I'm sure I'm overthinking it....

Third batch, so bear with me....

I just opened the fermenter after 3 weeks to drop in the dry hops, and the beer smelled kinda bad....i was expecting the nice hoppy smell that i was getting out of the airlock the first week or two, and instead i got a very unappetizing stale smell.

I also see some stuff floating, but I'm pretty sure they are just the "yeast rafts" everyone freaks out about.

Should it be smelling bad though? what should I be expecting? Thanks

It could be a lot of things...you'll have to provide a lot more info to get much help, including gravity and taste. If I had to take a stab in the dark, though, I'd guess that you got a big whiff of CO2, which has a nasty, acrid smell.

What's it smell like? Cow Farts = OK. It's just the sulfur from the yeast. Vinegar = bad.

Very much depends on what you mean by "bad". If it smells like Sasquatch's nether-regions after he sat in a plate of raw fish nachos then there may be a problem, if it's just not what you were expecting then it probably just lost a little of the hop aroma. Check the OG, give it a taste, toss the hops in, and wait. Even if it does smell like Sasquatch it's worth risking the few oz of hops to see how it turns out.

I have never had a brew smell good while it is fermenting. Boiling? Yes. Bottled and aged for a couple weeks? Yes. In the bucket? Hell no. The smell of the gases from the yeast is not a pleasant thing, especially with some yeast strains. Unless the floating things are green then it is probably yeast rafts.

What yeast did you use?

Oh, and as it is your 3rd batch, you must have a couple sitting around to RDWHAHB.

OK, well definitely not Sasquatch's crotch, and definitely not vinegar.

It just didn't smell like good beer.....I know that's a terrible description, but it just smelled kind of stale. best way I can describe it.

OG was 1.050 and i didn't take another reading today. Gonna let it sit for another ~10 days or so and then bottle.

I did RDWHAHB tonight, so I'm not extremely worried. Just wanted to make sure that others have had the same problem that it smells kinda funky in the bucket.

Thanks guys