Rotton Egg smell...

[RexBanner]

eyup all.
Doing a wilko sweet nookie broon kit.
put ut in the FV on thursday and into Brew HQ (the cubourd). been smelling malty and fine on thur nigbt and fri however today (saturday) i open my cubourd and it smells of rotton eggs!
Is this a byproduct of the yeast at work? or is it knackered?

 

[brewzone]

I've had Lagers that smelled of rotten eggs.

Clean a ladel with boiling water to sterilise it and scoop some out into a glass.

Have a taste, if it seems fine chances it is.

 

[terrym]

My advice is to leave it alone, since the likelihood there's nowt wrong with it. If you are brewing in a confined space any smells become concentrated. The initial smells were malty because the yeast hadn't had chance to establish itself, now after two days it has, and the fermentation should be well underway.
However any eggy smell from the yeast should slowly dissipate during the fermentation period.
So give it at least two weeks in the FV before you decide what to do with it. Which will probably be bottling. :thumb1:

 

[Gunge]

Rotten egg smell is hydrogen sulphide.. a natural by-product of fermentation. As terrym says, smells and aromas can't escape your fridge so will accumulate to noticeable levels. What temp is your fridge? Low temps grief the yeast and they will produce more hydrogen sulphide.

 

[terrym]

Rotten egg smell is hydrogen sulphide.. a natural by-product of fermentation. As terrym says, smells and aromas can't escape your fridge so will accumulate to noticeable levels. What temp is your fridge? Low temps grief the yeast and they will produce more hydrogen sulphide.

Humans are able to detect H2S in the low parts per billion range. That's why it's quite noticeable. Strangely at significantly higher concentrations it cannot be detected by the nose. However at these concentrations, certainly above 100ppm, H2S has becomes dangerous, which is why there are sensitive detection systems on refineries where H2S is commonplace. However a normal brewing cupboard should be completely safe, although it might prove an unpopular place like some rooms can become the day after an egg curry.

 

[MyQul]

Rotten egg smell is hydrogen sulphide.. a natural by-product of fermentation. As terrym says, smells and aromas can't escape your fridge so will accumulate to noticeable levels. What temp is your fridge? Low temps grief the yeast and they will produce more hydrogen sulphide.

Higher temps or lots of fluctuating temps can stress the yeast and produce more sulpher compounds rather than lower temps . From my understaning, what happens is, all fermentations create sulpher compounds to some extent or the other and with an ale fermentation the C02 created from the vigourous fermentation pushes the sulphur compounds out of the fermenting wort and into the air quickly. But at lower temps the fermentation is happening slowly so you dont get C02 produced as vigourously to push out the sulpher compounds quickly so the smell can hang around more (like a bad fart :fart:

 

[BeerCat]

I have often detected the smell in lagers at 10.5C and always take it to be a good sign of fermentation. Funny i have not noticed it so much lately but i am using different yeast and maybe the smells blows under the garage door.

 

[Gunge]

I have often detected the smell in lagers at 10.5C and always take it to be a good sign of fermentation. Funny i have not noticed it so much lately but i am using different yeast and maybe the smells blows under the garage door.

There you go ... low temperatures.

 

[RexBanner]

Ah now then! the lower temp thing may hold water. im using gervin yeast at about 17c so that may be the issue.

 

[Steelbacks]

Just thinking out loud here... distillers traditionally favour pots, stills, pipe work, etc. made of copper, not just because it's malleable, but because (or so I've read) the copper counters some of the sulphur that can be present throughout the process. So... would suspending a copper plate in one's brew make for a less sulphurous/better tasting brew? Like I say... just thinking out loud here, but I'd be interested to hear what anyone else thinks.

 

[GerritT]

Just thinking out loud here... distillers traditionally favour pots, stills, pipe work, etc. made of copper, not just because it's malleable, but because (or so I've read) the copper counters some of the sulphur that can be present throughout the process. So... would suspending a copper plate in one's brew make for a less sulphurous/better tasting brew? Like I say... just thinking out loud here, but I'd be interested to hear what anyone else thinks.

Some breweries use copper too. Took quite some time to make it shiny again.

 

[Dutto]

H2S! I hate it!

Detectable by smell from as little as 0.2ppm. Physiological effects are found from 5ppm to 100ppm by which time long-term exposure can be fatal. Above 1,000ppm a single breath is sufficient to knock someone unconscious and kill them.

https://ohsonline.com/articles/2011/09/01/monitoring-h2s-to-meet-new-exposure-standards.aspx

Good news - if you can smell it the concentration is so low that the chances are you won't die.
Bad News - if you smell it then don't smell it then maybe it has gone away; or alternatively the concentration is so high that it has just killed your sense of smell and you are about to die! :laugh:Back in the day, I was a Trainer on the Shedgum Gas Plant in Saudi Arabia where we produced 1,000 tonnes of elemental sulphur per day from the H2S in 1.6 bncfd of natural gas.

It was a potentially dangerous place to work so before we ever went on site I used to drum into my students the need to know where the nearest BA set was; and that if the Plant H2S Alarm ever sounded, they should be able to get to it and be breathing from it, without taking a breath.

One day the lads in the class looked at each other and started laughing! I was quite upset until one of them pointed out "You tell us this every time we go on site, but we know that we need to know where the second nearest BA set is!"

They weren't daft these lads. They knew who was going to get the nearest BA set!

 

[terrym]

Some breweries use copper too. Took quite some time to make it shiny again.

My understanding is that breweries used copper because it was, at one time, the best metal to use for the service, given availability and cost. So some of the old 'traditional' breweries will still have equipment fabricated from copper where they have not been refurbished. Stainless steel on the other hand was not widely available at an economical price and in major tonnage quantities until the middle of the 20th C. Given the price of copper relative to SS (and possibly it's more difficult workabality an in industrial setting??) that is why copper is no longer used and breweries are now made from SS where the service dictates.