SN Kellerweis yeast problems

All,

I brewed a hefeweizen about 10 days ago. I cultured some yeast out of a bottle of SN Kellerweis for this beer. It seems to have fermented out pretty well, to 1.014...but...the beer reeks of hydrogen sulfide! I mean bad. I've had lagers that smelled like sulfur, but nothing like this. It stank up the whole first story of the house. My wife evicted this beer from the kitchen so it's out in the garage. Did I do something wrong here? Should I let it age some more or dump it? The beer tastes like a hefeweizen except for the powerful sulfur smell and taste.

You may actually have cultured a lager yeast without knowing it. Some breweries don't bottle-condition with the same yeast that they brew with; sometimes they use a more shelf-stable yeast (like a lager yeast) to bottle-condition their beers. I'm not sure if SN does this, but it seems possible based on the results you are getting. A hefeweizen yeast should be giving you a radically different profile (fruity or spicy depending on fermentation temperature). What temperature were you fermenting at? Also, try a taste of the beer and see if you are getting any of the classic hefe yeast character. If not, you may not have cultured a hefe yeast. Also, worst case scenario is you have an infection.

Hope this helps,
Matt

Read this thread.

My experience culturing this yeast was the same. The key was turning the temp down on it. It produced plenty of hefe character at 65 F and fermented very quickly. You could probably go lower to be safe.

Of course there's always the outside chance you cultured a nasty, and that's the culprit for your sulfur.