Weird fermentation...

I brewed a Christmas ale last night, with molasses and spices and such added during the boil, then I cooled it, put it in my bucket and pitched the yeast. Within 4 hours I had a few bubbles in the airlock. I get up this morning and it's bubbling like crazy... so far so good right?

Except, the smell is the airlock is unlike anything I've come across in normal fermentation. It's not that it smells acidic or sour or vinegary or anything, but it's more like you feel a burn in your sinuses when you smell it.

Anyone ever had this happen and feel like telling me what it means???

Your smelling CO2 out of your airlock, probably mixed with a little sulphur compounds from either your yeast or the mollasses.....Everything's fine...fermentation on it's best days is ugly and stinky...

Just quit sniffing your airlock.

Ahh... I was hoping you'd say that.


In the wild beer I have going I used wild yeast from pear skins and it had a similar smell, or rather feeling in my nose. Being paranoid, I didn't use any of the same equipment for this beer even though I bleached it. That beer is aging in the cellar until next summer and while it may be a decent lambic style in a year, it's not what I want in a Christmas ale!

I pulled a small sample with a thief and it tasted yeasty, not sour or anything, so I think you may well be right.