New to Lagering. Does 'Lagering' longer remove smells?

[binchie]

Hi everybody. I have only been making wine since February and kit beer since April, so I’m pretty new to all of this.
As I’ve only done kit ales so far, it’s all been pretty easy. As I didn’t like the kit lagers that use ale yeast, I tried an experiment with a Harvest Lager from Tesco and replaced the kit ale yeast with a Mauribrew 497 lager yeast.
I’ve detailed the process I followed below. I know it’s a bit long, but please stick with it as I have a few questions at the end that I really more experienced brewers input on.
Wednesday 1st August,
2 x Mauribrew 497 yeast packs. Hydrated as per instructions (300ml water @ 34c). Original yeast pack not used.
OG 1.045.
Pitched yeast slurry in water/wort both at 24c (A bit high)
Temp controller set to 19c @ 8pm.
Strong fermentation in morning. Temp reduced to 13c.
Temp changed at 6pm the same night to 12c.
Checked gravity on Thursday 8th August it was 1.014. temp increased to 16c with heat belts.
11am Sunday 11th August gravity 1.004.
7pm Sunday 11th August gravity 1.004. Syphoned into secondary. Put CO2 into headspace. Back into fridge at 16c.
Monday am bubbles through airlock every 30 sec (12th August)
Tuesday am, no bubbles. (13th August)
Tuesday 13th August. 6pm temp decreased to 13.9c.
Decrease temp a little each day until it hit 1.6c on Sunday 18th. Been at 1.6c since and intend to leave for 4 1/2 weeks, as per the week per ABV rule.
Ready to try between the 16th and 23rd September.
Tried sample 21st August. Tasted excellent but smelled of ‘wet dog’.
Couple of questions.
1. It is lagering in a plastic barrel, with 4” neck and airlock ok? Should I transfer it to a corny keg? I’ve read that plastic can leak oxygen into the lager.
2. Will the ‘wet dog’ smell go with lagering? It is crystal clear and tastes good, but this smell puts me off. I’ve read a lot how the taste gets better with long lagering, but not read anything about smells.
3. I have two Coopers lager kits (green and white label), I was going to use the Mauribrew 497 yeast with these worts and do the same procedure as above. Do you think that will work?

 

[anthonyUK]

Hi,
I'm no lager expert having only made 1 AG lager which did have a sulphury, skunky smell when bottled but this has all but disappeared after only a few weeks.
I only lagered for a couple of weeks though at 2°c. The rest will have to be in the bottle over winter.

If you are pitching yeast from the previous brew I would pitch at fermenting temp rather than higher though.

 

[binchie]

Thanks for the info.

Mine did smell sulphurous during the fermenting period, but this has gone, just the skuny smell now.

I use cornie kegs, so next time I'm going to use a keg as a secondary/bright tank, then transfer it to the serving keg via the out to out connections. This way it will be under co2 all the time.

I think I'm concerned that the skunky smell is oxygenated beer. did you lager in a plastic keg?

PS. I'm not good enough to reuse yeast, so will pitch new yeast in the next lot.

 

[Darcey]

Long and slow fermentation is the key. Some lager yeasts can kick up a big sulphur smell. If i have an ale with some off aromas I keep it at 1c for a few weeks before kegging.

Lots of advise on lager yeasts on here. Only done it the once myself but I would have made a starter or double the dry yeast if I did it again.

D