Here is how it all turned out. I started this thread asking if it would be possible to use SMeta in the FERMENTER (plastic Spiedel) to scavenge some residual chlorine that I had left over from an attempted sanitation (stupid move on my part).
After attempting to clean to remove the chlorine with a soak of 140F water and SMeta, I ran a 2 gallon test batch consisting of 2 lbs DME, ½ lb of homemade candy syrup and some old hops. Fermented with Mangrove M41 which I knew would dry it out. I did not detect any chlorophenols in the finished 3.5% beer. It actually wasn’t bad.
I went ahead with a 5 gal batch of French Farmhouse, and following Martin’s suggestion that it might be worth a try, added SMeta to the fermenter. Fermented it with Lallemand Farmhouse and M41, the latter of which I knew could throw some sulfur. However, this batch threw sulfur like nothing I had ever smelled. Horrific. Similar to the experience cited above by Village Taphouse.
Let it ferment out and condition, total of about 3 weeks. Kegged and carbonated. Tasted off and I believe I could smell faint sulfur. I could not tell if I was tasting sulfur, or chlorophenol. I was looking for chlorophenol since I was trying to rescue the fermenter.
I was ready to dump the batch, it tasted bad. Then I re-read this thread, specifically the comments about sulfur. Thinking about how I could get rid of sulfur I recalled an episode of the brew files when Denny commented that to get rid of sulfur you throw a hunk of copper in the fermenter. Or at least that’s what I thought I recalled. I suspended a hunk of coper in the keg from the lid for about 4 hours, and it seems to have removed the bad flavor and my perceived sulfur smell. I can only conclude that it was in fact sulfur, not chlorophenol.
So that seems to have saved the batch, and I can corroborate the sulfur created in a fermentation containing SMeta. Again, my fermentation included a yeast that I knew to throw sulfur, so perhaps the SMeta amplifies the yeast’s production of sulfur. Meta-bisulfite, right?