Bizarre odor of my witbier

[Sirius76]

Hello all,

I'm new to the group and had promised myself I wouldn't post or ask a newbie question until after I've bottled and tasted my first brew. BUT something has come up as of lastnight and its been bugging me. I'm not going to do anything to my brew and I won't come to a final decision as to the quality of my beer until after its bottled, but I do need to ask the group for some advice. I am a bit worried.

On Nov 4th I brewed my first batch. A Brewers Best Witbier kit using Wyeast labs Belgian Wiebier 3944. It all went off without a hitch! All my temps were within order as was the OG of 1.050.

8 days later I took a reading with my hydro and it had an SG of 1.012. Color and aroma inside the test tube was incredible! Looked just like a Blue Moon! My wife and I tasted it and it was awesome! Flat beer that we had made ourselves!

Yesterday I took another reading to confirm fermentation was over. (I'm planning a 4 week primary btw) FG was 1.012. Perfect BUT this is where things changed.

Two friends were over and all three of us sampled the beer. One said it was fine and not to worry. Ok.......

The other friend and I both felt that the aroma of the beer was off. In fact, we both agreed it smelled a bit like p!ss, or uric acid. Kinda of pungent smelling if you know what I mean.

The taste of it was different as well. Not necessarily bad, but it was a bit astringent. Nothing like it was before. It felt like it had a bit of a "bite" to it. My buddy said it had a bit of "green grape" flavor to it.

So, Great Wise Ones of HBT, what do you think caused this? I'm not going to speculate an infection, but I'm a bit concerned. I don't understand why the beer seemed to go downhill. I figured it would have improved over the last week. Has anyone experienced anything like this? What were the end results?

Anyway, thanks in advance. Like I said, I'm not taking it off the primary for another couple weeks or so, so it still may improve. I just wanted to get some professional opinions!

One final note, we've become hooked on this! (without even finishing the first one I might add!)

We've already brewed our second HB, an Imperial Blonde Raspberry Ale! Its only been a few days on the primary but man oh man!!!

-Dragan

 

[malkore]

I wouldn't do a wit beer for 4 weeks in primary. its going to lose a lot of yeast in suspension and won't be very wit-like.

wit's rarely get a secondary either, for the same reason.

the smell you describe sounds like no known infection, so I think you're just experiencing green beer.
leave it a few more days and then bottle it.
wait 3-4 weeks, then try some. this time of year (cooler temps) can make bottle carbonation take longer.

 

[JaimeTheLimey]

I'm with Malkore. Give it a little more time. I think if you got to 1.012 without off flavors you'll be ok. Belgian strains can also put off some pretty wild smells and flavors. The French Saison strain (I'm using right now) consistently smells great for the first few days, then puts off some serious sulfur odors (rotten eggs and cat piss), then eventually cleans itself up.

 

[paraordnance]

I wouldn't do a wit beer for 4 weeks in primary.

I'd say its hard not to leave it for so long. I ferment a wit with WLP400 and its still fermenting activelly after 3 weeks and keeps dropping points very slowly! And its cloudy as it was on day 1. Some strains just take their sweet time to do their job.

 

[Sirius76]

Thanks for the replies guys. I appreciate it!

I'll just wait and see what happens.

-Dragan

 

[funkswing]

Dragan - just hang in there with the Wit! (its a panty dropper style)

I wouldn't be too worried about not having enough yeast in suspension. You can always suck some up at bottling time when transferring it to the bottling bucket. But wheat beer yeasts aren't particularly floccuative anyways.

With that being said, I still wouldn't leave it in there for more than 3 weeks; it is kinda an oddball style that doesn't get better with age. Bottle as soon as fermentation has died down for at least 3 days. Also, don't take too many samples before bottling it, you want to drink the carbonated version right?!?!?!

Oh, one more suggestion. I like to acidify my Witbiers with 20 mL lactiv acid (88%, sold at LHBS) in 5 gal. Puckers-up the finish and really makes the beer thirst quenching. I have an awesome Witbier recipe in my signature link.

I love Witbiers and for your sake, hopefully the wife will too! (reference above comment)

 

[jwible204]

i used Safbrew T-58 in a Tripel recently and it made my 1 br apartment smell like a rotten eggs for 2 days. yeast/sugar do weird things and cause quite a bit of strange odors during their time together, it'll be fine.