inexplicable nasty smell - my first ruined batch?

[erykmynn]

So I've been trying to diagnose this on my own, but to no avail. This is a red ale (american amber) with wlp048. I made the recipe once before (AG), and the only alteration was to increase roasted barley from 2 oz to 3 oz.

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Fermented in primary for 3 weeks. Tasted when sampled here and tasted excellent!

Transferred to dry hop with 1 oz whole cascade for 1 week.

Transferred to keg to age an additional week or so before chilling and carbonating. *problem detected*

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So i notice an awful smell upon transferring to keg, not present in the previous transfer. Tried CO2 scrubbing, also seemed to be worse after 1-week againg. Taste is effected but minimally, its like the original character of the beer is muted but nothing new is strongly present.

But the ODOR is ATROCIOUS. and worst of all, I can't pin it down into any of the "popular" categories...

It smells rotten, thats for sure. Not sulfur, not cardboard... The closest I can say is maybe catty AND sour but without a noticeable acidity to the beer. like someone washed away the smell of corpse with sour milk.

It seems pretty obvious that this happen during the dry hop phase which is even more confusing....


Theories: oxidized in transfer, infected in transfer, infected via hops, hops were already bad and had bad smell, infected via cruddy airlock gunk (vodka yes, purity unknown), lightstruck, super combo! or of course, nothing, it will magically go away (seems a little late for that now)

 

[Yooper]

Sounds like an infection- maybe lactobacillus.

 

[hoppymonkey]

+1 on the lacto. I had nearly the same thing happen. It was the only batch I have pitched in 2 years, but with more expereince now , i wouldn't have tossed it just to see what will happen with age.

 

[erykmynn]

so what is the best course of action? its cold and kegged and carbed. should I let it age in the cold and see what happens? take it back out? hmmmm

 

[hoppymonkey]

so what is the best course of action? its cold and kegged and carbed. should I let it age in the cold and see what happens? take it back out? hmmmm

I'd let it ride out for a while if you have the space. Age does some pretty amazing things to beer.

 

[erykmynn]

guys at the LHBS thought it might be Diacety overload. No buttery smell, but I guess it gets rancid-smelling if there is a ton of it. On discussing, we came to the conclusion I fermented too cool and never gave it a chance to warm up for a rest. Still an odd situation considering I didn't notice it at the first transfer, but the aroma of dry-hopped cascade doesn't really mesh well with whatever is in there, so that accentuates the nastiness.

I've pulled the keg out of the cooler to attempt to let it condition. We'll see how it does after a few weeks or so. At least its warmed up a little around here.

 

[wyzazz]

Does it smell like "Satan's Anus"? I'll vote for infection.