First time kegging/brewing question!

[amends]

Hi all, I've been lurking for quite some time, and find the resources here invaluable. However, I finally found a question that isn't really mentioned.

I just brewed my first beer about 3 weeks ago. It's Dead Ringer IPA (Extract) from Northern Brewer. It went well, only needed about 6 days in primary, switched over to secondary to dry hop, and let it go about 10 days.

In addition to it being my first batch, I wanted to keg it as well. So I racked it into the keg with about 2 1/2 weeks of age on it, and have force carbonated it and am dispensing it with great pleasure! However, a day or so ago, I noted that right after I dispense it and smell it, it has a weird fishy smell. Like wet dog or fish. The even weirder part is that if I let the glass sit for about 5 minutes, the smell completely vanishes.

At first I thought it might be because my Beer line isn't refrigerated like the keg/tank is (which causes what I believe is co2 bubbles in the line), or because I have it sitting in a garage where the temperature goes from ~35-45 over the course of the day.

I'm sort of at an impasse where I need someone with experience to advise. My mini fridge should be here soon, and I hope that helps keep the temperature constant and knock out that variable. But I'd really like to know what the cause of this smell is so I can avoid it in the future or just fix it here and now.

Thanks all!

 

[peterj]

Sounds like a sulfur smell, right? What yeast did you use? Some yeasts can produce this smell during fermentation. It's most common in lager yeasts. I think it should fade with some conditioning time. I've noticed it with US-05 once or twice, but only in the fermenter. I would just give it some time. Maybe you could vent the pressure out of the keg every now and then. That might help it along.

 

[ryan0914]

If you are using beer line it shouldn't be the problem. With them being food grade they shouldn't impart any flavor, with the beer lines not being refrigerated you would only see foaming problems. The temp swings shouldn't cause this either.
The only thing I can think of would be some kind of bacterial or wild yeast infection that took hold. Brett sometimes gives off smells similar to what your explaining, Farm yard, wet dog, horsey smells.
I cant really thing of anything else having to do with the kegging which would cause this. Maybe anyone else might have an idea.

 

[amends]

I'm using US-05 for this one. I'm not an expert at all, but it doesn't seem to be infected. It looks, tastes, and smells (after a few minutes in a glass) just fine. It's just a weird smell on the initial pour that has a distinct smell of fish bowl.

It's definitely a young beer by standards. All of the reviews for the kit say it gets MUCH better with age (the beer is just now hitting 3 weeks since brew day) but what concerned me the most is the sudden onset of the smell. When it was first kegged, it tasted very astringent and bitter, with no malt. But it smelled pretty much like cascade hops, what it was dry-hopped with. Each day it gets more balanced, so I'm not sure if this issue is intermittent or it's just going to smell like fish for a few minutes after pouring.

I'm mainly just wondering if there's a pretty cut and dry cause here so that I can avoid it next time for the next batch.

Another quick edit: I vented the Co2 from the headspace before pouring and then immediately poured at 8 PSI and it seems to have reduced the smell by a pretty good fraction. Previously I had it sitting at 8 PSI and would just walk over and pour, should I always be venting the headspace first, even if I leave it hooked up at dispensing pressures?

 

[ryan0914]

Sorry I missed that last part of that paragraph. I was thinking the smell got worse.
My vote is on what the peterj said. Its probably esters from the yeast, it'll go away with time.