White Labs German Lager #830 - Smelly Starter

[captaincleanoff]

I have never made a starter before from lager yeast.. but I just pitched a white labs 830, and after pitching I took a good whiff of the flask.... very strong sulfur/rotten egg smell...

I know this happens when fermenting lagers, so I presume the same thing has happened with the starter... just it is really smelly.

Should I be worried?

 

[kabooby]

The yeast is probably just throwing more esters and sulfur due to the warmer temps. It will be fine. Just chill and decant the liquid of the yeast before pitching.

Kabooby

 

[captaincleanoff]

already pitched

definitely doesnt smell infected, just a huge sulphur smell... Pitched into 19c wort.. and the starter was room temp, so probably about 18c. Hope its ok

 

[kabooby]

Depends on the beer you are making but you will probably want to ferment it a bit cooler, say around 10 -12C.

Dont stress. Let the beer warm up to about 15C towards the end of fermentation and the yeast will drive most off those sulfur aromas. It also helps to let the beer sit on the yeast for a few days after terminal gravity to clean up.

Kabooby

 

[niggles]

Yep + 1 on everything kabooby said.

My latest brew is a traditional bock, using WLP830. I built up large starter over a week which threw all kinds of esters and sulfur. After pitching cold (7C) it's happily fermenting at 10C, still producing a bit of H2S but this'll clear up after fermentation & during lagering. Hopefully it'll turn out nice and clean

Niggles.

 

[captaincleanoff]

yeh i've experienced the sulfur smell with lagers a few times before.. always seems to disappear after a few weeks of lagering.

Hopefully the same will happen with this. I've always used dried yeast for lagers before.

 

[matti]

as Kabooby says.
She should be ok.
I have used this this yeast a lot of times.

I generally allow it ferment away 2/3 ,A brief diacetyl rest, then rack to secondary. Let it sit in the secondary until it has reach terminal gravity and reduce the temperature to as low as possible over a couple of weeks.

I have found this Beast can take a while to flocculate but does give very nice neutral lagers when applied correctly.