Sulfur smell with Wyeast 3522?

[heywolfie1015]

I recently made a saison/French-ish hybrid that has been fermenting for a little over a week. Used 3522 as the yeast and it really is chugging along. This is my first time using 3522, but everything seems to be exactly as described. Huge blowoff in the first few days, nice attenuation (so far), and flocculation as advertised. The only surprising thing that I find is a strong sulfur smell coming from the airlock and the fermentor when I took a sample. I haven't been able to find any mentions about this in other discussions on 3522. Just curious to see if other people have seen this in beers using this strain of yeast.

 

[SickTransitMundus]

I used 3522 for a series of belgians recently - blonde, tripel, dubbel, quad - and observed the same sulfurous odor. It went away after a few weeks of primary conditioning and was not detectable in the final product.

 

[heywolfie1015]

Thanks. I suspected as much, but was surprised there isn't more discussion on this topic. How did you like your results? Good flavors?

 

[littledavid]

Wow, been using that yeast for everything, and not a hint.

Could you folks possibly put the mfg dates of those batches on here? The one I'm using now is May10/2011, and I know some were March29/2011... can't remember any others.

 

[heywolfie1015]

Mine was manufactured May 5, 2011. At what temp did you ferment your beers? Mine started around 68, went up to 72-73, and then back down to 67-68.

 

[littledavid]

high fermentation temps (too high, I'm going to start at much lower temps in future batches) - 72-78F starting and staying right around there.

 

[SickTransitMundus]

Thanks. I suspected as much, but was surprised there isn't more discussion on this topic. How did you like your results? Good flavors?

I liked 3522, but the esters were diminished when compared to the more popular Belgian strains like 3787 or 1214. It also flocculated unusually well, which was more of an observation than a problem. I plan to use 3787 or 1388 in my next Belgian series.

I don't recall the dates on my packs, but I would estimate that they were no more than two months old at the time of use.

For my temperature profile, I pitch at 65F and then shut the cooling off to let it rise to the mid 70s. Eventually it will fall back to room temperature, 70F or so. Artifically cooling Belgian yeast can stop your fermentation well before final gravity.