WLP300 hefewiezen yeast smells like rotten eggs.

Ok so a couple weeks ago i made an all-grain wheat beer and used WLP300 yeast. After a day it smelled like rotten eggs and stunk up my whole house, i let it sit for about a week and decided to throw it out becuase i tasted the beer and it tasted like vomit.

A couple days ago i decided to try this wheat beer over again, but this time took extra steps to sterilize EVERYTHING becuase i figured my last batch had gotten infected. so its been a couple days since i put the yeast in and again it smells like rotten eggs, exactly like the first batch i tried.

Is this a normal smell that is produced from a wheat yeast fermenting? or do you think the beer store has a bad batch of WLP300 yeast?

Rotten eggs is typical of sulfur if I am not mistaken. Lots of lager yeasts make this smell, and it is not to be worried about.

For Hefeweizen yeast, I have never ran into this predicament, but I have also not used WLP300 in a long time. Is it possible you are fermenting WAY too high?

Regardless, this sounds like a case of you just need to relax and let it do its thing. This time don't throw it out, let it sit longer, bottle/keg it, and then taste it later after carbing.

You'd be surprised how good well-aged vomit can taste. Well, in this context anyway.

Wheat yeast fermenting applewine is one of the worst and weirdest smells ever. I'll never forget it. It's like stale cigarette smoke and sick person farts. I think it was 3068.


The applewine tasted fine until it got too vinegary.

Just used wlp300 Hefeweizen yeast on a partial mash hefe and it smelled like cloves before making a starter and it is now fermenting and slight sulfur smell with a hint of clove but not strong at all seems perfectly normal.

im fermenting at around 72F, the first batch i made had a smell that was twice as strong as my most recent batch. I think i'll do what dkershner said and just be patient, and wait it out.

Thanks for the help guys, ill sleep better tonight!

My most recent kit was a dunkelweizen and I chose the liquid yeast which was the WLP300 strain. I did not have any foul, rotten egg smell. It fermented right around 69-70 degrees. The main smell that I noticed was a banana scent. I didn't open the fermenter but I am not concerned at all since I expected this smell with this temperature range. I'm bottling next week and am looking forward to my brew.

I agree to wait it out and proceed to bottling. If anything you may just need to condition in the bottle a little bit longer.

Very interesting.

I had some WLP300 yeast that I washed from a Midwest Hank's Hefeweizen. In the Hank's batch, I had no sulfur smell and the batch came out delicious.

I had it in the fridge for about 3 months. I created a liter starter and pitched it to an AHS partial mash hefeweizen kit. This time, I got the sulfur smell. It's fermenting at 64-66 degrees.

I had thoughts of an infected batch but I'm glad that others are getting similar results. It's not a strong sulfur smell but it's definitely there alongside some clove smell.

I wasn't planning to pitch it anyway but I feel a lot better. My thanks to the OP for posting this.

Try Wyeast 3068, it smells great while fermenting! I was actually allowed to leave my Blood Orange Hefeweizen in the living room while it fermented because my roommates like the smell so much.

I'm just finishing a batch with WLP300 right now. Midway through the fermentation I was also getting rotten egg smells and pretty strong off flavors. Fermentation now seems to be done and it tastes really good, just give it time to finish fermenting.

Aw, can't believe you threw out the first batch! Sulfur is a completely normal by product, and one week isn't necessarily even long enough for the primary fermentation to finish. Look up 'rhino farts' on the forum here and you'll find your answer.

Most HW yeasts will do that...

If this off flavor persists past primary fermentation it will subside as the beer ages. I had the same issue using the 3068. I believe it had a lot to do with water chemistry. I rebrewed this recipe with 50% distilled and 50% tap and no problems. Ferment at 62 gives a perfect clove/banana balance. I plan to use this yeast for a Weizenbock I'm brewing Saturday.

Definately a bad move tossing out the batch.

Everytime I've used WLP300 it had a sulphur smell. No vommit taste noted though.

The American wheat I have going right now with Wyeast 1010 is giving off sulfur like crazy...this is going to be one GOOD beer!!!

More than likely normal and the beer wasn't ready when you threw it out.

Should have gave it more time.

This is a timey thread for me. I just made my first Dunkel Weissen a couple weeks ago using WLP300. About day 2 and 3 it was throwing major sulphur which I assumed was normal. The sulpher smell abated after day 3 of fermentation. I fermented between 63-65 degrees F for the first 5 days, then as activity dropped I let the temp come up to 67-68F.

Today is day 10 in the primary and I dipped the thief in and took a sample. It has the mild to moderate banana I expected, but also has a distinct sulphur smell and taste. I didn't expect this 10 days in. To aid in the conditioning of WLP 300, do I want to let it continue in the 67-68F range, or would I be better served to knock it down in temp? I was originally figuring this guy would be ready to keg this weekend.

You're fine with the temp you have, it'll age out.

can i pitch my hefe wort directly on a Belgian White yeast cake??

ummm... wouldn't that just be another wit?

tincob said:

Very interesting.

I had some WLP300 yeast that I washed from a Midwest Hank's Hefeweizen. In the Hank's batch, I had no sulfur smell and the batch came out delicious.

I had it in the fridge for about 3 months. I created a liter starter and pitched it to an AHS partial mash hefeweizen kit. This time, I got the sulfur smell. It's fermenting at 64-66 degrees.

Click to expand...

to update this thread, this is a common issue with poor washing techniques. i had the same issue with sterile water yeast washing (not using acids). that explains why the initial ferment with the yeast had no sulfur, but you did have sulfur smell in the second post-washing round.