Houston, we (may) have a problem.

Well I did a Wheat with both bitter & sweet orange peel. And an american heffeweizen yeast. Hit my #'s pretty good. Missed my wort, ended up a gallon short. Other than that everything went well, been fermenting at 66-68 since 8/22. Plan to bottle this weekend and wanted to take a reading to compare it to on sat. Well, when I opened up the air-lock I got a whiff of something sour. Now maybe because this is my first AG wheat, I'm not used to the smell. I also didn't rack to the secondary, another first, so maybe I'm smelling the krausen (<-SP?). Anyway I still did a taste test. I wouldn't say it tasted sour, but I would say it tasted "watery". OG was 1.050 and tonight's reading was 1.009 (1.011 according to the refract). What gives?

I brewed my first American wheat/rye a couple months ago, and it smelled weird during fermentation too. I kegged it and chilled it down to 33F for a couple weeks and force carbed it. It was fine after that. I think the yeast strain I used just smells funny during fermentation. (Wyeast 1010, btw.)

I had the opposite mouthfeel problem... mine turned out kind of "thick." I carbed it up to about 2.8 volumes and the mouthfeel was right on.

Wait till it's carbonated. It will seem fuller when it's cold and fully carbed.

Rick500 said:

I think the yeast strain I used just smells funny during fermentation. (Wyeast 1010, btw.)

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I'm using WLP320, it should not have any bannana or clove but maybe some sulfur. Would sulfur have an odd smell?

Brewsmith said:

Wait till it's carbonated. It will seem fuller when it's cold and fully carbed.

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Dude, its not the mouthfeel I'm worried about, its the smell! I've always heard "bad" beer would taste something like satin's armpit. I didn't have any of that, it was just watery.

Snafu said:

I'm using WLP320, it should not have any bannana or clove but maybe some sulfur. Would sulfur have an odd smell?

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Are you asking if sulfur has a smell? Sulfur?

Ever eat a bunch of hard boiled eggs, like 6 or 8 of them, wait a few hours, and then let loose with a ripping yarn? That smell was sulfur.

Yes sulfur has a nasty ass smell. So does a carboy from up close often. Often it is just the CO2 offgassing. That alone will make your eyes water everytime.

Sulfur is what I was getting from my Wyeast 1010. No hint of any off-tastes in the beer though.

If it tastes fine its ok. I think its the yeast by products you're smelling.

proceed normally.