Hefe smell

[nukebrewer]

I'm not freaking out or anything, I'm sure it's just the yeast and the fact that it's only been in primary for a little under a week, but my hefe smells really nasty. The castoff tastes even worse. Is it normal for hefes to do this while fermenting?

 

[Parker36]

Yes 456789

 

[flyangler18]

Yuck, don't taste krausen.

Fermentation is an ugly affair- you can expect all kinds of funky visuals, smells and (barf)tastes during high krausen.

Sounds like a healthy normal fermentation to me.

 

[nukebrewer]

456789

???


Thanks for the quick replies. This is my fifth brew and I've had a couple scares already. Everything has turned out just fine so far, but it's always good to have that reassurance.

 

[homebrewer_99]

And don't bottle until after the sulfur odor is gone...

 

[nukebrewer]

And don't bottle until after the sulfur odor is gone...

I take it that advice is based off experience? Thanks for the heads up

 

[GroovePuppy]

Yes 456789

???

There's a 10 character minimum for each post. He was padding in a mildly sarcastic way.

 

[mjn12]

I'm new so take it for what its worth but from my reading (Papazian) the castoff is a nasty mix of hangover-inducing bitter resins from hops and other byproducts of the fermentation. Not for consumption, unless you're a sadist.

 

[Throckmorton]

Hefe yeast gives off a sulfer smell. I know this from experience. Depending on the yeast, it will also sometimes leave a hint of the taste as well. Perfectly normal. Even if there was an off flavor at the end of fermentation, time usually mellows these out. Check out the sticky regarding "Is my beer ruined?"

 

[nukebrewer]

Thanks for explaining, GroovePuppy.

mjn12, thank you, but most people recommend drinking your castoff to assess your beer's progress.

 

[flyangler18]

mjn12, thank you, but most people recommend drinking your castoff to assess your beer's progress.

You mean blow-off junk? Eww. No.

If you want to assess the progress, drink a sample of the wort when you take a hydro reading.

 

[dontman]

You mean blow-off junk? Eww. No.

If you want to assess the progress, drink a sample of the wort when you take a hydro reading.

I was wondering if you meant blow-off when you said cast off. If so, I think you might be mistaken in your thinking that people taste that stuff. It is nasty cruel foul stuff. Not fit for man nor beasty. Even on good beers.

What people do taste is the stuff that they would otherwise throw away (or cast off) after testing gravity. The stuff from the tube.

That said, I am in a similar boat as you with my wit. Everything went smoothly on the ferment. 3 1/2 weeks in primary. The beer tasted fine going into the bottle. Then at 2 weeks in bottle, bam!, nasty chemical taste! I hate this. I know from experience never to taste my beers at two weeks because they always have some off flavor. Then I worry about it for a week, sure that it will not fix itself, and, bam!, three weeks and it tastes great.

But, this sulfur taste is the first time that I have gotten this. If it stays I will have to dump this batch. So I am still very worried that it will not fix itself.

 

[nukebrewer]

Just for clarification, when I said castoff, I meant my gravity sample, not blow off.

 

[mjn12]

Sorry, thought you were talking about the blow-off too.

 

[Brewin_Bob]

You should try a batch of Apfelwein!! The fumes from that smell like burnt rhino turds .... I mean, uh, it smells like sweet, sweet roses .... that have been covered in burnt rhino turds.

 

[dontman]

You should try a batch of Apfelwein!! The fumes from that smell like burnt rhino turds .... I mean, uh, it smells like sweet, sweet roses .... that have been covered in burnt rhino turds.

I used cider yeast for my apflwein and never got any nasty "castoff" air.

On the other hand the morning after drinking several hefeweisens I get some friendly fire so to speak.

 

[BierMuncher]

...oh...and that clovy, banana smell after fermentation is finished...yes...that's supposed to be there.

...one reason I don't brew hefe's....

 

[ba70665]

Glad you asked this, i just opened my fermentor with a 4 day old hefe in it and immediately recoiled in disgust! I might have posted the same question had you not, good to know its completely normal.

 

[TXCrash]

Funny... my week old hefe's fermentation smells wonderful... (White labs WLP320 yeast)

One week till I can take a first sip (I'm being "good" and leaving it completely alone for a full 2 weeks...)

Whooo... drunk posting (HB shop had a 11 year anniversary open house... )

 

[joe6pack]

Glad you asked this, i just opened my fermentor with a 4 day old hefe in it and immediately recoiled in disgust! I might have posted the same question had you not, good to know its completely normal.

Four days is way too soon to peak.

 

[Throckmorton]

Yeah... 4 days is really too soon... yikes. I'm sure you will probably be fine though. I like the banana and clove notes from hefe's, but have become a bit sensitive to the lingering sulfer in both homebrews and macros. I think it may be partially because I had a bad homebrew hefe (my only bad batch) that had the finish of a rubber tire. I'm proud to say I drank the whole batch, with the aid of a whole lot of lemon!

I have my first batch of Apfelwein goin in the basement and never experienced the bad rhino farts everyone talks about. However, since I have a basement, I was most likely spared.

 

[SoyElBrewer]

Say you bottled a hefe when it still had that sulfur smell... would the fermentation process be able to neutralize that source of the smell. I am curious as to what is happening after the beer has been bottled.