funky smelling first pours, wet dog.

[PitchnGrin]

So I'm rockin kegs now, schwing...! But my first pours smelled like a wet dog. I was worried my whole keg was screwed so I was key word searching 'wet dog' but after a few pours and a week of aging it is all good. In fact, awesomely delicious. I'm thinking it was the yeast. I'm not one to waste, so I was drinking from the first super cloudy drip.
I used to get one or two bottles occasionally that had the same odor when I bottled but it was limited to individual bottles and the taste was no problem. I always thought it was a minor infection. Could it be yeast dregs? I also wash my yeast so it may be some wild strain creeping in. But why would it be gone now?

I kegged two weeks ago at 30psi for 30 hours with 10-12 psi since. I noticed the smell immediately because the kegs are my new toys. It wasn't there at kegging but the odor has left as the beer is clearing.

Yeast is a Kolsch II 2575. I've been using it as my house strain with good results with Amber, APA and IPA. Super clean, dry and with a hint of fruit that plays up the hops. It clears up faster than I expected too. Sorry, way off track...

What's up with the dog odor early on?

 

[BrewMasta]

I had a foul,Oder from sanitizer that I left in my lines prior to tapping the keg, once I tapped the keg I left it for a day then poured,when I poured the sanitizer that came out smelled foul. Did you have any quantity of sanitizer in your keg lines?

 

[chumpsteak]

I made an English Mild once that smelled like wet dog from start to finish of the keg. I believe it had a lot to do with my tap water. Either from tannin extraction and astingency or just plain chlorophenols from the chlorine in my tap water. Whether making extract or all grain beers I highly recommend doing something about chlorine or chloromines in your tap water. They will cause all kinds of off flavors and inconsistencies in your beers.

 

[PitchnGrin]

The sanitizer question is interesting. I remember re-smelling the spray bottle thinking I caught a wiff of something off. I even opened it and smelled inside the bottle. I made fresh sanitizer in the keg but refilled the squirt bottle without washing it. It could be in the trigger mechanism.

That root cause is consistent with the appearance of the odor after hooking up the picnic tap and it dissipating as the tap is used. In terms of bottling, I used the dishwasher to sanitize the bottles and sanitizer to get the caps, sometimes from the spray bottle. Hmm.

My water has not been an issue, and I would think that would effect the entire batch if it were.

Thanks for both shots of long-range/low-info diagnosis'