please help! how do I get rid of the sulfuric smell?

[ryancrook]

I experimented with potassium metabisulfite in my latest batch by adding 1/4 of a teaspoon to a 5 gallon batch. it's kegged and carbed but it smells like sulfur. The taste is more forgiving but I still get a little sulfur in the taste. How can I get rid of this, or can I? It's been about a week.

thank you!

 

[doug293cz]

You could try hooking CO2 up to the liquid out post and running multiple pressurize/vent cycles in order to "sweep" the SO2 out of the beer. Could use quite a bit of CO2, but it might save the batch.

As you found out, 1/4 teaspoon is way too much. You want about 350 - 400 mg for 10 gal of water.

Brew on

 

[ryancrook]

I was thinking of doing trying that but wasn't sure if there was anything else to try. insane how so little can effect the whole batch.

 

[ajdelange]

You added metabite to the finished beer? Why?

I think scrubbing with CO2 is the best idea. Brewers add metabite to chlorinated water to get rid of the chlorine, does that suggest anything?

 

[ryancrook]

I was experimenting with using it as a preservative. I wanted to use it to scrub any remaining O2 left. I'm meticulous about my transfer technique (closed transfer) and wanted to see if there's anything else I could experiment with.

 

[ajdelange]

The yeast should do that for you (assuming you don't filter) but some brewers do add metabite to their beers to help the yeast keep it in a reduced state or, keep it in a reduced state if the yeast have been removed. I guess you overshot the mark. The obvious recommendation would be to do the dosing with the aid or an ORP meter buy I'm pretty sure that is beyond what most home brewers would want to do.

 

[mabrungard]

If your brewing equipment has no copper metal in it, it's possible that your wort is copper-deficient. Brief contact with a piece of copper metal is all that is needed to assist the reduction in sulfides.

While this technique will work, its best to bring the wort into contact with copper before fermentation since the yeast will remove virtually all remaining copper from the beer and you won't have to worry about drinking copper.

 

[ajdelange]

Brief contact with a piece of copper metal is all that is needed to assist the reduction in sulfides.

That's true and is a technique used in the wine industry but the gentleman here is plagued by sulfite, not sulfide. For copper to take it out it would have to be reduced to sulfide first.

I hinted in No. 4, and not very seriously, that chlorine could be used to oxidize it to sulfate which - well we know what sulfate does in beer. As it turns out the wine folks use the other common household oxidizing agent, hydrogen peroxide, for this purpose. There is even a product called SO2go (so2go.net) which is just food grade H2O2. A third oxidizing agent is tincture of time. IOW over time the SO2 molecules will find something in the beer to reduce and in so doing become oxidized to SO4=.

 

[wobdee]

I've been experimenting with10 mg/l of sodium metisulfite to my kegs, so far it seems to work pretty well. No sulfur or off flavors, beer seems to stay fresh longer

 

[doug293cz]

I've been experimenting with10 mg/l of sodium metisulfite to my kegs, so far it seems to work pretty well. No sulfur or off flavors, beer seems to stay fresh longer

Interesting.

Brew on