Onions?

[MrC]

I recently brewed a beer using 100% Maris Otter, 100% Riwaka and US-05. Hop additions were at 60, 10 and 0 min. I'm getting a nice Riwaka flavour coming through but I'm also getting a distinct onion aroma, not unlike my armpits after a hard days brewing.

What going on here?
Is it light struck? It was fermented in a glass carboy but had a t-shirt over it the whole time.
Do some hops smell like onions?
Has anyone else experienced this onionness?

And before you ask, no I wasn't topless when I brewed it.

[JoKing]

Sounds like the vegetal character Paradox has in it!

Seriously though...

Did you use flowers or pellets? Did you squeeze the hop bag? How long has it been conditioning for? How did you pitch the yeast i.e pitching temp? What was your primary ferment temp? How well scrubbed was the bottom of your carboy? Have you been using metabisulphite?

Somewhere in these questions lies your answer...

[MrC]

Pellets
No hop bag
Been bottled for 3 weeks
US-05 rehydrated and pitched 20c
2 weeks primary at 19-20c
Carboy was clean as a whistle
No metabisulphite, used starsan

Also, this was a split batch. Wort, yeast, temps, etc were all the same.

Only differences were the hops (one 100% Riwaka, one 100% Sauvin) and that one was fermented in plastic with the other fermented is glass (cant actually remember which was which).

The Riwaka beer smells like onions, but the sauvin beer doesn't.

It's still a nice beer. It just smells like onions.

[JoKing]

Sounds like it smells like Onions! Maybe a combination of the nutty Marris Otter malt with the grassier aroma of the riwaka. I've noticed similarities with Riwaka in the past... don't know if that is helpful to you! Paradox is like that... could just be the hops. Age will give you a better indication, as hop aroma fades with time.

[Mike Neilson]

To be Quite Frankly BLUNT!!!! it was a realy enjoyable beer!!! Onions? yeah maybee? not nearly enough onions that I would be quite comfortable dipping my chips in it like it was a dip, but just a hint. Honestly though with that yeast I wouldnt be suprised if it was that, as my drain poor was more arm pits than onion. If your not happy with it though I can come up and grab the remaining bottles if you like?

[MrC]

Thanks Mike, glad you liked it. Thanks for the offer but I think I'll hang on to the rest and see what it does over time.

Haven't tasted yours yet.

[Mike Neilson]

Havnt you? I got some more coming for you if your daring try one first than comment back!! lol;)

[MrC]

Deal.

[Stu McKinlay]

Someone said that Golden Boy (Maris otter with Sauvin and NZ Styrian) had a hint of cucumber, or was it courgette?? Either way, i never picked it.

Being an onion fan I'm quite intrigued.

[JoKing]

I've been stewing on this one quite a lot Mr Cherry, and I did a fair amount of research into the matter for you. The only thing it comes down to (if there is a fault here...) is sulphur compounds during fermentation. I'm not sying DMS either... as this was a split batch from the same boiled wort.

Onions contain a hell of a lot of sulphur compounds too - and this could be what you are perceiving. It also explains why the perceived smell is only in the aroma, and not in the taste. I cant explain why one has it and the other doesn't... maybe the level of aeration wasn't quite the same but that's a stab in the dark. This is good news though, as most sulphur will be consumed by the yeast in the bottle at room temp over the next month as the yeast tries to avoid dormancy, meaning that the onion smell should condition out (providid that there is some sediment in the bottle).

[MrC]

Cheers Joking. My plan is to pace myself with this one (one bottle per week) if I can and see what it does over time. It was only a small batch so I need to be very disciplined.

I found some mention of onions being a result of light strike. Did you come across anything like that?

[JoKing]

Nope. I found that light strike produces skunkiness like what you get in Heineken - but from what I gathered it was only in finished beers, but I guess that finishingbeers will get the same type of problem.

Personally - I am a fan of skunkiness, I think it goes well with hop flavour in beers - and certain types of hops too. i.e. that cat piss and B O you get with some US hops!

Cheers!

[Mike Neilson]

Im getting berry fruit aroma from the NS though nice!!