Bottled Lager - Looks Good/ Smells Bad

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jakerivera

jakerivera

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I poured the first bottle of a Pilsner Style Lager. I chilled the bottle in the fridge for an hour or two just before pouring. Good color, clear, nice head, and smelled like SH*^. Sulfur (Rotten Egg Smell). Taste OK if you can bring your nose to the rim of the glass; I couldn't repeat.

We watched our temps and kept them in range during fermentation. At bottling everything looked and smelled good. After bottling I stored them with my other stock in our pantry that stays room temperature (65 - 70).

Questions:
What's going on here? Will the sulfur smell dissipate in time? Will chilling the bottles for a longer period of time help? Can anything make it go away?
 
How long has it been in the bottle? I made a Cooper's European Lager a few months back and the instructions did say you may smell sulfur during fermentation. Perhaps it is still fermenting.
 
We brewed on 3/20/10. Moved on secondary seven days later. Moved into a finishing carboy nine days later. Total fermentation time was 20 days till we bottled on April 9. (1.052 OG. 1.014 FG) That gave us two weeks in the bottle. The only thing different than our other brews was this was our first lager and the first time we used a smack pack type of wet yeast (White Labs Home Brew Liquid Yeast, San Francisco Lager Yeast WLP810). Lagers need the lower temps, and we kept up with that until after we bottled. Then my bottles came up to room temperature in the pantry.
 
lager yeast can be very sulfury! I like to ferment mine at 50 degrees for a couple of weeks, and then rack to a carboy after the diacetyl rest and lower the temperature by 5 degrees per day until I am lagering at 34. I like to lager about a week for every 8 points of OG. What I mean by that is for a lager with an OG of 1.064, I'd lager for 8 weeks or so before bottling.

It sounds like you've skipped the lagering phase? I'm not really sure from your post how long ago you made the lager, or how long you lagered.
 
Thanks YooperBrew. I needed a little more explanation so I found this on Wikipedia:

The key difference between an ale and a lager is in fermentation; a lager is fermented at a much lower temperature, and with a different yeast, than an ale. If continuous fermentation is not employed, the primary fermentation period for a lager will take at least twice as long as for an ale; this time is furthermore compounded by weeks or months of lagering. As the low-temperature fermentation, which can take place at temperatures as cool as 0-5 degrees Celsius, allows diacetyl to remain free in the fermenting beer, the fermentation temperature may briefly be raised—a "diacetyl rest" -- near the end of the primary fermentation to allow the consumption of this chemical.​

So, we skipped the lagering phase and have stinky beer. Are we fubared or will time in the bottle at lower temps save us?
 
I don't know. The sulfur aroma may fade, if you want to try lagering in the bottle. I'm not sure how it will end up, but it can't hurt to try! The sulfur notes dissipate when I lager in the carboy, but I don't know if that's because there is an airlock and it goes out that way, or if it just simply fades.

I'd let the bottles sit at room temperature until they are carbed up, then stick them in the fridge for at least 6 weeks. That may help.
 
My Coopers kit said to store the bottles at room temp for 3 months, at 4 it was still not quite right, so I stuck em in my garage for a week or two (not sure on temp, but very cool) they tasted great after that, almost 5 months in the bottle.

I do have a Mexican Cerveza in the carboy now, I used California Lager yeast and kept it at room temp. I will leave it in the carboy for months if I have to, I just didn't have a Laggering fridge.

My next experiment will be a German Pils and I will brew cool, need to do some more research on that.
 
I know that when I have drunk lambics (not homebrew, the commercial ones from Lindemans) the smell tends to bother me. I just drink it from the bottle instead of pouring it in a glass and it is not a problem, can't smell much from the neck of a bottle.
 
Follow Up:
OK, I went long and placed a few bottles in the fridge for three weeks. Good News - smell is gone and beer taste great!

Brewed on 3/10/10
Bottled on 4/9/10
2.5 weeks, first bottle opened with rotten egg smell on 4/27/10
...another seven weeks (three of which were in the fridge) and everything is fine.
 

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