24 Hours After Pitching: Rotten Eggs Smell and no Visible Activity

[Derick_Z]

I brewed my second all grain batch yesterday (a hefe) and pitched wyeast 3068 around 5 last night. As of 5 today, I hadn't seen any visible fermentation (though that may be due to a leaky blowoff tube), and the room smells distinctly of rotten eggs. When I smell closely to the jar the blowoff tube is in, there is no odor, but when I sniff near the point where the blowoff tube connects to the bucket, it absolutely wreaks.

Is it infected? I've only done one ag batch before, but it smelled fine and fermentation went great. Did I just screw something up this time? I may take the lid off tomorrow and take a picture if it hasn't improved...

 

[HungerJack]

On Wyeast's website, in the description of that yeast, they say that sulfar is commonly produced, but will dissipate with conditioning. Should be ok.

 

[dkm11b]

search "rhino farts". a hefe will make the most god aweful smells you can imagine, and then it tastes like banana an cloves....makes no sense. when i made one with some wlp300 it smelled like a fart in my apartment during fermentation, but the end result was great.

 

[Gixxer]

My brew room too reeks of sulfur right now. Different yeast, but same result. Just sayin the sulfur smell can and does happen, not a bad thing.

 

[HungerJack]

I'm gunna have to brew a hefe real soon. And maybe frequently. Then the lady can't blame me for the fart smells.

 

[Derick_Z]

I brewed an extract hefe with this same yeast a couple weeks ago that never smelled like this! Is it just the all grain? Maybe I should put the airlock back in instead of my ghetto blowoff tube? I really haven't seen a single bubble. I only rigged one because last time I started with an airlock and it went wild and blew out everywhere..

 

[HungerJack]

I brewed a Porter on monday. No bubbles after 15 hours. I had a blowoff on as well. I opened the bucket lid and there was a krausen, so it was fermenting. Then about 4 hours later, it went nuts. Bubbles and what not were coming out of the side of my bucket (it was leaky). Even though I tried to seal it as tight as I could. Be patient.

 

[Derick_Z]

I brewed a Porter on monday. No bubbles after 15 hours. I had a blowoff on as well. I opened the bucket lid and there was a krausen, so it was fermenting. Then about 4 hours later, it went nuts. Bubbles and what not were coming out of the side of my bucket (it was leaky). Even though I tried to seal it as tight as I could. Be patient.

I wasn't so much concerned with the lack of bubbles (though that is part), as the horrible stench. SWMBO even threatened to toss it outside, and to be honest I was partially on board as I thought it was infected! Glad I decided to check with you wonderful people before I dumped it! When I told her think "rhino fart", she exclaimed "THAT'S EXACTLY IT!"

I'll keep a close eye on it for now, but will likely switch to an airlock after a bit as I am currently using a blowoff tube which is (apparently) too small for the grommet on the bucket. It's quite loose so I taped it up with ducktape, but I'm beginning to think that isn't enough, especially if I want an airtight seal to prevent oxidation.

If there's still no sign of blowout tomorrow when I check it (about 43 hours after pitching), I'll likely put in an airlock to prevent oxidation (as much as I can, at least)

 

[Derick_Z]

Just switched the tube out for an airlock, and I am now seeing a little bubbling. There was beer under the ducktape so it's clearly been fermenting, and when I looked through the hole I think I saw krausen.

Another thing I noticed was that overnight the beer is dropping down to 63ish, while during the day it seems to hover around 65-66. Is this too low? My last hefe with this yeast stuck around 69-70.