place. i might be talking out my ass here: as i keg. if its a lager, it'll take a boat load long time to cold condition (couple months?). also diacetyl rests help with reducing the h2s. if its an ale, and you had let the yeast work on the beer for at least two weeks prior to bottling, so... a month or so of 70Fs try one.

Like mordantly said: you probably should give the beer some more time. I definitely wouldn't toss the batch yet.

I kinda agree with that however to my understanding hefes should be drank young like 4-5 weeks from brewing. Which is about now for my beer. I will wait prolly at least 7-8 weeks before I dump it but I really can't see it improving, but I am fairly new to this so..

Tilldeath said:

I kinda agree with that however to my understanding hefes should be drank young like 4-5 weeks from brewing. Which is about now for my beer. I will wait prolly at least 7-8 weeks before I dump it but I really can't see it improving, but I am fairly new to this so..

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Sulfur smells are produced by some yeasts - its included by White Labs in their descriptions, if you go to their websites. The sulfur smell will dissipate over time.

4 - 5 weeks from brewing can't be right, especially if you are bottle conditioning. Two weeks fermenting (minimum) and two weeks in bottles (minimum) would be four weeks. That timetable is too short, imho.

Let it sit and see what happens. What do you have to lose? If its still bad in a month or two, no worse than if you dumped it now.

That kinda my thoughts as well, my question though is if the smell is supposed to disapate where does it disapate to if it's in a sealed container ie bottle?

Let it sit in the bottle for around 4 weeks and taste it then, I'll bet it's better. If it's not to your liking at that point, let it sit for another 4 weeks and try it again. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

The yeasties clean up after themselves, they can essentially "eat the smell".

wyzazz said:

Let it sit in the bottle for around 4 weeks and taste it then, I'll bet it's better. If it's not to your liking at that point, let it sit for another 4 weeks and try it again. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

The yeasties clean up after themselves, they can essentially "eat the smell".

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Oh I hope you're right. If it is the yeast causing the issue with the smell and flavor, what can I do to prevent this in subsequent batches? Should I use a different yeast??

I've had two beers that had a sulfer smell I believe came from the yeast and a WAY too hot fermentation. One was VERY sulfery. It has improved some with time, but it's not an overnight thing. I'm forcing myself to choke it down because I refuse to dump it, but also because I want those bottles to use on something else.

It's very unlikely that autolysis is the cause of your problem - it produces a very distinct, brothy taste. What you describe sounds like either chlorine/chloramine in the brew water, or fermentation temps that were too warm.

I brewed a hefe in the beginning of Nov. I tasted it when I racked to keg at about 14 days, it was decent but had an undeniable sulfery aftertaste. I was slightly disappointed but let it sit unrefrigerated for a few more weeks before room opened up in the keezer.
After carbing up and chilling, the sulfer taste is completely gone. It's darn good stuff.

Theres no reason to try and prevent the early sulfer smell and flavor, time will very likely heal it.

Yeah hopefully this will be the same for me, gonna taste a 2 week old bottle tomorrow will let ya know if it changed. Also my temp was 68 for 2 weeks and after it was still going brought it up to 72 for 4 days to finish.

#1 don't toss it.

I just made a hefe nearly identical to yours even using same yeast and starter.

I rushed it bit to bottle for a visiting friend(favorate beer). It was so phenolic after 7 days that is was barely drinkable for most people. Luckily I like strong bitter cloveiness.

Within 3 days it was gone and by 3 weeks the beer is amazing. Smells like bananas has a nice crisp bite and wheaty malty flavour finishes off with a light clove/banana aftertaste.

I don't know about your water I switched to using RO and or distilled water for all my extracts. I figure I'm reconstituting the original minerial profile of the extract and not adding additional minerials or chemicles.

Moral of the story. Time and not much will totally change the taste especially with this yeast.

all very reassuring, now I'm excited, can't wait to see what happens. Quick question though, why use cara pills in a recipe? I mean what does it impart on the brew? This was my first time using it.

CaraPils is for mouthfeel and head retention - it adds unfermentable dextrins to the beer.