Sulfur smell after dryhopping.

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

adamjab19

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2008
Messages
488
Reaction score
6
Location
Berkley, MI
I brewed up a 2 hearted type ale and let it ferment with nottingham around 65*F for two weeks then threw in one ounce of homegrown centennial hops for a dry hop this past week. The beer tasted fine just before I threw the hops in a week ago, during the week when I whiffed it and theifed some for a hydro sample. But when I went to bottle today the beer tastes green (pretty good otherwise!) but the aroma is sulfurish/poopy.

Anything that could directly cause this? Anyone have this happen when dryhopping?

I am fairly certain it will go away after some bottle conditioning but curious anyway.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
 
i have never tried dryhopping so i don't know if it would cause the problem or not. but, i know that during the brewing process sulfur compounds are created and carried away by the water vapor coming off the brew during the boil. if you keep a lid on the pot to prevent evaporation the sulfur compounds have nowhere to go but back into your wart.

i have no idea if this is the case with you or not. if you do put a lid on your brew pot i would suggest not doing that and just top off with some water at the end.
 
Lid off the whole time during the boil, always.

Looking around the internet it seems there is some other anecdotal stories of this occurring with fine results after aging. I'll update this thread when I taste the beer in a few weeks.
 
Not "yet" a brewing expert but i know a little about bacteria and there are many strains of bacteria that will give off sulfur based gasses. It could be an infection, you did say that they are homegrown hops and could have been contaminated.
 
Yeah I am trying not to think about that option! :D I don't want to blame the homegrown aspect of the hops because dry hopping with any hops presents an avenue for infection. Besides boiling the hops how do you sterilize dry hops anyways?

The beer tasted fine but the aroma....it was kind of funny actually.

I took out a sample to share with one of my friends who understands beer and I was drumming up the beer and I pass the cup to him and I say with enthusiasm and like a dork, "Take a big whiff of the Centennial hops I threw in!" A couple whiffs later my friend replies, "It smells like poop..." Then there it was.
 
This isn't looking good. If I tilt a bottle just right in the light a white film is forming on top of the beer in the bottles.....
 
Back
Top