Hello, my name is Dean and I am an airlock sniffer… I love sniffing a bubbling airlock! :) The stout fermenting smells so awesome right now… it has some fruity notes to it… maybe the X-D Crystal… or it may be the fact that I used Knob Creek bourbon in the airlock too but the bourbon smell seems to have faded away now. Its not hops because I only used 3/4 oz of Magnum leaf hops for 60 minutes. Oh how I’m realizing just how much I’ve missed brewing beer!!! 8)
OMG, why would you use your good Knob Creek Bourbon in the airlock? Better to use some really cheap vodka and save the Knob Creek for drinking. :P And yes, I am also an airlock sniffer. ;D
Yep, been sniffing the Dubbel that’s been bubbling away that last several days. Don’t even have to sniff the airlock itself since it’s been smelling up the whole end of the basement.
Well… actually I’m thinking of adding the last few shots worth of Knob Creek to this stout once its done fermenting. I didn’t have any vodka handy and the bottle is about empty on this so why not… besides… maybe I’ll drink whats left in the airlock in a few days. :-\ ;D
Hokerer, if I close the door on this room overnight… the smell is awesome in when I open it in the morning. 8)
Last one I smelled had the aroma of a fart. Beer turned out good though. Just sayin’ it ain’t all roses.
I take it that was a lager? 
Any bung sniffers out there? :o
I have a barleywine that is just about ready to rack but the airlock vapors were phenominal. I can’t wait to taste it out of the hydrometer tube. 
My 3 year old like sniffing the airlocks…
A sure sign of a born brewer. 
Right now I have two buckets with hoses going into a bucket of water… bath tub farts, big ones, and about 20-30 per minute… a sniffers paradise. Interestingly they are not at quite the same speed. So at times they are synchronized and then they phase shift to be opposite then back to concurrent… 8)
I have to agree, I love the smell of fermenting beer. Actually, I love the smell of grain, hops, grains mashing, wort boiling… I guess all smells of beer making.
Gary
Don’t you run the risk of the vodka/whiskey evaporating and having your airlock dry? I use starSan solution in my airlock. And yes, I do occasionally take a whiff.
I couldnt have worded it better myself. I love when it builds up to a big release, its like plop, plop, plop, loooooong silent pause, then faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaart…
I sniff airlock, but not bung… If the bottom of the airlock is too high in the bung, it smells like bung… all rubbery.
I keep my fermenters in the living room where one can keep an eye on them. Can smell when active fermentation starts and when it ends. Nothing like that beery gassy smell!
I think Denny is a closet airlock sniffer…
Me…I love it! until the sulfur gets a rolliin…
I was under the impression that airlock sniffing was an essential part of the process! ;D
- 1 on the sulfer smells. I recently brewed a batch of cider that got rowdy!!!
Do you burn stacks of $100’s as firewood and pave your driveway with gold bricks too?
hmmm, that sounds like fun. Although the gold bricks in the driveway might provide a bit too much glare on sunny days. 