different smells from fermentation

Has anyone noticed a difference in the smells coming off an airlock from spoiled or sour beer compared to a normal healthy fermenting beer.
The reason for asking is that ...well...I brewed a red ale last weekend and everything went as planned but when fermentation started up the smell off the airlock is very sour. Not like any beer that I have brewed before.
I'm not going to junp the gun and assume that this beer is infected but it sure smells a lot different than any other beer that I've brewed

Fermentation is often stinky, ugly and that's perfectly normal.....

Smell is our own version of a mass spectrometer. Its a great tool for the brewer but you must be familiar with different "normal" smells

For instance a "rotten egg" sulfur smell often comes from either certain types of cold fermenting yeast or from nutritionally deprived yeast.

Different classes of yeast each have their own "normal" smell when they are in high krausen.

iparks81 said:

Has anyone noticed a difference in the smells coming off an airlock from spoiled or sour beer compared to a normal healthy fermenting beer.
The reason for asking is that ...well...I brewed a red ale last weekend and everything went as planned but when fermentation started up the smell off the airlock is very sour. Not like any beer that I have brewed before.
I'm not going to junp the gun and assume that this beer is infected but it sure smells a lot different than any other beer that I've brewed

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What yeast was it? What temp were you fermenting at?

Eric

cali ale (wlp001/wy1056/us05) reeks something awful. very sour.

also, the new wyeast release, thames valley II (1882) smells very bad as well. something my 2 year old described as, "beer poopy"

Well Wyeast 1056 etc should not "reek"
do you have some general yeast nutrient? Before you dump the batch you might try dumping one tablespoon per 5 gal and give it a day to see if the smell goes away.

i always use yeast nutrient.

all I know is, wlp001 reeks of sour.

Mm that's interesting it is wlp001 its fermenting at 68 it just smells different than any other fermentation well I'm not worried now if there's other accounts of this yeast smelling sour

WLP001 has always smelled pretty neutral to me, but I could be wrong. Do not get rid of the beer though, it might be just fine.

"Beer poopy" is funny. 2 year olds and their vocab...priceless.

Eric

I'm having this problem as well. normally i stick to safale/safbrew yeasts this time i brewed an extra pale and used some muntons dry yeast i found in the back of the fridge. its also the first time I've used DME. im getting a sour/eggy smell from the fermenter. it was a little high in temp this morning at about 72f but i moved it to a different room and its at a stable 68. it was brewed lastnight (feb 10) along with a KiWheat which is smelling fine. do you think a re-pitch and some yeast nutrient would help or is this beer boned.

Ps First post after a long time of reading info from all you guys thanks and cheers!