[oscarvan]

My friend ( for real, no games ) brewed this Belgian wit from an extract with special grains kit. It's been in the bottle for 10 days +.
Everything is fine, except for the "nose". Initially there is this very brief whiff of what I can only describe as "septic system". Can anyone tell me what happened here?

[brewmasternpb]

Belgian yeasts can be funny.  I'd give it two weeks before I really evaluated it.

[tomsawyer]

Yeasts can throw sulfur (actually hydrogen sulfide) smells.  I had this with a Belgian wit, it eventually mellowed to the point where I almost couldn't detect it.  At just a touch it can actually contribute positively to aroma.

Probably better to let it gas out in primary/secondary prior to bottling.

[jeffy]

Witbiers sometimes include the use of bitter orange peel and I have found a "rotten" aroma and flavor sometimes when too much of the white inside part of the pith is included in the recipe.  It may be that.
I've taken to using a grater to zest only the outside skin of the citrus.

[onthekeg]

I would let it sit in the bottle another week and see if it gets better.  As said before, belgian yeasts can be peculiar.

[tomsawyer]

Mine took more like a month or so to mellow, but it was at a level that you could pour and a lot of it would blow off and the beeer was drinkable.

[dbarber]

Oscar,

Bring it to the next meeting (Jan. 25th) and have some of the judges in the club taste/smell it.

[oscarvan]

Oscar,

Bring it to the next meeting (Jan. 25th) and have some of the judges in the club taste/smell it.

I suggested that to him.

[oscarvan]

Well, just got a very excited text from my friend saying he opened a bottle that was perfect. Now, I don't know whether that is representative of the batch, ie finally properly conditioned after 21 days, or whether there were problems with those other bottles...,

Either way I am glad he's happy.