Skunky smell at bottling

[shotgunranch]

Not sure if this is the right forum, but I still consider myself a beginner. For my third batch of beer I decided to do a hard lemonade hoping my wife would like and be able to enjoy the fruits of my labor since she bought me the starter kit.

I followed a recipe from Leeners.com

3 lb. pale malt (my homebrew store only had Pilsen so I used that)
2lb corn sugar
Saaz hops (I think my wife's issue with beer is the hops so I chose the one with the lowest AA)

Add lemonade concentrate when racking to secondary

I chose Cry Havoc yeast for this batch.

It tasted and smelled fine after primary but smelled like skunky beer when I bottled it tonight.

In the last few days the temperature did get up to 76. Is this batch ruined or will bottle conditioning take care of the issue?

 

[GoeHaarden]

Well, its bottled now...all the work is done. So, dont go dumping bottles. Never done a hard lemonade, but I'd give it time in the bottles to condition.

Are you aure it wasnt the trub you were smelling after you racked it off?

 

[violinguy]

Could be the sludge you're smelling. It reeks pretty bad. If it's the beer, you'll know in a couple of weeks.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Was your secondary fermentor a carboy? Did you keep it in the dark? Now that I'm writing this' I'm recalling how leamonade concentrate smells maybe that's it.

 

[brandonlovesbeer]

Personally I think if you'd not let your pet skunk help with bottling then this would not continue to be an issue. [emoji6]

 

[brewmasterbryan]

Last summer, I wanted to do some sort of shandy. Brewed a wheat beer and rather than adding in any lemonade into the beer at bottling (didn't want to throw off the level of sugar and potentially over-carb), I just poured my beer into a glass and added a splash of lemonade. Turned out to be pretty delicious.

Anyway, if you were to do this again, that would be my suggestion. Otherwise, just ride it out and give it a taste in a week or two.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi shotgunranch - and welcome. Don't consider myself a brewer but a wine and mead maker but if you use hops and you then expose your fermenting or fermented beverage to light the action of the light on the chemicals from the hops produces a chemical that is almost identical to the spray that skunks use. If you exposed your hard lemonade to light that is the most likely explanation. And if that explanation seems fit then sorry, there is no way that I am familiar with that will remove or reduce the effect.

 

[JLem]

A couple of things come to mind:

1) as mentioned above - exposure to light. Light + hops = skunked beer.

2) DMS (dimethylsulfide), which is often described as having an odor like cooked cabbage. Certainly sulfury. This occurs naturally in grain, and is particularly high in pilsner malt. Boiling long enough will drive it off, but if you did a short boil, some will be left behind. A lot of pilsner-heavy recipes recommend a 90 minute boil, though I've been fine with 60-75 minutes.

If it is either one of these, I don't think there is anything you can do. I suppose the DMS might "drop out" if left long enough, but I'm not really confident in that.