Sulphury Ciders

I made batches of ciders this fall, one with Montrachet Redstar, and one with Safale S-04. I bought two gallons of flash pastuerized cider, and my beer sanitization "training" encouraged the addition of a campden tablet to each gallon.

Now, 6 weeks later, both batches still smell very strongly of sulphur, and I think they taste too sulphury to drink (though SWMBO drinks the hydro samples).
Both OG were 1.064 & FG of 1.000 & 1.001, so a little over 8%

After reading others experience, it seems like the smell should have gone away by now? Is there anything I can or should do?

Right now I'm just relaxing with my sulphur free homebrew

Let it go. I let my first batch go for about 2 months, bottled with priming sugar. The smell stayed for a good month, then cleaned up. Is your cider still cloudy?

Those bottles have aged for 8 months now, and keep getting better and better.

i read where Apfelwine really smoothes out after a year.

By adding campden tablets you added sulphur to the cider. Some yeast react with this producing the sulphor smell and others don't. I am not sure which ones do but a search would tell you. I have been making ciders for a couple of years and have never used campden tablets. I have even used the natural yeast from fresh pressed cider and it turned out OK. When you are pitching a dry yeast there are so many of them they will USUALLY out work and overwhelm anything else in there. Hope this helps

I use campden all the time, and the sulfites disapate quickly. If you're smelling sulfur now, I don't think it's the campden tablets. It could be the smell of stressed yeast. As long as it's not H2S (rotten egg smell), then it'll go away and improve soon.

davebl said:

Let it go. I let my first batch go for about 2 months, bottled with priming sugar. The smell stayed for a good month, then cleaned up. Is your cider still cloudy?

Those bottles have aged for 8 months now, and keep getting better and better.

i read where Apfelwine really smoothes out after a year.

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Once it's clear it seems smooth to me. I guess I could drink gasoline and not have a problem with it.

Thanks for all the replies. I'll just forget about these ciders for a few months in a dark corner of the basement.

YooperBrew said:

As long as it's not H2S (rotten egg smell), then it'll go away and improve soon.

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Hmmm...maybe I'll need to smell some rotten eggs. I think of rotten eggs as smelling like sulphur.

gxm said:

Thanks for all the replies. I'll just forget about these ciders for a few months in a dark corner of the basement.



Hmmm...maybe I'll need to smell some rotten eggs. I think of rotten eggs as smelling like sulphur.

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I have a better idea- why not make up a sulfite solution and then smell it? Dont' put your nose right over and inhale, but a gentle whiff. If you cider has a very slight sulfite smell, it'll improve.

If it's H2S, that's bad. Here's a blurb from Jack Keller's website about h2s:
Hydrogen Sulfide:
H2S for short, Hydrogen sulfide is produced in all wines by yeast combining with various forms of sulfur, but in excess creates an undesirable, rotten-egg-like smell in wine. If not corrected, the wine is ruined as the gas is transformed into mercaptans, with a skunky odor, and then disulfides, with a sewage smell.

You can try a technique called "splash racking" which is usually to be avoided. You can rack the cider, splashing it into the new carboy which may help disipate the H2S. After lots of splashing, though, you should re-sulfite. Once campden tablet per gallon (crushed and dissolved) would do it. This splash racking can force out any H2S if it's not too bad. It might save the cider.

That does sound easier than getting some rotten eggs. Thanks Yooper.

Wait, I am in day 3 of my first ever fermentation ( a cider ) and I am getting a sulphur/rotten egg smell. What do I do now, will it dissapate or should I do something?

Yoop is probably right. I use Safale 04 all the time. It amazes me how fast it can change. You have to give it time. I have two 5 gallon batches that I started in the last month. One stinks to high heavan. The other did and is getting better. I just wish I knew how to keep my yeasties happy and unstressed. If I had to gues I would say the solution lies in a more consistent temperature control....but who knows

Made my first fresh cider this year and bottled it tonight. It has been firmenting for 8 weeks and FG was .006. I used Cotes des Blanc for the yeast with no extra sugar added (started at .058) and used campden also in the beginning. I racked to a bottling bucket and started to bottle, the sulfer smell got really bad. I did not notice that much when I tasted the hydro sample. Should I have waited longer to bottle or will it disipate after sitting? I dont mean to steel the thread but I am also noticing the same problem. The flavor of the cider tasted like the apples used which some were very sour apples. So I dont know if the sour taste if from the apples or an infection. I have brewed beer for two years and have never had an infection so I dont know what to expect. Worst case I waste 48 bottle caps dumping the cider, guess time will tell.

You really shouldn't need to add campden tablets but if you do you should only need 1 for the whole batch then wait 24 hours before you add the yeast.

Once the fermentation starts without an infection you won't need campden. Especially if you are carbonating the beverage. Co2 is a preservative.

Forrest

Now, two months after my original post, one of the two ciders (S-04) has dropped perfectly clear, and has a very smooth, slightly tart apple flavor. No sulphur at all. I'm generally not a huge cider fan, but this one could convert me.
The other batch is still cloudy and sulphury. This hobby is teaching me patience

JedSmithBrewery said:

Wait, I am in day 3 of my first ever fermentation ( a cider ) and I am getting a sulphur/rotten egg smell. What do I do now, will it dissapate or should I do something?

