smells coming from fermentation

[rtockst]

My dark amber holiday spiced ale is fermenting pretty well, the airlock lets up a couple bubbles every second, and I noticed that I can smell it coming out of the airlock! Very nice!! I noticed it smells pretty floral, but it also smells a whole lot like Lindemans Framboise.... anybody ever tried it and smelled it? I was wondering... when beer is fermenting, does it smell anything like it will when it's finished and ready to drink? I figured it probably doesn't really smell exactly like I think, since it's coming out in such small quantities from the airlock. But the it smelled like framboise, and that is a bit of a sour smell. Is that bad? I was pretty careful with the sanitation and I know infected beers wil be sour... so just a thought. If it does turn out sour and tastes like it smells now, I'll drink it anyway!!

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

Depending on the recipe, yeast, temperature it can smell really great, or absolutely horrible.
Once you know what it should smell like, you can tell, but don't judge it by its cover. I'm thinking of Rhino-Fart smells when making ciders. It smell so bad you want to throw it out, but the final product taste great.

 

[hcarter]

Mine first smelled like Cheeze-Its, now it smells like beer. (Irish Red)

 

[dasBuhbuh]

i started fermenting too hot and mine was banana-y but after fermenting out, its more of a pleasant malty-ness.

 

[Saccharomyces]

Different yeasts are different beasts and each produces its own characteristic smell during fermentation. California ale yeast is very floral yet produces a very clean ale. Lager yeasts and German ale yeasts produce sulphur -- the fermentation smells like rotten eggs! Belgian Wit smells very strongly of rubber. And the smell of a fermenting abbey ale yeast will knock you over with . I love the smell during the first few days, it's usually floral aroma mixed with hops. After that the smell dies down.

 

[lmg95]

i don't think i smell banana but mine smells distinctly grapefruit after day 2 or 3 of fermentation

 

[rtockst]

thanks everyone.... I figured it had alot to do with the yeast and recipe... I took the airlock cap off and it smelled like very floral hops... quite nice!

 

[Dennis1979]

Different yeasts are different beasts and each produces its own characteristic smell during fermentation. California ale yeast is very floral yet produces a very clean ale. Lager yeasts and German ale yeasts produce sulphur -- the fermentation smells like rotten eggs! Belgian Wit smells very strongly of rubber. And the smell of a fermenting abbey ale yeast will knock you over with . I love the smell during the first few days, it's usually floral aroma mixed with hops. After that the smell dies down.

I brewed up a Heinie clone this weekend. Its only my 3rd batch so I'm still somewhat of a virgin. The fermenter is in a tub of cool water which I use to maintain temperature. Last night I was adding some ice and bent over and got a whiff from the airlock. Holy sh__! It smells horrible. My first thought was to locate each of the family pets and make sure one of them hadn't crawled up in there and died. My next thought was to log onto homebrewtalk and see if I could find a thread about stinky beer. I did, several in fact, and each said basically what you said above so I was ok after that. The yeast is Wyeast German Ale so I guess that explains it.

Dennis

 

[RedIrocZ-28]

I can only hope that my beers taste like the smell coming from the airlock.