Papillon said:
Robar,
Were you using a real lager yeast? If so, I've known some strains to have a bit of a sulphury smell, or a subtle "pukey" smell during primary ferment. I ran taste tests upon encountering that, found nothing overly questionable about the taste, and took those batches to completion successfully.
OTOH, did your beer smell/taste like a fortified version of boiled cabbage? If so, that sounds like a coliform infection.
Lager yeasts seem to be less forgiving than ale yeasts, especially when fermented at the same temperatures as ale yeasts. That's why I only ever did them during winter (cold basement) -conditions in which most species of spoilage bacteria can't function ;-)
I'll warn you now it's a long post
No it was an ale yeast. There was a slowed ferment for whatever reason, but I have now learned I jumped the gun on this beer.
The taste was watery kinda sweet. - ferment was not near done at 1.03? I don't remember what it was, ten thirty something.
Hops didn't stand out much either. I had a real hard time tasting anything over the smell.
This is what I know and have since learned...
I dumped it onto a full yeast cake. Lots of yeast can make lots of bad smell! I had pretty vigorous fermentation for a while then it died off to near nothing so I decided it was time for a hydrometer reading which showed it was way far from done. I suspect temperature, but honestly don't know. I brought it out of the basement so it could get warmer three days before taking the reading.
The only good thing to come of this was the education. You see I had another stinky beer perking away stinking up my whole house that was about to get the frustration dump as well...
I made another batch of Air Pirate. The first fermented with a sweet fruity smell that was out of this world! I pitched WLP011 European straight from the vial, no prob next day perking away. However on the second batch after 28 hours I still had no visible activity and was getting nervous. So the only thing I had on hand was a started WLP002 English so I pitched that on it as well.
Next day it was going slow but was starting to push a bubble up now and then. By day 4 it was clogging the air lock and stinking up the house!! By day five it still stunk to high heaven but hadn't shown any activity. I didn't think it would be worth keeping, but after the 90 min thing I had to wait it out.
It sat for seven days in the fermenter but only bubbled for two. I needed the bucket so I racked it over to a glass carboy. When I popped the lid it did smell a bit but not to bad. After a few seconds even that was gone. As I racked the fruity smell from the first batch presented itself and brought a smile to my face. The stench only returned when the yeast cake was exposed to the air.
I now know and believe you should never dump anything unless it grows it's own legs and starts to crawl away. This whole thing may have cost me a great beer, but it saved countless others and made me a more knowledgable brewer. Sometimes we have to pay for our education. - Robar
PS Edited for grammatical errors
