what's that smell

So a few months back I had a bottle of Jolly Pumpkin La Roja staring at me and, having never forayed into the world of sour brewing, figured what the heck might as well start somewhere. The JP bottle was 1 yr old, I basically just pitched the dregs (no starter) in primary along with WY1056. Brewday followed my normal one-step mash with pilsner, some flaked wheat and acid malt, low hop IBU.

Anyway to my question.. after 2 months I took a reading: 1.004. There's def some tart/apple sourness going on, no Brett detected though, and the smell is, well, odd. Like a trace of sulfur farts or something, not too pleasant. Now, I understood this was going to take much longer than 2 months to develop, I guess the smell just caught me off guard a bit. As common as it is I can't remember the last time I used 1056, is this yeast known to produce off-odors at all? Or wondering if maybe it's just that combined with the JP dregs or something.

In any case I plan to just let it sit in the carboy a few more months and check again, hoping the smell gets gassed out and mellows over time. Anything glaringly wrong with my process here? Anyone used american ale yeast + JP with good results? Like I said I've never played around with anything sour until now, so my bad if I'm asking dumb questions. Thanks

I have a beer in secondary now that was fermented with only stepped up JP dregs. At racking time there was a definite Belgian yeast note and something else I couldn't put a name to at first. I finally figured out it tastes like vomit. I'm guessing and hoping that works itself out over the next few months.

I suspect the odor you're picking up is from the dregs, not the 1056. Give it time.