Sulfur...

[Willie3]

Does anyone know if adding too much potassium metabisulfite will bring on an egg smell?

Sulfur smells are what I am referring too. Flavor is ok but cant get past sulfur.

 

[ColoHox]

Yes, adding too much metabisulfite will give you rotten egg aromas.

Where is your beer in the process, eg. is the smell coming from fermentation or from finished beer?

How much metabbisulfite did you add?

 

[mabrungard]

Metabisulfite does not react to form hydrogen sulfide by normal pathways that I'm aware of. Metabisulfite is actually used in some cases to oxidize polysulfides into sulfates. I suggest that there are metabolic sources for the rotten egg aroma and they can sometimes be neutralized by treating the wort or beer with elemental copper. In other words, stick a length of copper tubing somewhere within the brewing system so that the wort comes in contact with the copper and that will infuse a small amount of copper that is then available to react with sulfides or other sulfurous compounds in the wort or beer. All excess copper is absorbed by the yeast, so its best to perform the copper contact via the wort instead of waiting until its beer and there aren't any yeast to take up excess copper.

 

[ajdelange]

Metabite is a reducing agent (that's why we use it to go after chlorine and chloramine) and thus, in the process of doing its job it get oxidized (to sulfate) so no, metabite isn't going to oxidize anything except a stronger reducing agent and isn't, therefore, going to get reduced to sulfide (unless that stronger reducing agent is around). What can serve as that stronger reducing agent? Lots of things in the presence of the appropriate enzymes found in 'sulfate reducing bacteria' so that would be my worry but then yeast can do a bit of this to as hydrogen sulfide is a normal part of 'jungbuket' in beer and is also found in wine.

Wine is often run off to the bottling line through a copper chute whose job is to react with the sulfide and remove it. I know at least one guy who stripped Romex and dangles pieces in his wine to remove it. You might want to try that if it doesn't go away by itself as it should if it is Jungbuket.