Stinky Beer - Batch gone bad.

[IPeeAle]

Hi

I did a Woodefordes Wherry kit on Sunday and it has been bubbling away since. I looked at it this morning and smelt the gas coming out of the airlock and it seemed pretty. good. I just popped in to check it tonight and it stank! It actually smelt a but like rotten eggs although my wife seemed to think it smelt OK!) I took a sample and, whilst it didn't taste half as bad as it smelt, it clearly wasn't right.

It had gone all opaque and looked a bit like watery soup. I have never had a batch go bad on me before and had assumed that it would either start well and be fine or start badly. What have I done wrong? After 36 hours of fermenting I would have thought that the alcohol would have protected the beer from infection. Anyway, I was obviously wrong.

I haven't opened the FV since I put the brew on and it has been airtight with an air-lock on it.

Is there anything I can do? I don't have any Campden tablets and I'm going away first thing in the morning for a couple of days. I take it that this is just 5 gallons destined for the drain?

 

[Synovia]

What you've done wrong is touch your beer 36 hours in.

Sulphur doesn't mean infection. Its not done fermenting. Put the lid back on, and check it in 3 weeks.

 

[IPeeAle]

I haven't actually touched it or taken the lid off, I was just smelling the gas that came out of the airlock. (it's just occurred to me that perhaps that is wierd) and I noticed it smelt bad and so I poured a bit into a glass from the tap on the bottom of the FV.

In 12 hours it has gone from smelling lovely to smelling rank.

Also it looks like liquidised soup not beer. I get the feeling that this isn't just going to go away if I leave it for a couple of weeks.

I did re-use the yeast from the previous brew but I rinsed it and got most of the trub out. Could this be the cause of the problem?

Cheers

 

[TeufelBrew]

Show your beer some love. Leave it ALONE for at least 3-4 weeks.

It will become better smelling and better looking, but you must let the yeast work in peace. You gave them a wonderful wort to feast upon, allow them the time to enjoy that feast. They will fart some smelling stuff along the way, and make a mess while they have their party. However, they will clean up after themselves and slowly sink to the bottom, leaving behind beautiful beer.

After those weeks have gone buy, check your SG, if it doesn't change for a couple of days in a row, you have beer ready to keg or bottle.

 

[ghpeel]

Yup. You have a perfectly normal fermentation. Smells like ass the first week or so. Will probably be awesome in a month.

 

[remilard]

Hydrogen sulfide production is exceedingly rare in beer since it is usually an artifact of nutrient poor fermentation and beer is not nutrient poor.

You mention campden, did you use that at any point? Yeast reduce campden to hydrogen sulfide, so that is likely the source if you used any.

 

[Synovia]

Also it looks like liquidised soup not beer. I get the feeling that this isn't just going to go away if I leave it for a couple of weeks.

Of course it looks like soup. Its got trillions of yeast cells swimming in it.

Seriously, beer can go from This color to BLACK during the course of fermentation. I've had stouts that 2 days in looked a very light brown, and two weeks later were jet black.

 

[sysera]

I did a batch of Hefe with White Labs 380, and it stunk of rotten eggs for weeks, but after it had cleaned itself up after a few weeks in the primary and a few more weeks in the bottle it was one of the best beers I've made.

Just give it time.

 

[ghpeel]

Hefe yeast as well as cider fermentation tend to be reported as "rotten egg" smelling. Belgians too can get pretty rank. It all settles down into deliciousness with time though!

 

[dougf]

Just did a Hefeweizen with WLP300, spitting out sulphur for the last day that my wife is blaming on my butt. Its calmed down recently and smells a lot better. Give it time, Its normal.

 

[sacstatebrew]

It's probably bad you can just send it to me for further testing!