Eggy smell - time to tip?

[Llamaman]

My stout that I pitched yesterday is stinking the flat out with an eggy smell.

I know lager yeasts can produce hydrogen sulphide, but I'm using two ale yeasts (Coopers and Gervin). Can I safely assume that this brew is infected and should be chucked, or is there a small chance it's still OK and should be left to ferment out?

 

[Thorbz]

Leave it to ferment out. The wort may have been lacking in certain minerals and/or oxygen, but I'd be surprised if you have an infection.

 

[Llamaman]

Leave it to ferment out. The wort may have been lacking in certain minerals and/or oxygen, but I'd be surprised if you have an infection.

Would adding some yeast nutrient help?

 

[marshbrewer]

I've had a real eggy stink-o-rama from Coopers ale yeasts in the past, even after I started using my brew fridge. Every time the resulting beer was totally fine, so don't loose hope.

 

[Covrich]

Leave it.. It is bonkers to be thinking about dumping a batch a day after you pitched the yeast.

Wait two weeks minimum and try a bit

 

[Mavroz]

I had a sulphur smell in 2 of my past brews. Just added yeast nutrient as per instruction and it had gone within 48hrs.
The smell began after 3 or 4 days.

 

[Llamaman]

I've had a real eggy stink-o-rama from Coopers ale yeasts in the past, even after I started using my brew fridge. Every time the resulting beer was totally fine, so don't loose hope.

Thanks - that's especially helpful as all the information I found online only referred to lager yeasts producing an egg smell.

 

[Martybhoy]

Wheat beer yeasts also give off eggy, sulphur smells. Always disappear within 2 weeks. You'll be fine

 

[Slid]

My younger daughter observed once that "the house smelled of farts" during the time a brew was being fermented with Coopers yeast.

Nothing wrong with the brew or the daughter, although the second is rather older than the first.

 

[GerritT]

Stressed yeast. It may be enough, but it still is though. What better men before me have said: add nutrient (check the manual: maybe it needs to be boiled for 10 minutes in water, maybe not), and it will be fine.

Chucking after 1 single day... sheesh, you must be new here?! :small

 

[Llamaman]

Stressed yeast. It may be enough, but it still is though. What better men before me have said: add nutrient (check the manual: maybe it needs to be boiled for 10 minutes in water, maybe not), and it will be fine.

Chucking after 1 single day... sheesh, you must be new here?! :small

My thinking was that if it was definitely infected, then there was no point keeping it and wasting a FV.
But as you’ve convinced me it might not be infected (perhaps probably not), I’ll let it be for a few weeks. :)

 

[Llamaman]

Returned from a camping trip over the bank holiday and the smell has largely gone. I won’t open the FV for at least another week (if I decide to dry hop) or two, so won’t know for sure until then - but I’m quietly confident that if it’s a bad brew that will be down to me, not some naughty bacteria stealing a free lunch.

 

[Llamaman]

Well, this brew is turning into the bane of my life!

Tested it the other night and my refractometer was reading Brix 10. I make that c. 1040 (from OG of 1.072 per a hydrometer)so very definitely a stuck fermentation (?). Wish I'd checked earlier - its probably sat there at that for 2 weeks. I think I didn't aerate enough at the start of fermentation (explains the eggy smell?). So I gave it a drop of olive oil (as I've read that can take the place of aeration). Checked again last night - no signs of life and still at 10 Brix. So I gave it a stir with a paddle to rouse the yeast, a spoon of yeast nutrient and cranked up the temp from 19C to 21C. Peeked again this morning and still no signs of life.
I'll check the FV again tonight (I hate fiddling so much with the FV but at this stage intervention seems necessary) - and take a proper sample to test with a hydrometer - but assuming it's still not budging, what should I do? I don't have any spare yeast sachets except a wine yeast (I was going to do a mead at some point) or a Ritchies one attached to one of their pouches of Brown Ale I was going to do next. Should I make up a starter with that generic yeast and pitch it, or wait until I get hold of something more suited at restarting? (Any recommendations?)

