How to get rid of a Sulfur Aroma in Amber Ale?

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mugwump3

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Hey all,

exactly 21 days ago I brewed an Amber ale from 6lbs of Alexander's Munich Malt extract, and chocolate malt, british brystal, and crystal grains.

It fermented at a changing T from 50-65 degrees (house is cold and draft unfortunately.)

10 days ago the thing had a rank sulfur aroma that smells like beer fart. The beer tastes just fine, but this head aroma is nasty. Starting Gravity was 1050. The current gravity is 1025.

I racked into secondary 4 days ago. Smell hasn't gone away.

Would kegging it fix it?
How do I make the fart head go away?
How do I prevent it? (I'm guessing proper sanitation... which I'm a nazi about... and more stable temperature?)

Thanks world.

-Tony
 
1025 is a mighty high final gravity for a 1050 beer- your yeast aren't done. Several yeast strains produce a sulfur aroma, which will clear up as fermentation finishes (the yeast clean up after themselves quite nicely if you give them time). Rouse them a bit if you can by gently swirling the fermentor. Since you already went to secondary, you may want to consider repitching- secondary fermentors are a misnomer. They're really "clearing tanks"- the bulk fermentation should happen in primary, and if you use a secondary is should be for clearing/conditioning already-fermented beer. I've not repitched on a beer, so other may have advice, or the search function will turn up a wealth of discussion for sure.

For now, rouse it real good and try to keep it warm (near 70 would be good).

Let us know what yeast you used also- that might help.
 
Thanks elkdog,

It's a pleasure to be here!

I used Whitelabs California V.

I'm going to do my homework on re-pitching. I've got an english bitter that's SG 1035, and now only 1020 after 15 days in the primary, and 10 days in the clarifying.

Also, lesson for everybody:
I've brewed approximately 10 crappy batches until now. All the kinds horses and all the kings men could not solve the damn problem... until I checked to see if my thermometer was CALIBRATED. (sad, expensive lesson to learn.)

Turns out, I had been pitching at 180 when I thought it was 70.

Anybody care for 50 gallons of cardboard brew? lol.
 
Cal V does kick off some sulfur (it makes delicious beer, too), so there's nothing unusual about that. Sounds like you might need to keep your temps higher- english yeasts (especially WLP002) and the Cal Ale V, among other strains flocculate out pretty strongly, and cooler temps can encourage them to do that sooner- if you could get those beers to 65-70, especially toward the end of fermentation, that will help keep the yeast on the job until it's done.

Check out S-05 for a great dry yeast that ferments well at cooler temps and attenuates pretty highly when doing so. Might be helpful until the weather warms up. It would also be a good choice for re-pitching, I'd think. It's the dry version of the Chico strain that Sierra Nevada uses (also available as White Labs 001 and Wyeast 1056, but dry is a lot cheaper).
 
Sorry I missed this- got hit with a stomach bug Friday night and couldn't really read/type yesterday. For now, warm up the carboys (to 70 if you can) and swirl them a bit to see if the yeast you've got in there will wake up and finish up the ferment for you. If that doesn't take, I'd try the S-05 a week from now.
 
Yep, I'd warm up the brew and give it 2 or 3 days and then do another gravity reading. If it doesn't change, I'd toss in a pack or two of nottingham to finish it out. If it does change, then I'd just wait it out.
 
No worries. :)

So, I warmed it up, got it into a room with a stable temperature, re-pitched with s05 and it's working out great. SG went down to 1017 after two days! wooohooo!

Will probably let it sit for a week and then see whats up.

Thanks all!
 
No worries. :)

So, I warmed it up, got it into a room with a stable temperature, re-pitched with s05 and it's working out great. SG went down to 1017 after two days! wooohooo!

Will probably let it sit for a week and then see whats up.

Thanks all!

Glad to hear it! You should end up with a nice, tasty beer!:mug:
 
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