Stange Smell

[tywelcome]

28 days ago I brewed both a Cream Stout and a Hefeweizen.
I went with all grain and a bag.

I did not use a sparge other than draining the bag which had the grains in it and a slight squeeze.

It has been 28 days so I went to bottle both batches.
There was a slight ammonia at first so I put my nose over the primary fermenter and took a deep breath through my nose. It had a very strong ammonia smell to it. After that I decided to give it a taste. It tasted fine so I decided to bottle anyway.

This same smell also occurred with the hefeweizen.

Here are some photos of both batches.

http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/p607/tywelcome/Brew shots/WP_000006.jpg

http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/p607/tywelcome/Brew shots/WP_000007.jpg

I did not want to throw out the beer as it tasted fine.
I am worried about an infection and would like to know possibly why this happened.

thanks HBT,

Terry

 

[JLem]

Neither photo is clearly an infection. Both look reasonable to me, especially the second one. I could be convinced that the first one shows an infection, but it is not conclusive.

What type of yeast did you use on these? What types of hops did you use? Some hops are described as "catty" (aka cat piss), which is definitely ammonia-like.

 

[bad67z]

The photos look normal, the "ammonia aroma" you encountered was probobly
the Co2 that blankets the beer as it ferments. If it tasted good you should be ok.

 

[tywelcome]

The stout used 1 ounce of Northern brewer hops with Wyeast London #1028.
The Hefe used 1 ounce of Tettnanf for hops and Wyeast weihenstephan #3068

I will cross my fingers, these were my first attempt at all grain. I do not remember this smell when I was using extract and special grains.

 

[JLem]

The photos look normal, the "ammonia aroma" you encountered was probobly
the Co2 that blankets the beer as it ferments. If it tasted good you should be ok.

Interesting idea - I always thought CO2 was completely odorless, but I just found this forum post over at New Scientist - NewScientist The Last Word - the first reply compares high concentrations of CO2 a little to ammonia

Neither brew seems to have used "catty" hops. Guess there's nothing to do now than see how everything smells/tastes once they're ready to drink!

 

[tywelcome]

Hopefully I remember to come back in 3 weeks and post a conclusion.

THanks again

 

[bad67z]

In three weeks the Hef will be tasty, the best of the cream stout will more than likely be the last one(speaking from my experiences). Looking forward to your results. Cheers!

 

[tywelcome]

bad67 thanks for the tip.

Jlem, that link was interesting. After reading that the smell was more sour, my brew buddy actually used the word sour, than ammonia but it was hard to describe.

 

[GNBrews]

CO2 causes carbonic acid to form in your nose as you breathe it. I would best describe it as "sharp", possibly "sour" when mixed with the odor of hops.

 

[bad67z]

CO2 causes carbonic acid to form in your nose as you breathe it. I would best describe it as "sharp", possibly "sour" when mixed with the odor of hops.

Thanks GNB that's the description I was trying to come up with.

 

[Frankiesurf]

That same thing happened to me. I was ready to take my first FG reading. I popped the bucket and took a big burning whiff of C02.

I saw on a Brewing TV episode where they did open fermenting. They mentioned that there was a layer of Co2 protecting the wort.

That is what Iattributed it to. I bottled today and it tasted fine.