What happened to my cider?

I put up 2 1-gal ciders about 8 days ago. One of them I poured in 1lb honey and used Nottingham ale yeast, and one I decided to allow to ferment naturally, (s.g. was 1.050 at 57F). The first cider proceeded fine and seems ok, the second cider was very sluggish getting started, (as I expected it would). after a couple days it was bubbling very slowly, ~7 bubbles/min. On the sixth day it went from the 7 bubbles/min in the morning to 28 bubbles/min that afternoon. The next morning it was bubbling at 59 bubbles/min! When I got home that night, the bubbling had stopped completely. I popped the airlock off and took a wiff, and ugh! what a smell. The cider was very hazy, much lighter in color than it was even that morning, and it stank. Now, I assume it is "cider sickness" that killed this cider, so my questions are, is there a way to avoid the bacterial infections without killing the natural yeast? And, is this cider in any way redeemable?

mjjakub said:

I put up 2 1-gal ciders about 8 days ago. One of them I poured in 1lb honey and used Nottingham ale yeast, and one I decided to allow to ferment naturally, (s.g. was 1.050 at 57F). The first cider proceeded fine and seems ok, the second cider was very sluggish getting started, (as I expected it would). after a couple days it was bubbling very slowly, ~7 bubbles/min. On the sixth day it went from the 7 bubbles/min in the morning to 28 bubbles/min that afternoon. The next morning it was bubbling at 59 bubbles/min! When I got home that night, the bubbling had stopped completely. I popped the airlock off and took a wiff, and ugh! what a smell. The cider was very hazy, much lighter in color than it was even that morning, and it stank. Now, I assume it is "cider sickness" that killed this cider, so my questions are, is there a way to avoid the bacterial infections without killing the natural yeast? And, is this cider in any way redeemable?

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DO NOT DUMP THAT CIDER! It is probably fine.

Bad smells can be normal. It could be high temps stressing out the yeast, or a lack of nutrients can cause foul odors. That does not necessarily indicate any problems. The haziness is normal, and the cider will become lighter in color as it ferments. That has happened with every cider, and wine, I've made. They lighten up and are hazy at first, bit the suspended solids causing the haze will drop to the bottom of the bucket or carboy if given enough time on its own, or you can use a variety of things, such as pectic enzyme or Sparkalloid, to speed it up. Cold crashing helps too.
I've seen people here say this before: you can do 2 ciders, using the same juice, same yeast, same sugar, same temperature, and stillyt get 2 different results. It sounds like one yeast packet you used was "healthier" than the other, which could explain why 1 took off quicker than the other. It sounds like you just need to let it do its thing and learn what we all had to learn when first starting this addiction: Be patient! Be clean and sanitary! Take notes! And be patient some more!!! That was the hardest thing for me to learn.

The other thing to consider is that some wild yeast strains taste bad. It could be that the wild yeast that fermented that cider isn't a good natural strain.

I brought a couple samples to work, (I'm a chemist), and looked at them under a microscope. There are definitely bacteria present among the yeast.

The bacteria you mentioned are ones that turn cider to vinegar. That batch is officially vinegar.

Which isn't a bad thing, if you like cooking with vinegar, or making your own marinades and sauces.