Hey everyone, new all grain brewer here. So I've made three 5 gallon batches so far, all IPA's and every one has a VERY noticeable sulfurish smell/taste. Vital info as follows: Mashing between 148-152 deg for 60-75 mins. Mash pH has run on the low side at 4.6 Vigorous boil for 75 mins, lid off. Wort chilled to 65 deg in under 20 mins. No oxygenation to speak of besides dunking the wort chiller during chilling. Pitched 2 packs re-hydrated US-05, fermentation began in about 8-12 hours each time. Appeared to ferment very well with significant Krausen, peaking at 68-70 deg and then running at about 66 the rest of the time. Primary 1 wk, secondary 2wks, cold crash 2 days then bottled. The wort smelled and tasted fine in each batch until racking/bottling time. Sanitizing w/ Io Star with good procedure to my knowledge. Using city water which tastes fine to me, no sulfur notes there. Kind of at a loss right now. From what I've read I'm thinking improve my oxygenation method, maybe leave it in the primary longer? I did read about copper helping this problem and gathered some shiny pennies, sanitized and put a handful in a glass of the offending beer. It reduced but did not eliminate the off flavor. Just wanting to prevent this in the future and any help I can get is greatly appreciated. Thanks!!!
I don’t have any specific answers to the sulfur issue but I have a few thoughts/comments. You mention: “From what I've read I'm thinking improve my oxygenation method…” For the specific instance of using dry yeast, oxygenation is not much of an issue. Danstar mentions that there is no need to oxygenate wort when using their dry yeast. For the case of pitching liquid yeast, proper oxygenation is encouraged. You mention that you conduct a secondary. I would recommend that you nix this step; just keep the beer in the primary until it is ready to be packaged. “Mash pH has run on the low side at 4.6” There are various ranges recommended for mask pH (e.g., 5.2 – 5.6 is sometimes mentioned). The value if 4.6 seems too low to me. Hopefully some other BA will have an answer specific to the sulfur issue. Cheers!
Sounds like the Burton Snatch, something appreciated by connoisseurs of Pale Ale. It's quite a common feature in beers brewed with Burtonised water.
What are you doing to your water? You mentioned tap water.. Is it rotten egg like sulfur? Usually that means you've got an infection of sorts going on. You mention it taste and smells fine until you bottle it. I'd start backwards and check your sanitation.
Agree with Jack...pH is way too low. Not sure if it's related to OP's trubbles. OP didin't post a grain bill...so FWIW...the CW is a 90" boil to avoid DMS when using lightly-kilned malts. Over-sparging at low temps might be culpable. Possible bacterial contamination (can't santize something that's not clean) In general...one week in primary t'ain't good. Try two. In general...no need to 2ndary. In this case...there may be too much handling. Try a primary for two weeks...dry-hop (if desired) for one week (still in primary)...then rack to bottling bucket.
Stone has beaten you to it ! http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/147/97851/ In a Pale Ale a sulphury nose is a feature rather than a fault. Burton beers are noted for it but it's in others too.
Around.. a year and a half ago, when I was getting into water for brewing, I followed a burton pale water profile, and got that smell.. It went away, but I do recall it, I also recall adding so much shit to my water it was cloudy almost.
It also depends a lot on the yeast.Marston's Pedigree is noted for the snatch; http://www.beerhunter.com/documents/19133-000132.html
Hey all thanks for the input, it's given me a lot to go on. So regarding the off smell, sulfur is the best way I can describe it but not rotten smelling. And after sampling some that have been bottled for about a month the smell/taste is almost gone. The grain bills were between 10-12lbs US 2-Row pale malt with 12-16 oz of 60L. Moving forward I will be doing 90 min boils, get the mash pH higher, leave it longer in the primary, cut out the secondary, clean and sanitize the hell out of everything the wort touches. Maybe a water report while I'm at it.
Those are all good things to do, regardless. My guess is the problem has something to do with your water. If I were you, I think I'd try doing a batch with RO water plus a minimal amount of salts.
Not that pennies have much copper in them anymore, but dont add copper to carbonated beer, it can and will poison you
It's a pity you don't like it ,in a sense it's a fault on the basis that it wasn't intended.But it's a characteristic of many a well brewed Burton beer.
Yeah I definitely won't be adding any copper. I'd read that running copper through beer with DMS or other sulfur compounds would diminish the aroma and taste and at the same time identify that what I was tasting was in fact sulfur.
Ran into something similar. About three days in, noticed burnt match smells coming from the fermenter. Used the same recipe before without any trouble. In my case, it seemed to be a sanitation issue. Reading up on sulfate-reducing bacteria, they don't like tannins, so I tried throwing in some green tea and some more hops, and the odor soon went away. Haven't tried the beer yet, but I'm going to call it a double-IPA and hope for the best...
I'm certain that I've read specific discussions about this sulfur issue in prior threads, so I created a search. There are so many responses that I'll let you do the reading to find out more, but I think just a third week in the primary has been the recommendation in the past to get rid of the problem if it exists. That may be more for lagers that ales, but I suggest that you take a glance at this enormous list of threads from the search to see if you can get any help there in order to avoid this issue during the brewing process. http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/search/30249098/?q=sulfur&o=date&c[node]=8
