Wheat Beer smells weird

Twtr25 · Dec 1, 2011

So I brewed a wheat beer and started fermenting on 11/13. I just opened it up to transfer it over to my secondary fermenter. At first, it actually smells really good. However, it almost has some sort of an "after smell" that kind of burns your nose a little.

Is that normal?!?! I'm going to go ahead and transfer to the secondary and let it sit for about a week and see if it gets any better.

aseg · Dec 1, 2011

You have the right idea of "waiting and seeing", but based on the info you've provided, it could be an alcohol that you are noticing that will dissipate with some time. Is it a big beer or did you ferment hot? Does it actually "smell" or just light you up a little?

hoppymonkey · Dec 1, 2011

If something straight from the fermenter "burns your nose". you just got a whiff of CO2. We all do it once.

Twtr25 · Dec 1, 2011

It was fermented at 70 degrees for about 2.5 weeks.

I was thinking it was probably the CO2 as well, because it was the first smell as soon as I opened the primary that about knocked me out. After about 10 minutes, I couldn't hardly smell it at all, or it's been engrained in my system haha!