My Lager smells like Fart but tastes like mother's milk

[fishingbrad]

Good People,
this is my first side by side comparison of all grain vs kit & bits ( For my own education, no need to debate this topic again) Style- German lager/ Czech Pils. I should also mention this is my first real lager. Used M84 in both @ 12c for 3 weeks, racked to secondary for a further 3 weeks @ .5c, forced carbed, tasted the next day.
Really happy with it already. So my question is, does the fart smell dissipate over time in the keg ??

Cheers.

 

[Spiesy]

It should dissipate with time.

 

[Rocker1986]

I must admit I got a bit of a laugh out of the thread title. :lol:

Yeah, in my experience it dissipates in time. Normally it's gone by the time I hit FG, before I even bottle (or keg if I was kegging) it. Seems odd that it would hang around for 6 weeks. Maybe the D-rest I do at 19C gets rid of it quicker? h34r:

 

[fishingbrad]

Hey Rocker, that's the funny thing, I did a D rest before hitting FG on the 3rd week @ 18c and that is when the smell became evident, only on the one brew, the all grain, go figure. It was so bad when I was siphoning to the keg on the weekend I thought it might have an infection, but it tastes amazing. anyway I wasn't planning on getting stuck into it yet, I'll give it another 3 weeks in the keg.

Cheers.

 

[Rocker1986]

Yeah that rotten egg/fart smell is pretty normal for lager yeasts, I think some strains are worse for it than others though. Maybe the M84 is a bad one for it. At least it is tasting great though!

I've been doing some AG Bo Pils recipes in the last few months, fermenting with Wyeast Urquell lager yeast. The horrid smell is usually at its worst around the 5-6 day mark and then slowly dissipates after that once fermentation slows and eventually stops. The latest one was at FG in about 10 days, by this time most of that smell had pretty well gone, and the FG samples tasted bloody excellent. It's currently having a two week lagering period at somewhere near -0.5C, and the smell has gone completely now.

 

[labels]

Yep, sulphur. All lager yeasts produce it, some more than others. It usually dissipates during the end of fermentation. You might have been better not racking the beer and let the yeast clean up all those nasty fermentation by-products.

You maybe able to purge it by opening the PRV on the keg letting the gas out and re-gassing. Doing this a few times over a couple of days might help get rid of it quicker/

 

[yankinoz]

I find the fart smell goes away on ageing lagers, but recurs around my brewing area after I eat smothered green chili burritos with black beans.

 

[1974Alby]

apart from the (hopefully temporary) malodorous side effects...which method won the side by side challenge on taste?

 

[dicko]

Quite often lager ferments can smell similar to the gas of an over worked brewery horse but this, at times, can be caused by yeast stress.
Under pitching and when underpitched then fermenting cold can do it with some yeast strains.
Lack of oxygen at pitching can also be a cause of the brewery horse fart.

Pitch a big yeast starter volume calculated correctly from a software program calculator...dont make your wort cool down to yeast ferment temps after pitching...pitch the yeast at the ferment temp and allow time to ferment and for the yeast to clean up after itself with either a diacetyl rest or just purely fermentation time.

Each yeast strain will have a different result...some are a lot cleaner than others.
Egg gas can at times be cured by bubbling C02 through the fermented wort to expell the fart odour.

If filtering and kegging and or bottling then dont do it until you are sure that you have got rid of the horses arse from the brew. :lol: h34r:

 

[fishingbrad]

Thanks gents. I will taste again next weekend and see how it is.

apart from the (hopefully temporary) malodorous side effects...which method won the side by side challenge on taste?

There was never a question on which one would come out on top. my experiment was to trial how far apart in flavour they are compared to time put in (to my palate). Cheers

 

[Rocker1986]

Yep, sulphur. All lager yeasts produce it, some more than others. It usually dissipates during the end of fermentation. You might have been better not racking the beer and let the yeast clean up all those nasty fermentation by-products.

Hm, yes I forgot to mention in my original post that I left it in the primary the whole time, actually it's still in there cold conditioning at the moment. I'm using the quick lager method on it, next Sunday is bottling day. Looking forward to it.