Alternatively, could my high FV be due to the terrible mash conversion I achieved (see other thread)? Might I just have added loads of unfermentables? If that's the case, should I go ahead and bottle (PET...!) or try a different beastie to ferment? I've not used any Brett or similar before.
A third option is to give up now and tip the lot... but I'm reluctant to throw in the towel that easily, having been overly pessimistic with this brew earlier.

 

[GerritT]

Well, this brew is turning into the bane of my life!

Tested it the other night and my refractometer was reading Brix 10. I make that c. 1040 (from OG of 1.072 per a hydrometer)so very definitely a stuck fermentation (?). Wish I'd checked earlier - its probably sat there at that for 2 weeks. I think I didn't aerate enough at the start of fermentation (explains the eggy smell?). So I gave it a drop of olive oil (as I've read that can take the place of aeration). Checked again last night - no signs of life and still at 10 Brix. So I gave it a stir with a paddle to rouse the yeast, a spoon of yeast nutrient and cranked up the temp from 19C to 21C. Peeked again this morning and still no signs of life.
I'll check the FV again tonight (I hate fiddling so much with the FV but at this stage intervention seems necessary) - and take a proper sample to test with a hydrometer - but assuming it's still not budging, what should I do? I don't have any spare yeast sachets except a wine yeast (I was going to do a mead at some point) or a Ritchies one attached to one of their pouches of Brown Ale I was going to do next. Should I make up a starter with that generic yeast and pitch it, or wait until I get hold of something more suited at restarting? (Any recommendations?)

Alternatively, could my high FV be due to the terrible mash conversion I achieved (see other thread)? Might I just have added loads of unfermentables? If that's the case, should I go ahead and bottle (PET...!) or try a different beastie to ferment? I've not used any Brett or similar before.
A third option is to give up now and tip the lot... but I'm reluctant to throw in the towel that easily, having been overly pessimistic with this brew earlier.

A refractometer for fermented beer? Alcohol distorts the reading, up to .010 So the hydrometer reading is a must here.

 

[Llamaman]

A refractometer for fermented beer? Alcohol distorts the reading, up to .010 So the hydrometer reading is a must here.

Totally agree, but my the Brix reading was so high I didn't bother wasting 100ml of beer (there's only 11L of it...) to confirm what I though (maybe in error) was clear - as even 1.030 would suggest a stuck fermentation?
I usually use the refractometer just to tell when fermentation has stopped, then take a proper FG reading with a hydrometer when I bottle.

 

[foxbat]

Check it with the hydrometer. I reckon it'll be 1.018 give or take a point or two.

 

[Dutto]

That doesn't make sense!

Willing to sling away 11 litres but not 100ml?

Get an SG and even if it's still high the big test is "What does it taste like?"

If it doesn't taste like malt vinegar or a Turkish wrestler's jock-strap then it is probably okay.

 

[Llamaman]

That doesn't make sense!

Willing to sling away 11 litres but not 100ml?

Get an SG and even if it's still high the big test is "What does it taste like?"

If it doesn't taste like malt vinegar or a Turkish wrestler's jock-strap then it is probably okay.

You misunderstand me. I don’t want to throw away 200-500ml of every brew by taking unnecessary gravity samples. Apart from OG and FG, the other samples are only to tell if fermentation is still going, which I can get from a Brix Reading.
So until this brew, what I’ve been doing is using Brix to determine when fermentation has stopped, and then get a proper FG.
This one threw me by having such a high Brix Reading compared to previous brews, but it turns out (see below) that it was done. I should have trusted the stable Brix Reading and taken a FG sample.

Don’t know why autocorrect keeps capitalising Reading.

 

[Llamaman]

Check it with the hydrometer. I reckon it'll be 1.018 give or take a point or two.

Did you sneak into my house? 1.018 on the nose. Spooky.

 

[Llamaman]

Moral of this story-
1. Calibrate your refractometer frequently
2. Don’t trust it anyway
3. Ask foxbat for a remote reading