Cidery acidic smell after 7 days... Danstar Bry-97

[FrozenWaves]

Hi guys,

This is the first time I have used Danstar bry-97 west coast yeast as my usual Mangrove Jacks M44 was sold out from Brewers Coop. Its an all Gladfields Pale Ale.

After a couple days of relatively slow activity (compared to the M44) it was bubbling away nicely and smelt really good through the airlock. I opened my fermenter to dry hop last night after being in there for 7 days @20 deg. When I pulled the lid last night it smelt really harsh, cidery and almost acid like. The surface of the brew looked normal an no visible infection but the smell was definitely not normal. 

Can someone please tell me if this is a normal characteristic of Danstar Bry-97 yeast please? Or should I suspect the worst? I will give it another 4-5 days in there with the dry hops and then take a FG reading and sample the taste to decide if it will make it into bottles.

Cheers

[Nathan]

Taste will tell..............I have used 97 once before NEVER again took close to 4 days to kick off, Allowing other nasties to start 

[David M]

Have used this four times now for comparison against M44.
Have found BRY-97 is slow to start then cranks along a bit faster - M44 has a more even fermentation profile.
I didn't notice a cidery note but did notice that the beers made with BRY-97 initially taste a bit rougher post ferment and while still young. Given a couple of weeks more they are pretty similar.

I would wait give it time and is should mellow out. It has to be a pretty rampant infection to pick it up during fermentation. Most start coming through later.

My view is with BRY-97 give you beers a full 2-3 weeks in the fermenter and a good cold crash if you can to clean up. I also give it an extra week in the keg before drinking. BRY-97 needs a little more conditioning time than M44.

Also read in a couple of places people saying BRY-97 might strip out a little more bitterness than M44 or US-05. No real evidence but my gut feel is that it does.

Personally I think I prefer M44 over BRY-97 and would probably use US-05 over BRY-97 as well,

Nothing against BRY-97 - I just like M44 for dry hoppy American ales and US-05 for ones with more body.

Prefer the more even fermentation profiles and don't feel BRY-97 gives enough reasons to change.

After trying dry yeasts for the last 6 months I am going to go back to my favourite for American ales - Wyeast 1272.

More work but a great yeast.

[FrozenWaves]

Yeah, I will definitely not be using it again due to the very slow start time. M44 is awesome in my opinion.

I should have also mentioned that this is only a half batch (around 12L in the fermenter) but I pitched the full pack of yeast in there. I probably should have only used half the pack, so could this be an effect of over pitching?

[Nathan]

Nope nothing wrong with a slight over pitch

[Sam DT]

I get something similar mid fermentation some times but come bottling time it's just fine. I made the mistake of taking a mid fermentation sample recently - it was terrible to the point that I nearly considered ditching it, bottled last week and drank a whole glass in uncarbonated it was that God. Also make sure you rehydrate, I've found it can influence lag time

[FrozenWaves]

I did re-hydrate the BRY-97 in 100ml of 30ish deg boiled water, and still didn't notice any activity until sometime late on day three in the fermenter.

[Conrad Kirk]

Dosnt sound good. If you have that vinegar cider smell you most likley have an infection!! When you use dry yeast dont forget to santise the sissors u use to open and also the sachet itself. If you get probelms like this on a semi regular basis then change your stereliser. Dont use the cheap stuff its not worth the hassel. I recomend star san, since I changed I have never had 1 issue with bugs. And it only adds around 50cents to $1 to the cost of each 5gallon bach depending how much you use. Also the danstar yeast does not require to be rehydrated, its only an option. Either rehydrate 1 pack in around 1 litre of sterile cooled water or if you really want it to work use 2 packs. Only hydrate it for a short period of time you dont need to see activity. The yeast require sugar to start working and you can run the risk of stressing out the yeast. Download a copy of John Palmers "How to brew" Its a great read and he is the man when it comes to home brew. Hope that helps  chur

[Conrad Kirk]

And dont forget to oxygenate your wort!! Get a pump with a stone it works a treat

[FrozenWaves]

I have been using sodium percarb for sanitising and never had an issue in the last 5 brews. Wort was oxygenated as per usual. I re-hydrated as per the Danstar website for BRY-97 so the only issue I can see is that an infection potentially occurred before fermentation started (no action for the first 3 odd days).

It now smells really good after the dryhop addition but will pull a hydro sample tonight and see how she tastes. If it tastes good, will bottle tomorrow! If it goes down the drain, will put it down to a learning process and will not give danstar another run.

[Crusader-Rob]

I sometimes get a sulfer type smell mid fermentation.

Could be something to do with that?

Sodium Percarb is not a good Sanitiser. It is technically a cleaner, despite what the packaging says.

I suggest using Starsan or Iodophor to ensure good sanitation. while a little bit more pricey, it will improve your chances greatly.

I've never used the yeast, but ive heard its notoriously slow. whether you re-hydrate or not.

M44 was the same, but if treated properly, it seems to be fine.

But if it tastes good now, then it should be fine.

[FrozenWaves]

Just cracked the first bottle of this (the last bottle filled, with some dregs from the fermenter, so probably the worst of the batch) and it actually tastes pretty damn good... There is still a really faint 'funny' smell, whether it's cidery or not but hard to put my finger on what it is. The hops are definitely muting it though! its only been in the bottle for two weeks now so hopefully that smell will fade even more with age.

Not the clearest but im not bothered by that:

So the cidery smell before dry hopping seemes to have vanished and was hopefully only a product of the Bry-97 yeast. My local brew shop (Brewers Coop) is still out of my favoured MJ west coast yeast so have another pale ale in the fermenter at present with US-05 Safeale...