Re-pitching a yeast that had produced excess sulfur

[bjhbrew]

Like many, I often line up a few brews that allow me to harvest and reuse the same yeast. In the spring I like to make a witbier followed by a white ipa. In the past I’ve used the mangrove jacks wit yeast and liked the result, however, this time around my lhbs only had Lallemand wit in stock. I brewed my usual wit recipe and for the first time ever ended up with a ton of stinky sulfur. I’m not really sure if I did anything wrong or if it’s just conmon to this yeast… what I’m really wondering though, if I reuse this yeast in my upcoming ipa am I really just setting myself up for failure??? What would you all do?

 

[JohnSand]

Sulfur smell fermenting, or finished? I wouldn't worry if it only smelled while fermenting.

 

[bjhbrew]

Sulfur smell fermenting, or finished? I wouldn't worry if it only smelled while fermenting.

Unfortunately it’s still pretty strong in the finished beer. I’m thinking that I may have kegged it too early because otherwise it attenuated well.

 

[Kickass]

Kegged or bottled? Sulfur tends to be pretty volatile so if it’s kegged you could try off-gassing and purging the keg a few times.
In my experience, sulfur is a fermentation byproduct and departs fairly regularly. I don’t have full proof advice but I’d probably reuse the yeast without concern.

 

[dmtaylor]

Sulfur is very common in young witbiers. Fortunately the sulfur disappears with age. If it happens again, just condition the beer near room temperature for 3 or 4 weeks before chilling and enjoying.

 

[bjhbrew]

Sulfur is very common in young witbiers. Fortunately the sulfur disappears with age. If it happens again, just condition the beer near room temperature for 3 or 4 weeks before chilling and enjoying.

That’s great to hear - I guess I should pull my keg out of the fridge and let it come up to room temperature. I went ahead and re-pitched the wit yeast into my ipa today. Hopefully it turns out! Thanks for the replies

 

[bjhbrew]

Thought I would update this thread. The original wit bier that I brewed is now pouring sulfur free and delicious after giving it a couple weeks of conditioning. The white IPA that I pitched with the harvested yeast fermented vigorously and completely. After 10 days in primary I performed a soft crash down to 15c before dryhopping. At this point I vented the fermenter keg to add dry hops and there was that tell tale sulfur aroma again. I decided to wait on dry hopping for now, I’ll give it another week and see where it’s at.