sulfur smell to ginger beer

[Clandestine]

Brewed 5L using 1kg of sugar, 300g of ginger and some wine yeast.

ive just put the bottle out to crash but noticed a strange sulfur like smell coming from the airlock. has anybody else experienced this? its my first non-beer brew

 

[Chippy_Tea]

This smell is usually down to a stressed yeast did you add nutrient?

 

[IainM]

Wine yeasts do that sometimes. For me, the smell has always conditioned away in the end.

 

[jceg316]

some yeasts do produce a lot of sulphur. Lager yeasts are terrible for this, however I've found that after a week the smell dies down as does any sulphur flavours. As IainM says it usually conditions out.

 

[Clandestine]

it was wine yeast from wilco's.

To be honest it was a bit of an experiment. as I found myself with a lot of ginger and some mistakenly purchased wine yeast. so grabbed a 5L bottle and had at it.

no nutrient was used.

i will bottle it shortly and leave to condition. im guessing it will take a few months for the sulfur smell to condition out

 

[Drunkula]

Agree with chippy and stressed yeast. Yeast really need some things to grow and sugar doesn't provide it. I tried making starters for beer using just sugar before I knew this and it was disgusting. Moonshiners often use tomato puree as a yeast nutrient for sugar wash. If you can't buy nutrient from somewhere like Wilko then you can even grate up a bit of multivitamin tablet - it'll be extra beneficial if it's got zinc.

And if you've got some extra yeast around - any type - boil some up in water to kill it and add it. The fermentation yeast will cannibalise it at the start and build healthy teeth and bones.

You can reduce sulphur that's already there by exposing it to copper. Some say stir with a copper pipe, some say use it as a piggy bank for pre 1992 pennies. Probably they don't say the last one.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Moonshiners often use tomato puree as a yeast nutrient for sugar wash

I have read marmite also works.

 

[alvin]

I have read marmite also works.

I calculated that for the equivalent Vit B1 content of 1 Young's Vit B1 tab, you would need 10 tsps (52g) Marmite. Alternatively, you would need 600 tsps (3,000g) tomato puree!

My sums could be wrong, but Marmite certainly seems feasible.

 

[Clandestine]

ah interesting. i'll certainly pick up some nutrient