Saison Wyeast 3711 smelled sulfury?

I ordered a petite Saison kit from Northern Brewers (still new at this so not yet ready for full grain).  As it was fairly warm when I got the kit and the icepack with the yeast was melted, I decided to stick the mail order yeast in the refrigerator (2 days ago) and get another locally and pitch 2 yeast packages.  This morning I went to my LHBS and bought the same yeast with a manufacture date of June while the mail order package was 11 May 11. ???

I just finished brewing and when I pitched the yeast, the mail order yeast pack was fully swelled and everything looked fine. The yeast from my LHBS had not fully swelled the package but I didn’t smack it until about 4 hours from brewing so I decided it should probably be OK.  I pitched both but for some reason smelled the LHBS yeast and it had a strong sulfur smell. The mail order yeast smelled similar but without the sulfur smell.  Did I screw up and should I expect a really weird Saison if I could even still call it beer, or is there still hope (I also added a little more hops than the recipe called for but that’s another story). ???  :o

Thanks

Michael

I wouldn’t worry about it. I am not familiar with this yeast in particular but it is not unusual for yeast to throw sulfur smells. It fades as the fermentation continues, well most of the time, from what I hear even if it sticks around till bottling it will fade eventually.

I just brewed a saison using this yeast and did not have any sulfur smells coming from the fermenter but that doesn’t mean it can’t throw some sulfur. Like mort said, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. This yeast is a beast.

Saison yeast throws off peppery, clovey, phenolic aromas which may be mistaken for sulfur if you’ve not experienced it before.

Thanks.  I’ll take a sample for gravity and to taste once it looks like fermentation has slowed down. Interestingly, I thought with two packages of yeast I would have had a very vigorous fermentation but the krausen is only about 4 inches high and starting to recede.  It doesn’t appear to be alive and ready to leap out of the carboy and attack as did the fermentation for the brown ale I brewed a couple of weeks ago (wyeast English ale).

4 inches of krausen is nothing to sneeze at! some yeasts produce more than others.