Stinky Rootbeer??

Hey guys,

I made rootbeer from a zataran's extract which smells absolutely excellent. I used an ale yeast from my local home brew supply. The website I bought it from suggested champagne yeast but I went with my book (that old famous root beers, pops, and sodas book) and used ale yeast. We made a whole batch and it's smelly! The taste is fine but the smell is just too much! We poured it all out. I made a cherry vanilla soda today and we are waiting to find out if it too is stinky. Has this ever happened to anyone before? We were super clean and boiled everything we touched! I am so confused and I'm afraid to EVER use that ale yeast again!

Thanks, Sarah

What does it smell like? Sour? Sulphur? Champagne yeast is always my preference because it ferments out clean.

Def not sour. Repellingly stinky. It didnt effect the flavor, just a stinky smell. I just got done with another soda that I used the champagne yeast in and it turned out great. I dont know whether or not to throw away that ale yeast.

Can you be any more specific as to the character of the smell?

Stinky like trash, or something dirty. Not necessarily musty, just stinks like garbage. I threw them out so I can't go re-smell them. It was much worse in the after taste then smelling the soda itself but I have a feeling that's because the zataran's extract is VERY STRONG rootbeer. If you have some categories of stinky I could choose one.

I have been interested in trying zaterains. But how that you said it is really strong i don't know. Curious if you figured out what happened.

Oh my gosh it was delicious. The extract is phenomenal. I can only guess it was that funky ale yeast. The champagne yeast worked like a charm.