First batch down the f'in drain...

Hey guys,

Brewed my first batch of beer this weekend, an AHS Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout clone, partial mash.

Brewed it Saturday, saw no airlock action whatsoever. Kept the beer at 66-70F the whole time. Cracked it open today, hoping that the seal around the airlock wasn't tight and that it would be fermenting away.

The beer inside was one of the worst smelling things I have ever encountered. My wife was in the same room, and had to run out. Putrid!

The weird thing was, there was nothing on the surface of the beer. The smell was extremely strong, hard to describe, I guess sulfur would be most fitting.

Pretty bummed, $45 down the drain. I think our main issues were:

It took us an hour to chill the wort because we weren't prepared with enough ice, and we found out what we thought was sanitizer was cleanser.

Ordered a big bottle of StarSan and the ingredients for Graff to brew this weekend. Hopefully it goes better...

jbrookeiv said:

It took us an hour to chill the wort because we weren't prepared with enough ice, and we found out what we thought was sanitizer was cleanser.

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Yeah, not using sanitizer was your problem. I've missed my mark and had to wait hours before I could pitch without a problem.

jbrookeiv said:

Ordered a big bottle of StarSan and the ingredients for Graff to brew this weekend. Hopefully it goes better...

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Respect the bubbles. :rockin:

don't be too hasty. what yeast did you use? A lot of yeast produce sulfer aromas during fermentation. You didn't dump it yet did you?

I've had many beers smell sulfurry as they fermented....and not just lagers, either.

you didnt dump it did you????????


that smell was probably just fermentation....

Another vote for: "you threw out perfectly good beer".

#1) The wife running out of the room part almost made me fall off my bed laughing. Remember this one guys. If you ever need alone time, repeat this performance.

#2) Never dump beer until you are 150% sure it's a goner. In most cases it is salvageable. (In Revvy we trust....)

"WTF NOOB?????" was my gut reaction.........fortunately....I thought better of it.

If you dumped that before posting on here, you deserve what you got, or you are pulling our collective leg.

Chocolate malt smells like ASS before it ferments..........

Lesson upon lesson learned here....

EDIT* Graff as a second brew????????what happened to that blueberry pilsener, or just a pale ale????*

agree, do not dump until it's in the bottle and aged for a month.

Ok, I'm not going to repeat anything thats been said buuuut...
For the record, I had a weizen that showed NO signs of fermentation for 5 days...no krausen, no airlock, no nothing... I bottled it almost 2 weeks ago and it's coming along wonderfully.
and two, I have had ciders(I know they aren't beer but bear with me) that smelled strongly of sulfur for the first couple days of fermentation and it went away after about a week and they came out great (comparable to Strongbow).

I urge you to check out the yeast fermentation threads. Revvy has answered the questions many times about fermentation but "The airlock shows no activity"....

I have yet to remove my airlocks and go poking around until it's time to siphon. To this day for the past 2 1/2 months every beer has fermented within 72 hours.

Also remember that some yeast strains take 12-24 hours to store up the energy required to ferment the sugars. That is, unless a starter is used.

I believe people have done massive threads on this area as well.

One more vote for still good beer... I took a peak at my beer today when I dry hopped and it looked fine, but it smelled like farts during the 3-4 day mark lol.

Haven't dumped it guys.

My main worry is there is absolutely no Krausen on the top, and no signs that there was any there.

I used White Labs WLP004.

To better explain, the smell was so intense that it almost made me puke on the spot. I sealed it back as quickly as possible.

There has been zero airlock activity as well. Over 72hrs at this point since pitching.

jbrookeiv said:

Haven't dumped it guys.

My main worry is there is absolutely no Krausen on the top, and no signs that there was any there.

I used White Labs WLP004.

To better explain, the smell was so intense that it almost made me puke on the spot. I sealed it back as quickly as possible.

There has been zero airlock activity as well. Over 72hrs at this point since pitching.

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Seal it up. Walk away. Return in 10 days.

strat_thru_marshall said:

Seal it up. Walk away. Return in 10 days.

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First I would take a gravity reading to see if it is in fact fermenting. At this point, if you gravity has not changed, I might consider pitching some more yeast.

Then seal it up. Walk away. Return in 10 days.

JLem said:

First I would take a gravity reading to see if it is in fact fermenting. At this point, if you gravity has not changed, I might consider pitching some more yeast.

Then seal it up. Walk away. Return in 10 days.

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I'll do that. Thanks guys.

jbrookeiv said:

. . . and we found out what we thought was sanitizer was cleanser.

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What cleanser did you find you used? I'd have a concern here but only a mild one if it wasn't something that would eat the paint off a Sherman Tank.

jbrookeiv said:

Ordered a big bottle of StarSan

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Don’t fear the foam – you’ll understand the first time you use it.

Edit: Totally forgot the gravity reading comment but fortunately others remembered.

Question #1: What's your gravity reading now? What was the OG ?

Question #2: What's the hydro sample taste like ?

Stop freaking out. Let the yeast do their thing. The smell you're getting is A-1 indication that there is fermentation going on. Airlocks don't mean diddly - but you knew that already, right ?

+1 to walking away for 10 days before you even look at it again.

Beer was brewed for 1000 years before anyone even knew there was such a thing as bacteria. You just need to let the yeast work their magic in peace.

Alright guys, pulled it back open, took a hydrometer reading.

