Beer Forum

So, some of you may remember that 2 weeks ago, my lager got to 65° after the 4th day of fermentation. I got it back down to 50° and THEN I listened to the temp control BS show. You know...where JZ says he doesn't care where his lagers end up as long as they're always rising....

Well, she's down to 1.012 from 1.047 and tastes out-fucking-standing. Very bready from the munich malt. Absolutely no fusels or diacetyl detected. It's only 16 days in the fermenter but I have a question. It's still sulfury a little. Do I raise it back up again or just leave it at 50°? I don't want to sulfur to last forever but I hope I didn't make all the little buggers floc out when I dropped her back down to 50°.

What should I do? Besides RDWHAHB.

I believe sulfur needs to be scrubbed out, it's not really something that is taken up by the yeast. You're probably just going to need time. I don't know if raising up to 60 is going to help with this issue, other than maybe making the fermentation a little bit stronger if possible. Leave it for a week and smell/taste, if you still get sulfur give it another week. When I have sulfur issues they usually take about 2 weeks to clear up after the beer has been fully attenuated.

Cool man. I had planned on leaving it in at least a couple more weeks before filtering anyway. I just didn't know about the sulfur.

You need CO2 bubbling up through the beer to scrub out that sulfur. The yeast are probably not going to get that active again. If you warm it up, it can out gas some CO2 as the solubility drops as temps warm. That probably won't be enough.

I think I remember Plise once had a sulfury lager and he gassed it up in a keg until it was carbonated and then let the CO2 bleed off. He did that a few times until there was no more sulfur. Not sure how well it worked, but it could be worth a try.

jamilz wrote:You need CO2 bubbling up through the beer to scrub out that sulfur. The yeast are probably not going to get that active again.

Yeah, I had a feeling about that. Especially since after re-dropping the temp, the krausen fell within a day.

How would you feel about putting CO2 to a keg through the dip tube of the keg at 2psi but with the valve left open?

WLP830 (German lager) is my primary lager yeast. I pitch and ferment at a constant 50 degrees. It tends to kick off quite a bit of sulfur during fermentation, so I allow all of my lagers to rise to 63-65 degrees for the last 10 points and keep things there for about 3-4 days afterward. That seems to help off-gas most of the sulfur. Any remaining is typically absorbed during the lagering phase of 3-4 weeks. Some trace amounts can still remain, but that's part of what gives lagers their signature flavor/aroma. A faint amount of sulfur in hop-driven lagers, like a German pils can add brightness to the hop profile, IMO. But I'm talking faint amounts.

Thanks brotha man. I guess the concern is driven from letting the temp rise and then bringing it back down again. The sulfur is not prominenet but it's there and only by aroma. No real sulfury flavor.

I'm gonna try raising the temp a little.

I raised the temp 2 nights ago back to 65°. That seemed to do the trick. The fermentation chamber now smells like CO2 and not Sulfur/CO2. Now I have a new question...

3 days ago, the SG was 1.012. Now it's 1.014. WTF? Is it because I successfully got more CO2 to rise through solution? Is that "lifting" the hydrometer more?

disclaimer...

After I took my Saison hydrometer sample this morning, I dropped and broke my hydrometer. That particular hydrometer was calibrated at 1.003 with distilled water at 60°F. THAT hydrometer gave me 1.015 gravity with a correction factor of 1.012 (based on the 1.003 calibration).

I calibrated a new hydrometer to 1.004 at 60°F with distilled water and took the Vienna Lager hydrometer sample. 1.018 at 64° gives me a correction value of 1.014 (based off my 1.004 calibration).