Sulphur Aroma and Flavor with Wyeast 3942

[Fatty]

I made some beer using Wyeast's PC 3942. As I sampled during fermentation, it smelled and tasted great. Spicy on the nose, a lot of bubblegum flavor. I didn't notice any sulphur. Now that it's kegged, there's plenty of sulphur odor and a little flavor. I've never used a Belgian yeast before. Will this mellow with conditioning? Should I have let it ferment longer? It fermented primary for 1 week, and then secondary with a pound of honey for 2 weeks. It's been in a keg about 1 week at this point.

 

[VikeMan]

Assuming you didn't use full-on low oxygen brewing techniques, there is probably enough O2 in your beer to reduce the H2S sulfur compounds over time. Normally, you don't want any dissolved oxygen in the finished beer, but fixing an excess of H2S is a rare exception.

Besides O2, some trace metals, like copper, can also reduce the H2S. If you run out of patience, you could, as a last resort, try gently stirring the beer with a cleaned and sanitized length of copper tubing, something like a straightened piece of 3/8” OD copper refrigeration coil could work.

 

[dmtaylor]

In my experience with sulfur and Belgian ales... this is very very common, and you don't need to do anything special besides being patient. Give the beer another 2-3 weeks and the sulfur will disappear all by itself. Just leave it be for a little while longer, it will clean up.

 

[monkeymath]

That yeast threw a ton of sulphur during fermentation when I used it. Cleaned up fully, bur I bottled it only after. Not sure how it works in a keg. But I'd say it'll work out fine.