Can you smell contamination?

[AdamPag]

I'm at 4 days on my dunkel and the air lock just has this totally undesirable smell coming out.... Can I actually smell off flavors and Contamination from a young ferment out of the lock?

 

[prpromin]

Probably not. Some yeast just smells nasty as it does its thing. Way too early to panic.

 

[phuff7129]

I hope not or my Runination clone is going to taste like sour bread! I have learned to just get it fermented and carbed and then decide what it tastes like. I have never been let down yet.

 

[jonmohno]

Nothing to worry about,you could get sulfer smells,it will turn out good once its done.Are you lagering?

 

[AdamPag]

Sulfer! That's the smell, I couldn't put my finger on it.
Not lagering, classic dunkel, 6lbs bavarian wheat dme, 8oz caramunich, 4oz chocolate, 4oz special II, 1oz perle, T-58 strain

 

[homebrewdad]

Sulfer smell is perfectly normal for several yeasts. Relax, unless you start to grow something funny (and even then, you may be just fine).

 

[jonmohno]

Sounds good,i loved my first dunkel and it wasnt a lager either,one of my first better beers i made.I used o5 yeast. Do you have that t-58 at a low temp? Im not shure how i feel about that t-58 yeast yet, i think i liked munich and whitbred 06 i think it was more but diff.recipes so you could end up really liking it.It may have been my recipes didnt work well with that yeast also,its hard to tell sometimes.

 

[AdamPag]

Pitched at 63 and maintained 64 for 36 hours, currently at 66. Sulfer is a new smell for me, mostly I get that green apples smell for the first week. I never open the batch until 14 days to measure gravity so we'll see next week I guess

 

[jonmohno]

Well depending whether your fermentation temps are 66 or your ambient room temps are 66, i did about the same temps, i think. but if you want more of the characteristics of t-58 you could raise the temp.Something tells me lower temps may give off sulfer smells but nothing to be concerned about. I think t-58 was pretty mild in character probably because i fermented on the lower spec of temps.

 

[AdamPag]

Actually the answer is both, I like to stay in the low middle of the temperature for the yeast. Ambient is 66 and brew temp is 66. I use an IR thermometer which is quickly becoming a staple in brewing