Kolsch smells like butter and sulfer

[JBrady]

Hey guys my kolsch smells and tastes like butter and sulfer. Is this the dreaded diacetyl that I've always heard about? Its edworts kolsch recipe, i boiled for 90 minutes and the only screw up was that I ran out of ice bath too soon and had to pitch the yeast the next morning since I couldn't get cooled down enough. I fermented at about 65 degrees, but I couldn't do the traditional kolsch cold crashing. Anyone have a clue why I'm getting these flavors out of this brew? Thanks for any info on the matter.

Also this tasting is at 10 days in the bottle, could these flavors dissipate?

 

[steelebrew]

diacetyl and DMS sounds like the problem. diacetyl gives the buttery taste, caused by yeast... but at your temp should have gassed out, possibly bacteria got in overnight. DMS typically comes about due to weak boil or sometimes from a slow yeast start but more than likely contamination. as far as aging to get the taste out good luck but not likely.

 

[JBrady]

thanks for the info, hopefully we can learn something from this one so it won't happen again, lol

 

[malkore]

Diacetyl doesn't gas off...its consumed by the yeast...eventually.

colder ferments like lagers and kolsch yeast strains may ferment cold enough that the yeast don't metabolize the diacetyl quickly. a diacetyl rest should remedy that easily enough, but you do this before racking out of primary.

The sulfur is common for lagers and kolsch as well, and that will fade with aging.

Basically I see nothing 'wrong'...just that you appear to need a diacetyl rest.

 

[steinsato]

The two kolsch's I've brewed fermented around 60F. But after the 2nd week, I let the temps rise in the fermenter to around 68F for a "diacetyl rest". How long did you ferment for?

 

[JBrady]

thanks for the info guys, I fermented for about 40 days due to a out of town job.

 

[Revvy]

Also this tasting is at 10 days in the bottle, could these flavors dissipate?

Your beer is just green. The three weeks at 70 is the minimum time it takes most beers to carb and condition.

It really is hard to judge a beer until it's been about 6 weeks in the bottle. Just because you taste (or smell) something in primary or secondary DOESN'T mean it will be there when the beer is fully conditioned (that's also the case with kegging too.)

If you are sampling your beer before you have passed a 'window of greeness" which my experience is about 3-6 weeks in the bottle, then you are more than likely just experiencing an "off flavor" due to the presence of those byproducts (that's what we mean when we say the beer is "green" it's still young and unconditioned.) but once the process is done, over 90% of the time the flavors/smells are gone.

Of the remaining 10%, half of those may still be salvageable through the long time storage that I mention in the Never dump your beer!!! Patience IS a virtue!!! Time heals all things, even beer:

And the remaining 50% of the last 10% are where these tables and lists come into play. To understand what you did wrong, so you can avoid it in the future.

Long story short....I betcha that smell/flavor will be long gone when the beer is carbed and conditioned.

In other words, relax, your beer will be just fine, like 99.5%.

You can find more info on that in here;

Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning.

 

[JBrady]

thanks everyone for the info

 

[JBrady]

UPDATE: Time really does heal all wounds, lol, after 28 days in the bottle all the off flavors are gone. Thanks everyone.