brewing a lager, wow that can burn your nostrils

[eppo]

i'm brewing a german pils. its sitting in my temp controlled freezer at 50F.
open up that lid, stick your head in, take a whiff.... wow what's that i smell pure alcohol?
damn! pungent!

 

[david_42]

No, carbonic acid more likely. Concentrated CO2 does that.

 

[blizz81]

The free highs of homebrewing?


I invited my roommate/fellow brewer to take the first whiff from our Belgian IPA when racking to secondary. He expelled all the air from his lungs, and before I could stop him/realized what he was doing, he stuck his face right above the liquid and breathed in as heavily as he could. Almost put the poor guy out.

 

[Got Trub?]

The "bite" is from the CO2, the smell likely from sulpher compounds which lager yeast release a lot of early in fermentation.

GT