Thanks – excellent descriptions! Regarding sulfur, it would be good to mention here that some yeasts (some wheat beer yeasts in particular) are notorious about producing a REALLY foul sulfur smell for the first couple of days of fermentation, after which time the odor subsides. When you transfer it from primary to secondary, you’ll definitely smell it (the yeast cake can be really nasty). But, after enough time in secondary, and after bottle conditioning, it will be just fine. No worries. Many people have believed that they had a spoiled batch and dumped out perfectly good beer because they did not know that the smell was a normal part of that kind of beer/yeast.
May 28th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
Thanks – excellent descriptions! Regarding sulfur, it would be good to mention here that some yeasts (some wheat beer yeasts in particular) are notorious about producing a REALLY foul sulfur smell for the first couple of days of fermentation, after which time the odor subsides. When you transfer it from primary to secondary, you’ll definitely smell it (the yeast cake can be really nasty). But, after enough time in secondary, and after bottle conditioning, it will be just fine. No worries. Many people have believed that they had a spoiled batch and dumped out perfectly good beer because they did not know that the smell was a normal part of that kind of beer/yeast.