Truly unique, awful brown ale smell in promary

[rolewiii]

So I decided to do a test batch (one gallon) of Spruce Ale based on Brooklyn Brew Shop and Kumdis Island Spruce (Joy of Homebrewing) on Monday night. The whole brew night went fine, but in a recipe which called for 1/2 packet of Safale S-04 yeast, I pitched the whole thing.

I've never seen fermentation take off so quickly. By the next morning, krausen had filled the air space of the fermenter and gotten into the blow off tube to the point where wort was actually making it into the tube and eventually into the sanitizer at the end of the tube.

When I leaned in to observe more closely, there was an awful smell. It's impossible to describe, but let's say sour musty decomposing CO2 all on top of a brown ale that'd been sitting out.

The yeast was incredibly aggressive, to the point where inside the wort it looked like a lava lamp there was so much going on. This has since slowed down to almost nothing visual from a few steps away, but plenty of bubbling still going on.

My concern is mostly with the smell. I've looked at plenty of "smell" threads here but they all seem to have a specific smell and this one doesn't really fit any of the previous descriptions.

 

[Temptd2]

Have had the same thing happen a couple times - so much fermentation and beer coming out the tube and into the blowoff jar and yes it smells NOT good after a couple days! KOTC refers to the action in the fermenter as "snowglobing" and that describes it really well - just like a snowglobe that has been really well shaken.

BUT the beer itself turned out awesome.

SO now I change out the blowoff jar every day or two, until it's not actively blowing off any more. No more stinkage!

 

[Kevin79]

I've noticed that s-04 tends to cause quick and vigorous fermentations so I can definitely understand your situation when pitching a whole packet of the stuff into a gallon batch lol. I get the "snow globe" effect a lot when I use it on 5 gallon batches

 

[rolewiii]

Awesome. So it sounds like I shouldn't be too worried about this batch.

I replaced the blowoff hose today with a basic airlock. It's bubbled a little bit as fermentation is still happening (very slow and not vigorous), but everything looks clean.

The smell is lessened but is still there. I'm going to rack this into a secondary with spruce tips, and I am hoping to get a better idea of the progress and smell then.

 

[rolewiii]

Bottled today (6/9). The smell seems to have dissipated, but it's still there a bit.

I was going to carb with blackstrap molasses, but decided to taste it out of curiosity. It was kind of bitter and harsh and I decided not to try an impart those flavours and switch to corn sugar.

When I tasted the molasses, it kind of reminded me of the terrible yeast/krausen smell from the beginning of fermentation. Starting to think it may have been a combination of all ingredients and processes.