Sulphur in kolsch

[reinstone]

Okay. Never had this problem before. I pitched a ton of wyeast kolsch yeast and fermented at the cool end of the spectrum raising the temp after fermentation slowed and finished around 70 with a diacetal rest

The kolsch was kegged and dropped to 38f. I have been drawing samples and there is a lot of sulphur there. Now since I did accelerated maturation and then cooled will this still clean up with cold conditioning ? It's been kegged for 5 days. The beer is still real cloudy with yeast s I'd expect.

Thanks for any help.

 

[IL1kebeer]

Sulphur gets blown out with CO2 and it happens more effectively with a vigorous fermentation. Fermenting low, as you know, will cause a beer take longer to get rid of sulfur since colder fermentations are less vigorous and co2 tends to stay in solution more when it's cold.

Since your beer is already in the keg the best you can do is bleed your keg and let a bunch of co2 come out of solution and bleed it again. Keep doing this until you are satisfied an then just recarb it. From what I've read, yeast don't clean up sulfur so longer conditioning in a pressurized keg won't really do anything.


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[Nuggethead]

I always lager my Kolsch's 30 to 60 days for that reason. They're always crisp and dry with no sulphur. I also lager in the keg under pressure.

 

[reinstone]

I always lager my Kolsch's 30 to 60 days for that reason. They're always crisp and dry with no sulphur. I also lager in the keg under pressure.

Do you do a diacetal rest or slowly go to lager. I ask because I'm already at final gravity. Thanks

 

[Nuggethead]

Sorry for the delay (out of town)...I don't do a D-rest with my Kolsch. I haven't found that its needed. After fermentation, I crash cool at 35f and rack it once it's clear.

 

[reinstone]

Ok. Just wondering if the yeast are gonna clean this up since I'm already at final gravity and in the keg. The beer is cloudy with yeast so they are still in suspension.

 

[IL1kebeer]

Ok. Just wondering if the yeast are gonna clean this up since I'm already at final gravity and in the keg. The beer is cloudy with yeast so they are still in suspension.

I said this earlier. Yeast do not clean up sulfur. Sulfur gets blown out with co2 and it happens more effectively with an active fermentation. Lagers are especially prone to sulfur because the low fermentation temps make it hard to have an active ferment. If it's in the keg already then your only option is to bleed the keg, keep allowing co2 to come out of solution, bleed that co2 out again, and then recarb the beer. You might have to do this over the span of a few days to get rid if it all. This is paraphrased from the book "Yeast" by Jamil and Christ White.

Nuggethead says that he lagers for 60 days at 30F and has no sulfur problems. I don't believe that his lagering has anything to do with him not having sulfur. He probably blows it off with a healthy and active fermentation and would not have sulfur regardless of his lagering technique.

 

[ArcaneXor]

Sulfur reduces even without CO2 scrubbing, but CO2 will of course accelerate the process. I don't know what chemical/biological/physical process accounts for this.

When making any sort of lagered beer, I recommend ramping the temperature down slowly rather than crashing rapidly. Crashing (if you have head a healthy fermentation) is good for getting yeast to drop out of suspension relatively quickly, but lagering isn't a strictly physical process - you still want the yeast to be minimally active.

 

[reinstone]

Sulfur reduces even without CO2 scrubbing, but CO2 will of course accelerate the process. I don't know what chemical/biological/physical process accounts for this.

When making any sort of lagered beer, I recommend ramping the temperature down slowly rather than crashing rapidly. Crashing (if you have head a healthy fermentation) is good for getting yeast to drop out of suspension relatively quickly, but lagering isn't a strictly physical process - you still want the yeast to be minimally active.

Very true. I appreciate all the feedback. My fermentation was very vigorous. I pitched a starter of the required yeast and performed a narziss fermentation.

I may have over stated the strength of the sulphur smell. I am simply trying to figure out how this happened to stay in the beer with the schedule I used and nature of the fermentation.

The beer tastes fine...yeast bite though.

Maybe the yeast in suspension are creating the smell I am smelling.

I could cold crash and knock out the yeast will gelatine but don't want to stop yeast activity if they are still cleaning up.

I did do an accelerated fermentation, so is there anything going on anyway?

I have made very fine lagers many times without this smell, my process usually prevents it.

I let this kolsch ferment in primary longer than a normal lager and much warmer.

Could I krausen this beer?

 

[reinstone]

The sulphur is fading fast. Still a little there but not near as much as just a few days ago.