funny smell with my wheat beer

[sciontroy]

so this is my second attempt at a wheat beer, the the first being a hefeweizen that I dumped because of the awful smell that I thought it was a bad batch, now a year later I have tried my hand at a Dunkelweizen using safbrew t-58 yeast, long story short I went to rack off to the secondary yesterday, and BAM, same smell again (its almost like a storg plastic smell). Is this normal to have a wheat beer stink during fermentation? Because I am used to the ales having that nice sweet smell.

[catsdrinkbeer]

How long has it been fermenting and what is the temp, has the temp. been steady?
I would not toss any batch before bottling or kegging unless I was positive there was an infection or something went really wrong.
A lot can improve after you keg/bottle, let it age a bit.

[ValonaBrewingCo]

Hefeweizen needs to ferment a bit cooler than most ales, like between ~60° and ~66°. Any higher and it'll make a lot of SO2, which is what gives rotten eggs and farts their potency.

[catsdrinkbeer]

I'd recommend doing a search on the forum for this yeast, seems like it has some belgian characteristics.
May make for an interesting beer, but not quite a hefeweizen.

[sciontroy]

I'd recommend doing a search on the forum for this yeast, seems like it has some belgian characteristics.
May make for an interesting beer, but not quite a hefeweizen.

well thats what yeast was recommended by b3 riverside for my Dunkelweizen, and it has been fermenting at about 70 for the past week, I have the bucket nearly fully submerged in water to keep the temp constant. I am just a little concerned but it doesn't appear to have an infection.... it looks like good beer

[majorvices]

The smell you are relating sounds like phenolics to me. The phenolics can range from a pleasant clove character (which is wanted in a good German style wheat beer) to an unpleasant plasticy character (which would be less wanted.)

If you are more familiar with the more clean (and, frankly, fairly bland) tasting American Wheat beer style such as Widmer you really need to change your yeast. Personally I don't like T-58 and I think it is a poor choice for a German style wheat beer. For a German style wheat beer I would recommend WLP300 or WLP380 or, for dry WB-06.

Understand that a good German Wheat Beer will have a wonderful complexity of banana and clove in the aroma and flavor. This is all yeast driven - it doesn't come from the Wheat malt, which is relatively neutral in character. If you don't like this character you need to use a good American strain like US-05.

And I would recommend lowering your fermentation temps. 70 degrees is a bit too warm, especially for a wheat beer.

[fossilsrocks]

Stop sniffing your fermenting beer. Wait for it to finish & evaluate it properly when it is carbonated & ready. Fermenting beer can smell bad in all kinds of ways & it doesn't necessarily mean anything is wrong. If it tastes bad after it is finished, come back & describe it; we'll help you identify what happened.

[sciontroy]

Stop sniffing your fermenting beer. Wait for it to finish & evaluate it properly when it is carbonated & ready. Fermenting beer can smell bad in all kinds of ways & it doesn't necessarily mean anything is wrong. If it tastes bad after it is finished, come back & describe it; we'll help you identify what happened.

sounds good

[BrewBubba]

I agree. Funny is funny until it is finished, meaning conditioned. I made a Dunkelweisen and used WB-06 based on LHBS recommendation. At first I thought I made some trash in a bottle. As it matured through conditioning...hmmm...I came to enjoy it, but was reluctant to share it with friends, except on a dare. Swore I would never brew it again. A little more time passed and and I came to like it. I passed some to others, they enjoyed it. I had a comercial version of Americanized wheat beer and BAM it tasted real familiar - not so far off of what I had created. I submitted mine to a BJCP-judged competition and took 4th place. Good enough.

I saw where you fermented at 70F and the product's optimal range is from 59-75F. So you are within range, but at the high end.

Bottom line - it ain't done, 'til its done (no matter how much I enjoy sniffing and tasting throughout the process).

[majorvices]

Well, he says he racked off to the secondary so I'm not sure what you guys are talking about. Certainly an actively fermenting beer will throw some funky odors but obviously the beer should be done before you rack. A wheat beer should not be secondaried anyway. I'd be drinking it by now, and the character he is talking about is indicative of wheat beers.

Regardless of what the "recommended temps are", 70 degrees is too warm for a wheat beer IME.