smells funny :(

Williams 728
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musicis

musicis

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I have two 14.8 SQ F freezers (65 F). One with 3 primary's and the other with one. I made two double batches (each double using Wyeast the other WL's) of a Belgian Ale. I did use a stir plate starter. 8 hours later tons of activity in all four. 7 days later I go to siphon into secondary. The one freezer with 3 primary's smelled like beer but the other freezer smelled of vinegar. I transferred all to glass carboy's and the primary's all looked the same. I tasted each one and nothing unusual. Putting my nose in the primary's also did not smell of vinegar. From a distance though I kept smelling it.

A note using WL (550) and Wyeast (1214): Much more activity with the WL. I have no idea why.
 
It's not all the CO2 that you're smelling, is it? That's a lot of fermentation blowoff built up in there. Maybe you have some moisture outside the primaries that is smelling. I've had that on a number of occasions. Nothing wrong inside the beer in my case.
 
theveganbrewer said:
It's not all the CO2 that you're smelling, is it? That's a lot of fermentation blowoff built up in there. Maybe you have some moisture outside the primaries that is smelling. I've had that on a number of occasions. Nothing wrong inside the beer in my case.
Click to expand...

Your right about the fermentation blowoff. It got everywhere in the freezer. The one with three had white co2 gas at the bottom. I stuck my head in there and WHOOOOOOO! BACK OFF!! But its the one with one primary that smells. I sure hope its the blowoff. I did have quite the mess to clean up in both freezers. I took 1 TBS of bleach to a gallon of water and cleaned and dried out the interior.
 
I remember the first time I fermented three bottles in my freezer and sticking my head in there and saying to myself, this smells weird. So I decided to investigate and stick it in further and almost passed out. Lesson learned.

Once beer/yeast is out of the sanitized conditions of the primary it starts smelling quickly. A thorough cleaning should do the trick. Sure your beers will turn out great.
 
The CO2 may be odorless, but it will burn your eyes, nose, and throat if you inhale it. Active fermentation also often gives off sulphur compounds, so it often gives the illusion that the CO2 smells like sulphur, rotten eggs, etc..
 

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