Was the yeast healthy, good pitch rate? That smell is usually associated with yeast.
One packet (11g) of Nottingham yeast was pitched into 4.75 gallons of wort, both @ 62 degrees.
Date on yeast was 6/2021 and vacuum sealed. Been 6 days since yeast was first pitched, bubbling has
stopped/slowed down and yeast cake is noticed on bottom of fermenter. I often smell bubbling airlock when active,
and this time it smelled like hard boiled eggs shelled ? sulfur ? not sure.
The yeast was pitched cooler than normal, and wasn’t aerated as aggressive as usual. These are the only variables I can
think of, other than the additions of coriander and orange peel.
So you used Notty for a witbier?
Yeah, I was gonna ask about that, too. Not very witbier-ish
Yeah I know, basement dictates yeast that can be used.
Right now varies 55-60 degrees, peak of winter its 50-55 degrees.
When temps swing to low 50’s notty handles it well.
Nearly any ale yeast will work fine at those temps., albeit more slowly.
I did what you would do ;D transferred to a secondary. Yeast cake
had an obvious foul eggy sulfury nasty smell. Hopefully after 2 weeks it will clean up.
Will do a test taste before bottling, i’ll be pissed if this is a dump >:(
As it happens, the region where JZ lives is one where Seville oranges can be purchased from decent supermarkets. I have purchased fresh Seville oranges at the Davis Co-Op, Berkeley Bowl, and Monterey Market in north Berkeley. That said, I think he chose “fresh citrus zest” because it’s easier to obtain for people without a LHBS in like 2002 when they were brewing for that book.
The sulfur smell has greatly diminished after 2 weeks. Only a subtle hint remained, tastes fine.
Bottled up, lesson learned, was the first and last time that I don’t aerate before pitching yeast.
It wouldn’t be the first recipe I’ve seen from that book with incredibly hard-to-find ingredients. Meussdoerffer Rost 200°L comes to mind.
What makes you think that it was due to lack of aeration?
It was the first time ever I didn’t aerate the wort prior to pitching the yeast, and this–
I think you’re jumping to conclusions. I never purposely aerate and it causes me no problems. Maybe I missed it…did you use dry or liquid yeast? Starter?
Agreed, possibly jumping to conclusions.
Dry yeast, no starter, aware dry yeast needs less aeration.
Every time prior, cooled wort was poured into fermenter, violently splashing about.
This one time I transferred slowly with tubing.
Low oxygen causing sulfur smell is the only thing I can come up with.
Smell was obvious, strong, and never experienced before.
Dry yeast needs no aeration. If you’ll allow me to be pedantic (OK I’m gonna do it anyway), the reason we aerate is that the yeast use the O2 to synthesize sterols which keep cell walls flexible to encourage budding. When dry yeast is produced, growth is stopped during sterols production, so the sterols you need are already there without the need for additional O2.
All a SWAG here: You mention Low O2 brewing. If you used metabisulfate to protect the wort production during the mash you probably should aerate in the fermenter to provide the residual sulfate something to consume it. Without the aeration, I speculate that the sulfate was not “used up” and remained in the finished beer.
Sulfate or sulfite?
That would indeed be sulfite Denny. When it scrubs up the oxygen it is converted into sulfate. I’m guessing this is another attack of the autocorrect. [emoji6]
I remembered enough from my year as a chem major to be certain I was uncertain. And IIRC, sulfite would create the rotten egg aromas but not sulfate. Correct?
I believe you are correct, Denny, but I don’t remember enough chemistry to know what the progression is from sulfite to (I presume) H2S. What I do know is that if you use sulfites to mitigate O2, before pitching it is important to oxygenate more than you normally would (and with dry yeast, normally you wouldn’t at all) to ensure you’ve converted any residual sulfite to sulfate (and left some oxygen for the yeast.) It’s also advisable to wait a few minutes for the reaction to complete before pitching yeast.
In short, if the OP did use sulfites, then the likely culprit is not oxygenating properly, as he suspected, and it also implies that he could reduce the sulfite dose next time as it apparently wasn’t all consumed during the hot side process.