Ok,…I brewed a 10 gallon batch of a Wit with coriander and orange peel. I split the batch in 2 fermenters and used a Trappist Ale WL yeast and a Wyeast Abbey Ale yeast on the other.
I didn’t notice any off smells while fermenting…kept at around 62 degrees for 2 weeks. At kegging, the trappist ale yeast fermenter smelled normal…just fine and tasted great. The Abbey Ale yeast has a weird smell to it. Almost a mix of bubble gum; like the hard gum ball kind you’d get out of a machine, mixed with spiciness and then a slight musky smell. Not rotten eggs, but just enough musky to catch your attention. It tasted fine however. I didn’t notice any weird floaties or anything and the yeast cake looked normal.
This is my first time using an Abbey Ale yeast. Is this just a characteristic of the yeast? And now that it is kegged and purged w/ Co2, will it be ok to serve at event on Dec 7th? (Kegged yesterday) I use Starsan for sanitation and haven’t ever had any trouble or an infection ever…
Bubble gum can be a normal characteristic of Belgian yeasts, and if there is still a lot of yeast in suspension you may get some yeasty off aromas, depends on the yeast though, some Belgian yeasts smell great swhen still in suspension.
I recently used wyeast 1214 and had inadvertently let the temp get higher than I wanted. Result was certainly bubble gum and banana, however a good month of cold conditioning on co2 has dissipated a great deal of it.
Some taste and smell probably just is going to be there, but it should improve. I like it better fermented in the low 60’s however it’s still a good beer, and people are enjoying it.
This won’t help you now, but, I noticed you said you “kept it at 62 for 2 weeks” and that’s fine but you might want to raise the temp up next time after the beer has been fermenting for 48-72 hours to speed up fermenting and help yeast clean up some off flavors. Also the increased activity may help blow off some of the aromatic compounds you aren’t likeing.