Sulphur Question- Pressure Fermentation

[Brian O’Donnell]

Hello All,

I recently have started brewing lagers (have five batches under my belt so far) using pressure fermentation. I have not brewed a lager in the traditional sense before. My lagers are coming out very clean so far using 34/70, fermenting at 58 deg F, and fermenting at 12psi.

I have been wondering though, should there be trace amounts of sulphur in a lager? I know you do not want a lot of it, but I swear that in a lot of great lagers there is the tiniest hint of sulphur that I think makes it crisp. I remember seeing some BJCP guidelines the mentioning of a small amounts of sulphur being appropriate or acceptable. I was wondering:

A) Could I be mistaken about the sulphur thing? Maybe sulphur shouldn't be in beer at all, and maybe I am mistaking this slight sulphur note to something else.

B) If I am supposed to be getting a hint of sulphur, is there anything I could do to produce a tiny amount of it?

Thank you for your thoughts and advice!

 

[Vale71]

Yes, some lager have quite a bit of sulfur in their profile. In Munich Augustiner Helles is most famous for it. Some people love it, others just hate it.

Some yeast strains are more prone to producing sulfury notes than others but other factors such as temperature and pitch rate play a role as well.
BTW 58°F for a pressure fermentaion is still quite low, you might want to let it rise by a few degrees more once fermentation is underway and target pressure is established.

 

[Brian O’Donnell]

Yes, some lager have quite a bit of sulfur in their profile. In Munich Augustiner Helles is most famous for it. Some people love it, others just hate it.

Some yeast strains are more prone to producing sulfury notes than others but other factors such as temperature and pitch rate play a role as well.
BTW 58°F for a pressure fermentaion is still quite low, you might want to let it rise by a few degrees more once fermentation is underway and target pressure is established.

Okay, I’ll play around with some other strains and see if that helps.