US05 and Sulphur?

Racked a Blonde ale to the keg this afternoon. It was a mid 1.040 range start and I used one package of US05 (rehydrated). Pitched at around 70f and primary ferment took place in the 68-70F window (per the stick on thermometer on my fermenter.

Primary ferment was over in about 5-7 days. The beer spent a total of 28 days in the primary (at 68F per the thermometer).

When I racked it today, it had a noticable sulphur aroma. I picked it up when opening the better bottle. And I even picked it up from the beer in the keg when I was doing a final purge with CO2 before putting it in the keezer. I didn't cold crash it, so it was still at 68F when I kegged it and noticed the aroma.

Has anyone else had similar experiences with this yeast? Should cold crashing it and leaving it in the upper 30s/lower 40s in my keezer for a few weeks clear it up? I've heard of this happening with lager yeasts hand aging out during the lager phase.

I am force carbing this one with the plan of serving it during Thanksgiving Day football games. I should have time to pull a few pints from this ine before turkey day in the event that I need to draw some of the yeast out.

I have limited experience with this yeast (this is only the second time I've used it). The first time was with a PTE clone. That one used 2 packs and had no unexpected aromas. But then again, there was enough hop aroma in that beer to overshadow anything else.

Made plenty of blonde ales and pale ales with US-05. I pretty much use US-05 on anything that doesn't require a specialty yeast like a belgian or saison yeast.

I've made two batches of Ed's pale ale (1 fermented at 68 and one fermented at 62), a simcoe amarillo pale ale (fermented at 68), a rye IPA (fermented at 62), countless other IPA's and pale ales.

No off flavors in any of them, even those fermented on the higher side. The simcoe and amarillo pale ale, and Rye IPA even won awards.

It's a great yeast. Keep it in the temp range and it will produce a clean final product.

winvarin said:

Racked a Blonde ale to the keg this afternoon. When I racked it today, it had a noticable sulphur aroma. I picked it up when opening the better bottle. And I even picked it up from the beer in the keg when I was doing a final purge with CO2 before putting it in the keezer. I didn't cold crash it, so it was still at 68F when I kegged it and noticed the aroma.
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From How to Brew.http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-1.html

You could try running some CO2 through the keg to drive out the sulphur smell.

I've actually noticed kind of a yeasty/sulfury/nasty funk when I've done blondes w/ US05. It always seems to go away after a couple days in the keg, as it settles. I just kicked a keg of blonde that I fermented with 05 last night, and it was one of the best beers I've made to date, and that one had the nasty funk at racking after a 2 week primary. It cleaned itself up just fine.

I haven't noticed that smell as much in other beers that i've done w/ 05, but i figure the blonde ales just don't have enough flavor/aroma to cover it up the way that, say, an IPA or brown ale does. But, yeah, it seems to magically disappear in the keg after just a couple days.

mc_eric said:

I've actually noticed kind of a yeasty/sulfury/nasty funk when I've done blondes w/ US05. It always seems to go away after a couple days in the keg, as it settles. I just kicked a keg of blonde that I fermented with 05 last night, and it was one of the best beers I've made to date, and that one had the nasty funk at racking after a 2 week primary. It cleaned itself up just fine.

I haven't noticed that smell as much in other beers that i've done w/ 05, but i figure the blonde ales just don't have enough flavor/aroma to cover it up the way that, say, an IPA or brown ale does. But, yeah, it seems to magically disappear in the keg after just a couple days.

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Thanks for the reassurance. It was odd. I got a big whiff of it when I opened the carboy. And another whiff when I was putting the lid on the keg.

I pulled about 3 or 4 ounces for the hydrometer sample. The sulphur was very faint on that. A few min later when I went to taste the sample, there was no sulphur aroma and no trace of it when I drank the beer. I could taste the "graininess" (I used mostly pils as my base malt, cause that's what I had on hand). But no sulphur (and I have over sulphited enough wines to pick that up before).

My hope is 2 weeks in the keg will clear it up. I plan to draw a couple of pints off before taking it up for T-Giving so if the yeast is at play at all, that should take care of that.

Great discussion!!!

The only time I ever got sulfur from US05 was when I made a Blonde Ale. Go figure. Never tried making a Blonde again, but I routinely use US05 in Pale Ales.