Funk monster - wlp400 will anything good come off this?

[Dara]

Slow start to the year and finally got around to brewing a wit using wlp400. Everything went smooth except I left the starter go to sleep at 15degc? The yeast was a couple of months after the best before date. Pitched it anyway and woke up the following morning to the foulest smelling house and an inconsolable three year old in tears who wanted 'to put daddy's beer out the back in the bin'. I've heard of smelly Belgian yeasts but this is ridiculous - slurry, baby vomit, sulphur smell. The temp was a bit low, 18-19degc for first 10hrs so I increased it to 20degc (big improvement on smell) then on to 22degc a couple of days later. 1week in the fermentor and it tastes fairly poorly but you can at least detect tastes of a wit. Still a sulphur taste. Will time tame this beast and come good in the end or will i just end up with fizzy babyvommit?

Mr.happy if you are out there - I will defer to your experience? How did you ever convince mrs.happy brewing a Belgian is a good idea.?

Dara

[Tom]

I suspect your youngfella boked in your fermenter an infection. I think babyvomit is fairly terminal.

[LordEoin]

I'd say leave it ferment out and taste it.
if it's infected, the damage is already done.

[mr hoppy]

I used WLP410 last year, but it seems 400 throws off a bit of sulphur, some lagers do too:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/wlp400-sulphur-168347/

Despite having an 8 month old kid in the house I don't know what baby vomit smells like - hopefully it's your imagination because if it's not, it doesn't sound good.

http://www.flavoractiv.com/products/butyric-beer-flavour-standards/

Mind I think you have to sour mash for 48 hours+ before you get that and I think you'd have smelt it before it went into the boil so I'd agree with LE - put it somewhere it's not offending folks and ride it out.

Unless you did leave your mash sitting around for two days in which case you're fubarred.

[Dara]

Thanks for the feedback.  The wort had been siting around for 24 hrs at about 30degC, but nothing bad in terms of smell or taste. The sulphur smell has died down, although can still get a faint smell from the gravity sample.  Actually this is beginning to shape up quiet well - probably over did it on the spices. Will probably bottle tomorrow and hopefully things will mellow and come together over the next few weeks. Will report back.

Dara

[mr hoppy]

30 sounds pretty high for a wit.