Ammonia or vinegar like smell on transfer day

I'm doing an Irish red ale and on transfer day (from primary bucket fermenter to secondary carboy), when we pulled the airlock out and smelled in the hole, our nostril hairs were burned a bit; it had a strong ammonia or vinegar smell to it. I'm pretty sure it still has quite a bit of active yeast as it's still bubbling and its rather cloudy yet as well.

Any input, as always, is greatly appreciated!

Ammonia and vinegar are quite a bit different. Here is a site with most common off smells.

http://www.homebrewzone.com/off-flavors.htm

It was probably just carbon dioxide since it was still bubbling and it wasn't done fermenting yet. Yeah, CO2 will take your breath and sting your nose hairs. You were transferring to secondary to soon since it was still fermenting. You should have waited for it to finsih before transfering to secondary or not even secondary at all. You can just leave it sit in the primary for a month and then bottle. Keep reading on here.

MRK's right, I'm pretty sure you just got a co2 burn...did you taste the beer?

I find that sniffing airlocks just causes udue stress. So I don't bother. Fermentation is often ugly, stinky, and that's when it is perfectly normal.

Oh yeah..taking a whiff of that CO2 is quite pungent...I bet that's what it was. I remember doing that...Whew! I won't make that mistake again.

Best thing to do is taste it, if it taste sour, than you probably have an infection.