• Welcome to the new forum! We upgraded our forum software with a host of new boards, capabilities and features. It is also more secure.
    Jump in and join the conversation! You can learn more about the upgrade and new features here.

Sulfur problems with my Belgian

Ck27

Grandmaster Brewer
Joined
Jul 21, 2017
Messages
529
Reaction score
0
So, my recent Belgian finished fermentation and I left it sit for 21 days after fermentation finished and the beer reeks of sulfur so I left it at a warmer temp for 4 more days and it was still very noticeable so I just bottled it and am hoping it will age out. Because I didn't have time to keep waiting.
I was told that the yeast I used creates a good deal of sulfur during fermentation. White Labs Abbey and white Labs Belgian golden, I pitched 2 tubes total one of each into a 5.5 gallon batch.

OG of 1.085 FG of 1.008. so beer fermented out really well. I can smell the alcohol and it tastes fine just smells really bad? What are rh chances it will go away with bottle conditioning???

This is my first Belgian beer.

Grain bill was primarily pilsner, I did a 90 minute boil and mashed at 149 for 1 hour as someone told me to.

Here are the Yeasts I used:
Belgian golden
https://www.whitelabs.com/yeast-bank/wlp570-belgian-golden-ale-yeast

Abbey
https://www.whitelabs.com/yeast-bank/wlp530-abbey-ale-yeast
 
BOB357 said:
Patience grasshopper :)

Define how long you think I should wait?? it would greatly help, as ill just add it to my calendar on my pc and walk away and wait until the time has passed :)
 
I don't have much experience with this, but I want to point out one thing. When you smell sulfur during fermentation, that is sulfur that is being removed from the beer and blown off into the air. Since there is a fixed amount of sulfur in the beer in the first place, the more you smell the less you will have left over in the beer. Once you bottle it, though, the sulfur is there to stay. It could be converted to a compound that is less offensive, though.

--GF
 
GigaFemto said:
I don't have much experience with this, but I want to point out one thing. When you smell sulfur during fermentation, that is sulfur that is being removed from the beer and blown off into the air. Since there is a fixed amount of sulfur in the beer in the first place, the more you smell the less you will have left over in the beer. Once you bottle it, though, the sulfur is there to stay. It could be converted to a compound that is less offensive, though.

--GF

Fermentation had been long over about 12 days over and the beer still smelled of it, I fried restarting fermentation, and warming it up and got nothing, so I'm sure it will age out of the beer because I couldn't wait another week and riak off flavors and other bad stuff.
 
Ck27 said:
BOB357 said:
Patience grasshopper :)

Define how long you think I should wait?? it would greatly help, as ill just add it to my calendar on my pc and walk away and wait until the time has passed :)

There's no real set time.  You can't tell yeasts how to live their lives.
 
BOB357 said:
Ck27 said:
BOB357 said:
Patience grasshopper :)

Define how long you think I should wait?? it would greatly help, as ill just add it to my calendar on my pc and walk away and wait until the time has passed :)

There's no real set time.  You can't tell yeasts how to live their lives.

Yeah I know I was asking if you had a rough time frame. maybe what 1 week more that's what I'm going to try.
 
At what temperature did you ferment the beer?  Where did you end up for final temperature?  Most Belgian yeasts like a rising temperature profile during fermentation and ending up in the mid 70's for clean-up.
 
Oginme said:
At what temperature did you ferment the beer?  Where did you end up for final temperature?  Most Belgian yeasts like a rising temperature profile during fermentation and ending up in the mid 70's for clean-up.

68F as the yeast stated, and then I let it go up to 75F for cleanup.
 
Okay, opened a half filled bottle since I didn't have who enough beer to fill the bottle all the way and tested it. It's got a minor sulfur aroma to it but is mostly gone. Beer tastes fine has a bit of a bitterness upfront then turns to slightly sweet malty taste. So it's good to go, has a tingling on the tongue which in assuming is from alcohol being around 10%. Beer looked great when I opened it, it fizzed up a bit and vapor came out so it's a good sign
 
Ck27 said:
Grain bill was primarily pilsner, I did a 90 minute boil and mashed at 149 for 1 hour as someone told me to.

Have you tried step mashing? Someone told me that it's practically essential with Belgians (tripels at least). Not sure why its supposedly so important, but we did it that way.

We did rests at 145, 154, and 162 before mashing out at 170. Yes, this was time consuming and a major PITA.

But I think that rest at 162 was the magic moment. It's too high for much amylase activity, but the mash really thickened up there and I think it was extracting lots of dextrines from the malt.

We were just following the mash schedule for Orval as reported here: https://beerandbrewing.com/belgian-beer-youre-probably-doing-it-wrong/

I doubt that has anything to do with the sulfur smell though. Sorry. I'll bet that'll clear up during aging. If your water had a lot of sulfate in it, that may be the reason. We used relatively soft water when we brewed our Belgian Tripel recently (also our first).
 
Ck27 said:
GigaFemto said:
I don't have much experience with this, but I want to point out one thing. When you smell sulfur during fermentation, that is sulfur that is being removed from the beer and blown off into the air. Since there is a fixed amount of sulfur in the beer in the first place, the more you smell the less you will have left over in the beer. Once you bottle it, though, the sulfur is there to stay. It could be converted to a compound that is less offensive, though.

--GF

Fermentation had been long over about 12 days over and the beer still smelled of it, I fried restarting fermentation, and warming it up and got nothing, so I'm sure it will age out of the beer because I couldn't wait another week and riak off flavors and other bad stuff.

There's virtually no risk of off-flavors from leaving your beer in the primary for several weeks. I routinely leave my beer in the primary for three weeks with no problem. Modern yeasts are not subject to autolysis (rotting) for many weeks, and probably for at least a couple of months. In the bad old days, the yeast would start to rot much sooner and brewers were encouraged to get the beer out of the primary within a couple of weeks, as I recall.

I recommend letting the beer sit in the primary untll the krausen falls and the beer clears.
 
durrettd said:
Ck27 said:
GigaFemto said:
I don't have much experience with this, but I want to point out one thing. When you smell sulfur during fermentation, that is sulfur that is being removed from the beer and blown off into the air. Since there is a fixed amount of sulfur in the beer in the first place, the more you smell the less you will have left over in the beer. Once you bottle it, though, the sulfur is there to stay. It could be converted to a compound that is less offensive, though.

--GF

Fermentation had been long over about 12 days over and the beer still smelled of it, I fried restarting fermentation, and warming it up and got nothing, so I'm sure it will age out of the beer because I couldn't wait another week and riak off flavors and other bad stuff.

There's virtually no risk of off-flavors from leaving your beer in the primary for several weeks. I routinely leave my beer in the primary for three weeks with no problem. Modern yeasts are not subject to autolysis (rotting) for many weeks, and probably for at least a couple of months. In the bad old days, the yeast would start to rot much sooner and brewers were encouraged to get the beer out of the primary within a couple of weeks, as I recall.

I recommend letting the beer sit in the primary untll the krausen falls and the beer clears.

Beers been in bottle for well over a month now. And sulfur is 99% gone
 
Back
Top