It hasn't budged from it's OG of 1.056.

On further inspection, there IS something on top of the beer.

Again guys, the smell on this is worse than bad. I'll still let it sit for another week, but check out the pictures below.

Also, forgot to mention, there isn't a great homebrew supply shop here. The only one is just getting started, and is only open on the weekends, so getting more yeast could take a few days.

jbrookeiv said:

Alright guys, pulled it back open, took a hydrometer reading.

It hasn't budged from it's OG of 1.056.

On further inspection, there IS something on top of the beer.

Again guys, the smell on this is worse than bad. I'll still let it sit for another week, but check out the pictures below.

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hmmm...we may need to readdress this whole "it's probably fine" idea

I think you done lost this one.

granted, smelling that bad, there could've been something wrong with it, but probably not.

Brewham said:

I think you done lost this one.

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I believe that may be the case. Somehow, when I opened the bucket initially, I didn't notice the stuff on the surface. I was in such a hurry to seal the bucket of death that I didn't look closely.

So what does it taste like ?

XXguy said:

So what does it taste like ?

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There is no way I could bring myself to drink that.

That looks super sketchy. Let it sit as a science experiment unless you need the bucket.

I have drunk worse things than this in Africa. One was some form of sugar beer, wich is sugar, water and wild yeast. The guy was brewing it in a jerry can on the street. Can you say moldy rocket fuel ?

Not rocket fuel. It's more like being desperate for acohol, regardless of any sensibility.

jbrookeiv said:

There is no way I could bring myself to drink that.

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bok-bok-bok-bok-bok

It was not some homeless guy who was desperate for a buzz. The guy was selling it and people were buying it (myself included, since I sampled it). I might still have the picture of the guy laughing at the face I made when I took my first sip.

So there is a definite consensus that this is dead, correct? I'm going to dump it tonight and order another cheap kit from AHS.

jbrookeiv said:

So there is a definite consensus that this is dead, correct? I'm going to dump it tonight and order another cheap kit from AHS.

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Some worts have strong smells but it should be tolerable or even pleasant for some. In your case though, it seems that your wort is putrefied as it appears to have a foul smell from your description. Some bacteria do produce strong sulfur odors. If you drink this thing to test it, you may end up in the ER depending on the concentration of bacteria. Trash it before you get a ruined bucket. I'm afraid you will need to do several rounds of washing and sanitizing in your contaminated bucket before your next brew to render it useful.

Apfelwein smells like elephant farts for quite awhile, stunk up my whole basement.

Indyking said:

Some worts have strong smells but it should be tolerable or even pleasant for some. In your case though, it seems that your wort is putrefied as it appears to have a foul smell from your description. Some bacteria do produce strong sulfur odors. If you drink this thing to test it, you may end up in the ER depending on the concentration of bacteria. Trash it before you get a ruined bucket. I'm afraid you will need to do several rounds of washing and sanitizing in your contaminated bucket before your next brew to render it useful.

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I will definitely be cleaning the **** out of it. Unfortunately, this is my bottling bucket. I only have two buckets, and was using this as primary, transferring to my other for secondary, and then back to this one for final bottling.

Yeah just saw the pictures, maybe with no sanitzer???

Also I read on here to many people are "cracking open" their buckets to look. It's my understanding that this could introduce "nasties" and cause bad stuff to happen. If you don't have the patience to just leave it alone people should get clear fermenters

akthor said:

Yeah just saw the pictures, maybe with no sanitzer???

Also I read on here to many people are "cracking open" their buckets to look. It's my understanding that this could introduce "nasties" and cause bad stuff to happen. If you don't have the patience to just leave it alone people should get clear fermenters

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Yea, the reason I cracked it was to take a gravity reading, I wanted to know whether fermentation had in fact started. I know to just let it sit normally, but no airlock activity after 80hrs had me worried, and for good reason evidentially.

Think I'll order the RyePA kit from Northern Brewer today.

I don't know who these other guys are kidding, there is no amount of money you could pay me drink that.

It looks like a sewer backed up in to your bucket, and then someone poured egg drop soup in it.

Your stomach acid would kill most bacteria. There are very few that can actually hurt you from eating or drinking them... however the products they produce (toxins, chemicals, etc.) can hurt you. So, if you don't want to taste it, then don't.

Two things got ya here: lack of sanitizer and lack of yeast "take off". If the yeast colony had gotten going nice and good, they could have kept the bacteria in check, potentially. The beer might have had an "off" taste, but it would have been drinkable.

Sorry 'bout your beer.

Justibone said:

Your stomach acid would kill most bacteria. There are very few that can actually hurt you from eating or drinking them... however the products they produce (toxins, chemicals, etc.) can hurt you. So, if you don't want to taste it, then don't.

Two things got ya here: lack of sanitizer and lack of yeast "take off". If the yeast colony had gotten going nice and good, they could have kept the bacteria in check, potentially. The beer might have had an "off" taste, but it would have been drinkable.

Sorry 'bout your beer.

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I agree 100% with your 2nd paragraph, but not with the first one, sorry. The OP has essentially a bacterial culture in this bucket. Pathogenic bacteria like E coli, Salmonella, or others could potentially have grown there and they will give you a heck of gastroenteritis despite of your stomach acids. Food poisoning form bacterial infections affects hundreds of people every day! We don’t want homebrews to end up on the CDC statistics, do we?