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ahhhh the ever popular rhino farts...


let it ride - some sulphrous smell is normal during the fermentation.
some yeasts are more known for this than others - Montrachet seems to be a rhino farter - EC-1118 not so much ( these are my two "go to" yeasts)
adding a bit of yeast nutrient seems to do the trick, as I've never gotten rhino farts out of my Montrachet brews, (and yet it's supossedly common with this yeast and apple juice) and I always use a teaspoon or two of nutrient.

RugenBrau said:

I just wish I knew how to keep my yeasties happy and unstressed. If I had to gues I would say the solution lies in a more consistent temperature control....but who knows

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Try adding yeast nutrient, yeast energizer & DAP (diammonium phosphate) to the must. Even when using Montrachet in apfelwein, I've never had the "rhino farts" happen. I use Yeast nutrient, yeast energizer & DAP in EVERY frmentation. Regards, GF.

gratus fermentatio said:

Try adding yeast nutrient, yeast energizer & DAP (diammonium phosphate) to the must. Even when using Montrachet in apfelwein, I've never had the "rhino farts" happen. I use Yeast nutrient, yeast energizer & DAP in EVERY frmentation. Regards, GF.

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I'm still a total noob with 15 gallons of completed brew under my belt - I've used nutrient on every brew - what is energizer and DAP and what is it for?
I use exclusively Ec-1118 and Montreachet and find that they seem to go Gangbusters... the only "slow" start I ever got was a delayed (24 hour lag) on my latest project probably because I got impatient and the 4 pounds of frozen blueberry were still very cold when I pitched the yeast. but that EC-1118 went completely nuts after the brew got to room temp - (blew through the airlock and sprayed me pretty good when I pulled it to clean it... but the 4 pounds of brown sugar in there might also be a contributing factor ) so I'm not sure I want my Yeasties anymore energetic then that.

Had some slight rhino farting with my first batch of Apfelwein. But the result (at 3 months) tastes good. I may add a yeast nutrient to the next batch.

Do sulfer smells mean the yeast may be throwing fusels or other bad stuff? Or is it just a matter of flavor/ maturation?

It is definately the Campden Tablets. 1 per gallon is too much. I don't think the suphur will go away but you can wait it out.

Why are you adding the Camden? If it is add to be a preservative, 1 tablet for the batch is plenty.

I have made plenty of batches of Cider and my customers have as well without any campden and no problems. Just like beer all you really have to worry about is a quick start to your fermentation and the alcohol will take over the defense position.

Bottom line it needs to be drinkable and 1 tablet per gallon is too much.

Thank you Forrest! If you want to avoid the fart smell, don't use the fart smell tablets!

I am reanimating this zombie thread with a related question. I have a funky batch of cider, possibly due to too many Campden tablets, but possibly due to the weird way we made it. To wit:
9/8 pressed a little over two gallons of mixed apple juice, added two campden tablets.
9/10 pressed a little over three gallons of mixed apple juice, added three campden tablets. Added that to the previous batch. Added 1 packet of Nottingham yeast on 9/12. There was a strong fermentation for the first few days but very little activity for the last week or so. No sulfur smell to speak of in the room.
9/27 we went to test the gravity (it's dry) and it STINKS. Rotten eggs, sewer gas, gross. The sample tasted of it as well.

I have read this thread and a few others on the topic but I'm still not confident what to do, since I fear it might have gone beyond rhino farts into H2S territory. Wine whip? Splash rack? I don't have a CO2 bubbler, but I could keg and carbonate if that might help.

Add yeast nutrient? I am wary of this since fermentation is pretty much done. Can the yeasties do more at this point if I give them a snack? Or should I rack it off them since they're dead and stinky?

Or... should I just relax and/or not worry, see what it's like a few months from now?

Still very stinky a day later. Anybody got any ideas?

Sounds like the cider probably fermented too fast.
You can scrub the sulfur smell out of the cider by kegging and carbonating, then let the CO2 back out of the cider, it will pull most of the sulfur with it.
If its real bad you might have to do it twice.
If the cider fermented dry, you might want to let it age for a while before you keg it, in which case nine times out of ten, the sulfur will go away on its own

Thank you! I will try this! So do you think it will work to keg/carb it, and then rack it back into a carboy and let it sit in a corner and think about what it's done for a couple months?

If you're going to let it sit for a couple months, then no need to keg/carb it first - the sulfur will likely clear up on its own. The only reason to scrub it is if you want to drink it fairly soon, otherwise its just extra work.

Ok, cool. I was just worried the smell would stick in it somehow if I didn't do something sooner. Thanks again.

I did my first cider a couple months back on 9/29/12. We scored a bunch of apples from a local orchard, a mix of red and yellows (but I can't be sure of the breeds). We pressed them the same day into juice, and used 1 campden tablet if my memory serves me correct. I did not write down in my notebook how many tablets I used but I'm sure I used Montrachet yeast, some acid blend and some yeast nutrient but first I ground up a campden tablet and pitched it and then pitched the rest 24 hours later. I just racked it to a keg after a 2 month primary and a week of cold crashing. It looks great but tastes and smells of sulfur in a big way. It definitely fermented out as it was 0.994 for an FG.

I didn't notice much in the way of sulfur during the ferment and my temperature control was solid at 65-67 degrees F the whole time. I had a bunch of other things fermenting so I've kind of forgotten about this. I'm a bit bummed as it's really stinky now. I doubt I can drink it like this but I plan to age it out in the keg for awhile. I'll report back after 8 months or so. If it doesn't go away by then, then I'm guessing it won't go away ever...