Here’s the particulars: 1.056SG Dunkelweizen. Used a 1L starter/stir plate. Yeast was only 1 month old to begin with. Two days fermenting at 64F, and I’m getting aroma of sulphur in the fridge. Should I leave the beer in the fermenter until sulphur aroma dissipates? Any tricks to getting the sulphur out? The last dunkelweizen turned out the same way, but I kegged it, then ended up dumping the keg because I couldn’t stand the sulphur aroma.
Yes. Be patient and the sulphur will dissipate.
Sulphur smell in the fridge means it is leaving the beer. Let it go for at least a week or two.
+3. Most of the weizen strains (and most wit strains) will produce sulfur initially which dissipates. Normally I would say that by the time you serve it the sulfur should dissipate, but I see you dumped a prior batch for sulfur. A few things :
1/ While you force carb in keg, vent the PRV a few times to release the excess sulfur from the head space. Hopefully that’ll help.
2/ Do you use a copper wort chiller ? There’s a connection between the beer having contact with copper in the kettle and reduction of sulfur compounds in the final beer. I’ve always used a copper IC and have pretty much never had a sulfur issue that didn’t dissipate quickly.
3/ Have you tried a different hefe strain ? Some produce more sulfur than others.
I use a copper immersion chiller. The last time I used this strain, was for a hefe. No sulphur. The time before was a dunkelweizen that produced sulphur. I guess I kegged it before all the sulphur had dissipated. Now, another dunkelweizen, and sulphur again. I’ll give it plenty of time before kegging, 2 weeks, maybe even 3. I’ve never used any weizen yeast strain besides Weihenstephan.
As the fermentation subsides, will the sulphur still be able to get past the airlock? Do I want to remove the airlock, and put a piece of foil over the top of the carboy?
I’ve never used 300 - I use mostly Wyeast these days. But I’ve used the equivalent (WY3068) dozens of times and the sulfur dissipated quickly every time. Hopefully venting the head space now and then and leaving the beer in primary for a little longer will get you there. Good luck !
Never had a problem with 300 leaving sulfur behind in the beer even when bottling fairly quickly. Trust your yeast; the beer will be free from sulfur in a few days.
A lot of wineries actually run the wine through a copper tubing and there’s a chemical reaction that removes the sulphur. I’ve tried it and it works. you may even simply try stirring the beer with a small length of copper tubing until the sulphur aroma dissipates.
Sulfury rotten egg gas ALWAYS disappears with age, from every beer I have ever made. Sometimes it’s gone in a couple of days. Sometimes it takes a year. Average, if there is a lot of it, is 2-3 weeks. You can bottle or keg the beer whenever you want, then simply wait for a few weeks or sooner until it’s 100% gone. No worries, no worries at all.
Sulfur production by ale strains is usually a sign of yeast stress. I have noticed it on more than one occasion with stirred starters, which is one of the reasons why I am ditching my stir plate and going back to well-shaken starters. I am even contemplating springing for a large orbital shaker.
But I’ve never noticed sulfur notes with stirred starters, at least not more than once or twice with lagers. And that dissipated without any efforts on my part. Is it strain dependent?
I’d say it is strain dependent. I’ve only gotten sulphur on hefe strains and it dissipates after a few days, post vigorous fermentation.
The problem is definitely more common with certain strains. I have noticed that flocculent ale strains are more prone to throw sulfur when stressed than non-flocculent strains, but that observation does not always hold true. The anonymized English ale strain that I pitched last week threw so much sulfur on the stir plate that I thought that the slants in my order had been mislabeled (I ordered two ale strains and a Saaz-type lager strain). The strain is so flocculent that the cells stuck together like glue in the starter. It was difficult to fully re-suspend the cells after they had sedimented. I suspect that this particular strain will be useful when making cask-conditioned beer; however, it is too early to tell.
Brewlab in the UK details which of their most popular strains are prone to throw sulfur when stressed in the document linked below. I have used several Brewlab cultures, but the strain that I used last week was an anonymized culture from U.C. Davis.
the only time i got nasty amounts of sulfur with this strain was when there was a PH issue and stressed yeast. it never really went away and for a hefe you drink young so I ended up dumping it. when i brew dunkel or hefe and PH is good, proper pitch rate and temp at 65F with max 67F during active phase, Ive not had any noticeable sulfur. just a thought.
Someone feel free to correct me on this but it seems that I remember reading somewhere that sulphur in wheat beers occurs usually because the wheat is low in an important compound (?) I want to say nitrogen (?). I had problems with sulphur production on a particular hefeweizen strain a few years back and seems like this was the direction my research was leading. In fact it may have come from someone on this forum. I can’t seem to recall the specifics.
I’ve always picked up sulfur on hefe and wit beers using 3068 and 3944, but it’s always dissipated fairly quickly. Every now and then I have to vent the headspace and purge the keg a few times to dissipate it. I’d never heard the nitrogen angle before.
Well, don’t take that as gospel because I really can’t remember what the key was. I personally haven’t had sulphur on homebrew sized wheat beers but I seemed to notice it a lot on larger production runs (mine and others) and I tried to chase it down and it seemed like this is where it left off. I honestly can’t remember the details (unfortunately).