Faint sulfury smell on Irish Stout

Brewing Processes
1

HI All,

I just tried an Irish Stout that I had brewed (primary for 2.5 weeks, bottled for 2).  Looked great, nice head but a very slight sulfur smell.  Still quite drinkable though.

I tasted it when bottling and it was fine, although of course pretty flat prior to priming so maybe that suppressed any odor.

I had the same boil I usually do, so I’d be surprised if it was DMS.  Also kept to the usual cleanliness regime with regards to cleaning and sanitizing but I suppose that’s always a possibility.

Any ideas? And could I just be mistaking this for a yeast flavor for what is a relatively new beer.

2

Sulfur is almost always from the yeast, and almost always ages out after a couple of weeks. What yeast strain did you use?

3

White labs 001 I think.

4

001 is Chico, and Chico is known for throwing a lot of sulfur during fermentation, more so than other ale strains. Yes it usually does magically disappear on its own but only if the pitch was healthy and fermentation proceeded normally. If you still had it after 2.5 weeks in primary, that suggests the yeast were under some undue stress, and you might be stuck with it. Time will tell.

5

After you pour the beer (and pour it hard to release as much Co2 as possible without being ridiculous) take a fork and swirl it really good to release co2 and let it sit for a few minutes. If it smells less “farty” it’s sulphur if the smell stays it is most likely something else.

6

It’s just young.  The sulfur will be gone in another week or two.  Patience is all you need.  Cheers.

7

I only had this problem once.  I let the beer stay in the primary a bit longer now and it clears up.  But I agree with others that age will clean it up

8

Sulphuric is often a result of a stressed fermentation such as what wines experience with lower nutrition levels. Any chance you under pitched, fermented too low, had repitched multiple generations without adequate nutrients, etc?