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I'm using California V for the first time. I didn't do all the research I should have, so I was caught quite by surprise at the insane amount of sulphur it throws.

I've since read some suggestions that it might be a good idea to transfer to a secondary for a bit to get the beer off the yeast in hopes of clearing up. Naturally, I've read conflicting information.

So, anyone here ever use it? What did you do? I need to do a dry hop soon, so if I should transfer, that seems like a good time.

I know that amartin used that strain (the Wyeast version, anyway) as a house strain for a year or more. He may be a good person to ask.

I've used the strain a couple of times myself and love it. When I used it for Jamil's Evil Twin it definitely threw a ton of sulphur in the first week, but by the end of the second week in primary it was fine. I do believe I waited until the unpleasantness subsided before dry hopping it, but I definitely didn't transfer it to secondary. I'd say if you're not under a time crunch, just let it sit and your beer will turn out just fine.

Assuming your beer stinks like sulphur and doesnt just have a faint trace, you could bubble some CO2 through the fermentor, if not you could warm it up with the yeast in there. If you are really worried warm it up and throw in some sugar. The CO2 the yeast throws off should scrub out the sulphur compounds.

Just as a follow-up, I checked after just over two weeks - smell was gone and I didn't taste anything weird. Dry-hopping has commenced!

Hooray! Sorry, I missed that earlier, I haven't been keeping up on the boards lately. Yes, I ran the Wyeast version for three and a half years. I never really noticed a sulphur smell, I usually just did a single stage fermentation in a bucket and left it there for two to three weeks before bottling. However, mine was top cropped over and over again, so I doubt the yeast I had at the end was too similar to how it was when I got it.