Sulfery Smell from 1 Month Old Beer

I brewed a clone of Dog Fish Head's Raison D'etre. A simple malt bill with 8 ounces of raisins, fermented with WLP530. The beer fermented at 70-72F, then dropped to 42F to clear and prepare for kegging. It sat at 72f for about a week and at 42f for three weeks.

Although I cannot get taste any off-flavors, I get a sulfur smell off this month old beer. The beer tastes great but that smell right-off the pour is concerning. It seems to dissipate quick when poured.

Any ideas what may have caused this and is there anything I can do?

 

Can't help you with the smell but what recipe did you use and how close is it to the real thing?

 

The grain and hops were the same but I upped the raisin from 6 oz. to 8 oz., used 1 pound of D45 syrup vs. 8 oz. of candi sugar, and fermented with WLP530 instead of WLP545 (Ardennes).

For the raisins, I pureed them in wort, boiled for a minute or two, cooled, and added to the fermenter.

I made two batches, 1 month apart.

The first batch came in at 1.076 and was mashed at 1.5 quarts per pound (pretty loose mash). The second batch came in at 1.086 and was mashed at 1.2 quarts per pound (tighter mash). Mash target was 150F.

I am struggling to comprehend if the 1.5 vs. 1.2 mash water had that much influence on starting gravity. 10 points is quite a bit. Beersmith suggests 79% efficiency.

While still young and very under carbonated, the taste is in the right ballpark but not quite there. Probably due to the yeast or perhaps the mash temperature.

The real-deal is more raisiny from my perception.

I used the 530 for several batches of Westvleteren 12 clones. Never did I get a sulfer smell from those ...

 

Do you have a link to the base recipe? You could try reading this article for the sulfur: http://morebeer.com/articles/sulfur_compounds_in_beer its very comprehensive and may answer some questions. Let me know what you find out!