How should airlock bubbles smell?

[artongue]

Im working on my very first brew, and I believe everything has gone very well up to this point. Im making a holiday chocolate stout.

Its been fermenting for 3 days, and is bubbling quite nicely. These bubbles dont smell like rotten eggs or sulfur or anything, but they definitely dont really smell like i would expect the beer to smell. Its a bit sour smelling. Is this alright?

 

[EvilGnome6]

Most of my brews go through stages. At first they'll smell kind of sweet. Then by day 3 they'll start to smell kind of sour. At the end of the first week they usually start to smell like a beer should smell.

 

[COLObrewer]

You will find an amazing amount of different smells from different beers, I had one that smelled exactly like freshly fried venison for about 4 days (banana porter), it is a great brew.

 

[Dalarast]

All of my burps from the airlock smell live Heaven due to the job put into brewing and the satisfaction that after the process is complete I get to enjoy some quality homebrew...


And if the bottle taste like arse I'll keep it bottled for a bit longer

 

[nerfherder]

it should smell like Christmas.

 

[Jenks829]

The airlock burps should smell like the gaseous state of AWESOME!

 

[Stagnasty]

Im working on my very first brew, and I believe everything has gone very well up to this point. Im making a holiday chocolate stout.

Its been fermenting for 3 days, and is bubbling quite nicely. These bubbles dont smell like rotten eggs or sulfur or anything, but they definitely dont really smell like i would expect the beer to smell. Its a bit sour smelling. Is this alright?

Man , leave it alone,,, As long as it don't smell worse than the bubbles coming from your co-worker after a Dbl cheesburger at lunch.... go play with the ole lady and give it time to work,,, its FERMENTATION after all

 

[fineexampl]

Man , leave it alone,,, As long as it don't smell worse than the bubbles coming from your co-worker after a Dbl cheesburger at lunch.... go play with the ole lady and give it time to work,,, its FERMENTATION after all

i'm with you here.

keep in mind what's happening in there. you have millions of living organisms eating, pooping, reproducing, and dying in a nearly continuous loop until every last bit of sugar is gone and turned into lovely alcohol. if you were stuck in a forest eating to your hearts content every day and giving birth and eating some more and dying and decomposing, eventually your remains would nourish the earth and create new life. That wouldn't smell good for a while either, but eventually you are supporting the ecosystem. Same thing applies to the sugar vs. yeast ecosystem you have contained in your fermenter. Give it time and rdwhahb. If it's not making you want to puke, you're probably doing it right.

 

[Vorsicht709]

I also had concerns about smelly airlock farts with a stout im currently making, it smelled kind of sweet. Once primary fermentation was done and I was transferring it to secondary, the beer itself smelled just like a stout should. I would not worry about it.

Hope it's delicious!