Possible taste of sulphur and debugging what went wrong in witbier.

[Zteelblade]

Trying to debug what went wrong again with latest patch of wit bier:
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/244064/kronenbourg-1664-blanc-klone
Had same kind of unpleasant taste present with a light hefeweizen (wlp300) and tank7 clone (belle saison)
I think this taste might be sulphury, since it is quiet unpleasant. It was most easy to detect on that light hefeweizen.
This taste hits quiet fast, before other aromas kick in. It might be slightly noticeable in smell too, but at least a lot less.

I never had such taste issues with other beers, but seems wits/saison/hefes I had issues with. Done 50+ patches already.

Anyway my process on that kronenbourg clone:
mash 75 min 66c/150F for 75 min
boil 60 min

chilling quickly with worth chiller
then using breferm aeration kit for 30min

My patches are usually around 25-26l(6.5-7gal) in 25l bucket that actually holds around 30l(8gal). This patch was on the 6.5gal side, so a bit more headspace than usual.
I pitched yeast (labrew wit dry yeast x1package) around 17c/62F and let it sit there roughly around first 5 days , there might have been 1-2 degree error margin in measurement.
After that I let it sit few days in bucket while temperature rising a bit, then added apricots puree and dry hops and did secondary for 5 days around 20c/68F.
Then did cold crash for 2 days (1 day to drop near 2c/35f, 2nd day to keep it there) and then bottled with priming sugar and let it prime/condition for 2 weeks in room temperature 25c/77f

When I was bottling the beer tasted promising and I did not pay attention to the "funky" taste. At this point of course I didn't expect the beer to taste great so I might have not payed attention to it

Anyway now I have kept the beer 2+ weeks in house temperature, added one bottle at time fridge for 1-2 days during last week and the funky taste does not seem to go away.

Anyone got idea what I might be doing wrong / what I can improve to avoid such funky(sulphury?) taste in the future?

 

[goddess]

The recipe you use is just totally off. There is no such thing as using orange peels in Belgische witte bieren! I see from the recipe you're Norwegian?
Let me ask you: -What do you expect to happen from a beer you chuck a lot of orange peels and apricot puree into?
That recipe is bogus but luckily you can get hold of curacao peel easily these days in brewing shops near you.

Don't worry, it's not just Norwegians or Americans who don't know wtf a curacao orange is etc. but I can give a quick summary.

short version: Curaçao is a colony/part of the Netherlands, since 17th century or so iirc, prior to that it was Spanish (they had a war)...
Spaniards took some oranges over, soil wasn't ideal for that, they mutated, became Laraha oranges aka curaçao oranges.
These became imported in the vlaamse areas thus. The end.

*This is what is used in Belgian wheat beers*, e.g. Hoegaarden, the most famous Belgische witte.

Not [sweet] oranges, nor 'bitter oranges' [from Asia] but Laraha orange peels! The fruit is pretty much inedible but it used to make blue Curaçao liquor which you probably know, and of course, being imported to Netherlands; Belgian wheat beers and their clones. Not all Belgian wheat ales will use this, but it's the one famously used in clones.

That recipe, misguided as it is, has NOTHING to do with a Belgian wheat ale WHATSOEVER and the apricot puree , just OMG.

It's a wheat ale, not a fruity Trudy! Anyway, one can of course do such experimentations with beers, don't get me wrong, but it's nowhere near what you want.

For the record, IF one has means to check sulphur vs. chloride in your water, favouring sulphur as per hoppy beers is not a bad thing.

Instead of taking noob recipes from the internet or what have you, look to far more professional sources, either provided from breweries or associated partners.

You will find great advice and recipes at for example castlemalt.com

*Here is the relevant one for you*

CASTLE MALTING®: Beer and whisky recipes ​

Castle Malting: Belgian Specialty malts for very Special Beers.

www.castlemalting.com

Good luck and enjoy.

P.S. I am enjoying my 6.5% Hoegaarden clone by that recipe as I write this (well, no, it's a different recipe of mine but it's in essence this one in terms of the additives, although different grain and hop choices. Same spices/peel amounts though and also more or less same amount of hops).

 

[Dland]

Might want to try cold conditioning for longer. Some of that taste might diminish if you give the yeast more time to drop out. Also and in general, a lot of what seem like harsh tastes will smooth out to be just fine with time.

Maybe put some in back of cold 'fridge for a couple weeks and if they taste good, repeat with rest of bottles. If not, condition a little longer.

 

[Dgallo]

Sulfur is a compound produced by yeast. It occurs due to yeast stress (that said some strains do it naturally unstressed). Sulfur dioxide bonds are very weak and it should degas its self with time. To speed it up, you could lightly swirl your beer with a copper wire or rod or about 30 seconds Copper will cause the bonds to break and it will evaporate from your beer

 

[goddess]

Yes, dland, given he had such a off recipe for what he wants, he still implied he has an off taste vs what he has brewed before, we all know how much lagering actually does to a beer. But he still is just on a completely different branch from what he wanted to make to begin with like shagging a sheep when you wanted to shag Dolly. The dgallo answer is just like .... erm <what?>.

P.S. Dgallo: I looked at you from this weird response and the first thing was a picture of a "clearing up beer"... THAT beer (yours, right?) is the clearest beer I think I have seen in the history of [home] beer making! I have not made THAT clear ever! haha, very nice

 

[Dgallo]

The dgallo answer is just like .... erm <what?>.

P.S. Dgallo: I looked at you from this weird response and the first thing was a picture of a "clearing up beer"... THAT beer (yours, right?) is the clearest beer I think I have seen in the history of [home] beer making! I have not made THAT clear ever! haha, very nice

Thank you for the complement. I’m not sure what’s wierd about my post. His sulfur like off flavor is most likely the compound sulfur dioxide that is produced by yeast, and in this case, stressed yeast. I then provided a way for him to remove it from his beer.

All that said I do see that the OG posted 3+ months ago