rotten egg smell

ok, i tried searching, and didnt find too much on the subject, so here goes...

batch 3.. a hefeweizen with 3068... upon pitching, the starter had a mild "putrid" odor, but i had no other yeast, and i trusted my sanitizing techniques. now, 24 hours later, the primary has a similar smell, but stronger. see, i do primary in a plastic bucket with a lid that doesn't seal air tight. it kinda just sits there. i have read that this is no problem, as long as the gases can escape. the lid is not heavy, so i believe as soon as a little presure builds up in there, it's free to go when it pleases. my first batch had this same smell during primary ( a spezial lager kit with dry yeast) and at that time i had given up hope. that beer turned out not too bad, i wasn't near as psyched about it as most people on this board are with their firsts. if it's contaminated, i will have to focus on my sanitizing technique, fine, but i also read here something about this odor being related to yeast, and if it is in this case, how do i keep that smell from being a part of the final aroma, and/or flavor?

p.s. will secondary help in this matter? i'm still searching for a secondary vessel, and if i know it could really make a difference in this area, i will speed up my search.

thanks

You're talking about sulphur.

It's a by-product of the yeast. Some are worse than others.

Don't worry, it will subside.

I just had this same problem. My other half just thought it was a bad batch of easter eggs that was in the fridge so she trew them away.

I agree with the yeast producing the sulphur smell.
Proper fermenting temps for the yeast strain can minimize the smell.

I tend to ferment at the lower end of the temprange with lots of hops, so I don't smell anything but the hop!!

I recently made a batch using wlp008 yeast. When racking time came the smell was intolerable. I went ahead and bottled the beer anyways. Two weeks after bottling the beer I drank my first beer and I almost threw up. The taste more than matched the smell. I thought that I was screwed. I tested a couple more bottles and it was the same. Well I forgot about the beer for a couple of weeks and tried once again before deciding to dump the beer, to my surprise it was great. The rotten egg smell and taste had gone away. I decided to cold condition the beer for a couple of weeks to clear up the haze and now its awesome beer.

The lesson here is be patient and give your beer a shot before you decide to dump it.

I recently brewed a hefe using white labs seasonal yeast (can't think of what it's called other than Bavarian hefeweizen) but in short I moved it to a secondary 10 days after brewing to free up a fermentor. Popped the lid off for racking with a non-homebrew drinking buddy and he almost vomited in the bucket. Long story short the egg smell subsided after a couple weeks in secondary and the final product is a delicious ester filled banana hinted funky hefe. Wait it out and it may be one of your better brews