Beer smells like a wet dog, Brettanomyces infection?

[Jonnycheech]

I have a batch of APA that was fermented for 3 weeks in primary, at a pretty stable temp with WLP-001. It has now been refrigerated for 2.5 weeks in a corny and has also been dry-hopped in the keg. The thing is that it smells like a wet dog, and this is not very appealing to the nose at all.

My first thoughts were that it was the dry-hopping in the keg, as this was the first time I have tried this method. I've read that you can get grassy aromas initially that dye down after a while, but I'm not sure this is the case now. After looking around the net I think it may be a Brettanomyces infection. Anyone any experiences with wet dog odours in their beer?

It tastes fine, just smells bad.

[mr hoppy]

Maybe, the cliche is that brett is like a horse blanket. But brett takes months to really express itself - it's gets to the point an ale yeast gets to in 2 days after 100 days. A key indicator for brett is if your beer ferments down to 1006 - 1008 without adjuncts or another highly attenuative yeasts - but again that takes months.

Have you had Orval, or the  Snakedog Wild IPA - those are two fairly common beers that owe a lot of their character to brett.

It could be another bacteria or wild yeast but to be honest your description does sound a bit like brett although I'm puzzled that it's cropped up so early in the process.

[Jonnycheech]

Thanks for the reply mr happy. What's the cliche about the horse blanket?

I've never tried those beers but I have heard of brewers employing this yeast in their brews. My FG was 1012 by the way.

[Eoin]

Wet dog or cardboard is normally oxidation.

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[mr hoppy]

I'd say Eoin's closer to the mark.

The cliche about horse blanket is that Michael Jackson, the beer writer, once described brett as smelling / tasting like horse blanket and it's stuck because it's so evocative even though I'd say not so many people who use it as a descriptor have much experience of smelling horse blankets.

[Eoin]

I'd describe Brett as being a bit like a very dilute whiff of a slurry pit.. Farmyard.
I suspect Michael Jackson had experience of horsey farmyards not dairy and slurry pits.

[mr hoppy]

Yep, farmyard. When they talk about "farmhouse ales" the emphasis is on the farm not the house.

[Eoin]

If it's just a smell and not on the pallet then it might just be wet hops. If light was able to get at it whilst it was being dry hopped it might be a touch light struck.

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[delzep]

We were talking about that the other night at the meet. Like wtf is a horse blanket, and is it anything like Spanish fly?

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EVH never wrote a song called Horse Blanket

[Jonnycheech]

I've never had the privilege of smelling a horse blanket but I get what he means. I'm only a commoner from the north-side of Dublin and all the horses over here don't have blankets. I can relate a bit more to a smelly wet dog.

Could be oxidation alright: I might have been a bit too vigorous with the immersion coil when dropping the temp after boil, I was attempting a world record drop, in my mind anyway. Although it didn't have the aroma before kegging, and I only dry-hopped in the corny. The fermenter was never exposed to intense light. Makes me think something occurred during transfer from fermenter to keg. So it could be oxidation, a keg related problem or a problem with the hops.

There was no splashing from transfer and the kegs were gassed and purged of O2 straight away. The hops were dry as a bone, in date and smelled lovely. The kegs were cleaned and sanitised. There was a bit of Starsan foam still in the keg when I transferred, but I thought it's a no-rinse sanitiser? Jaysus, there's so many areas to go wrong in a brew.

Anyway, at least it's drinkable....for the moment..who knows what a week or two will do.

[imark]

Are your taps and lines clean?

[Eoin]

Rule out star san as an issue, nothing happens with that stuff.

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[Eoin]

The fermenter would not need exposure to intense light, any light over a reasonable period would be sufficient.

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[Jonnycheech]

Taps and lines are clean. Fermenter wasn't really exposed to light.

Now I'm thinking it may be the muslin bag I used. I did sanitise it with Starsan but I've smelled the other bags I have and they seem to hang on to odours. I think I will have to pre-boil the muslin bag next time.

[johnrm]

Use voile instead of muslin.
Custom BIAB do bags.