Help! my Apfelwein smells baaaaaaaad

This is the 2nd batch I've fermented with EC-1118. The first one was so bad I dumped it. This one is super sulphuric. I whipped it with a wine whip, which helped a little, but still smells eggy. Tastes ok. Smells bad.

Both batches I've made with Cote des Blanc turned out great. And I decided to buy some 1118 when the shop was out of CdB.

I've thought about trying to mask it with fruit additives. Extracts? Or fresh fruit soaked on vodka overnight to pasturize? Or is there any wine additive that will snuff out the sulphur smell?

The cider is 6 weeks old. Used White House apple juice. (Actually both times I uses the White House and EC-1118 combo I've gotten bad results.) fermented on the floor of my basement room temp ~69.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Did you add yeast nutrient?

How long did you let the first batch age before dumping?

Yup. Diammonium phosphate.

Wonder if I keg an carb.. Would the CO2 push out the funk?

First batch cleared up in about a month and was clear for a couple weeks I guess. It smelled so bad I got mad at it and dumped.

Try boiling some bread yeast and dumping that in. I've used ec1118 for 3 batches of cider and 2 of mead, no sulphur smell.

If you can get your hands on a foodsaver I've had awesome results using vacuum degassing to get rid of the hydrogen sulfide.

Another trick is using a piece of copper pipe from the hardware store to stir it up and convert it to copper sulfide which settles out. Just make sure you give it enough time to settle.

If it's apfelwein, it's Rhino Farts. If you looks at ALL the threads on making apfelwein, you should have noticed that the topic of Rhino Farts comes up in every thread. IT'S COMMON.

So common, THERE'S A NAME FOR IT. And even pictures.



You don't need to do ANYTHING. It will dissipate and your apfelwein will be fine. You don't need to add boiled yeast, or copper pipe, or calling a voodoo priestess, all you needed to do was actually look at all the discussions on the topic, and rdwhahb.

Sammit, Revvy, I just snarfed my seltzer.

While it is common I don;t really understand why everyone seems to accept it so freely. There are is an easy way to prevent it most of the time.

I just posted this in another thread but it seems applicable here too:

Part of normal yeast growth is reducing the sulfur present in the must into sulfides. The yeast then needs nitrogen in order to continue converting the sulfide into essential amino acids such as cysteine and methionine. If there is insufficient nitrogen, the yeast cannot complete this amino acid creation. Since the production of sulfides is unregulated though it continues churning out sulfides that have no place to go except combine with hydrogen and form hydrogen sulfide, a.k.a. rhino farts.

Since nitrogen is generally lacking in apple juice/cider it is important to add yeast nutrient to give the yeast enough nitrogen to allow it to utilize the sulfide it produces. I typically shoot for 3 tsp in a 5 gallon batch.

There are of course other issues that can cause rhino farts but I would bet that this is the one that causes the most complaints.

Here is some more knowledge in case you feel like reading:

http://www.slideshare.net/vitisdivine/sulphur-containing-compounds-produced-by-fermenting-yeasts

http://www.apps.fst.vt.edu/extension/enology/downloads/SLOFactorsFinal.pdf

http://books.google.com/books?id=q_AkYRM-RR8C&pg=PA346&lpg=PA346&dq=wine+sulfur+nitrogen+cy steine&source=bl&ots=ZykJePRo_i&sig=TvgLYD4dY2vVjW V7XebqL2vW5sU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ZP8bUb2AEsXuyQGhtID4Dg &ved=0CEkQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false

HappyCider said:

While it is common I don;t really understand why everyone seems to accept it so freely.

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Because most of the time, when folks are brewing apfelwein, it's their first time brewing ANYTHING And they don't have access to that info...It's not mentioned IN THE ORIGINAL THREAD...

But guess what? Despite the fact that Apfelwein quite often SMELLS like that. It dissipates in a few days, and the drink manages to get you kick your ass over teakettle, and smell fine when doing so.

So that's why we "except it so freely," because it doesn't mean anything to the finished product.

Bottom line, is if you do something to avoid it, fine, if you don't and it stinks, that's fine too......but the final product, will be fine either way.

Revvy said:

Because most of the time, when folks are brewing apfelwein, it's their first time brewing ANYTHING And they don't have access to that info...It's not mentioned IN THE ORIGINAL THREAD...

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Which is why I'm providing the information now. That way someone else might find it when they search for Rhino Farts and know what to do correctly the next time.

Revvy said:

But guess what? Despite the fact that Apfelwein quite often SMELLS like that. It dissipates in a few days

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True, but If you don't want to smell it or have others living with you who can't stand it there are things you can do.

Revvy said:

Bottom line, is if you do something to avoid it, fine, if you don't and it stinks, that's fine too......but the final product, will be fine either way.

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I don't disagree with you on this and never said it wouldn't be fine.

I made the stinky batch on 1/2/13. And I was thinking maybe there is some bad chemistry between the yeast and that brand of juice, I know it sounds dumb.. But my other batches with a different yeast smell great.

And I did read many of the other discussions regarding rhino farts, and various remedies. That is why I posed the question, "will this, this, or this work..?" I don't have the time to read the volumes of Q&A regarding Apfelwein. So I took the slacker's way out and read for about a half hour or so and pitched a question that would be answered directly to my situation. There is a huge body of threads related to this and I was wanting to know what works and what doesn't.

Reckon I'll try to forget about it a few more weeks and see what happens.

Jesus' 1st miracle was turning water to wine. And God can also turn rhino farts into Apfelwein. Pretty amazing.

Yeah, I've noticed different brands of juice can produce greater or less amounts of farts. Part of it is different levels of preservatives and stuff in them.

Well I had a bout of impatience and took matters into my own hands. Followed HappyCider's advice and stripped a 14 gauge copper wire. Made it into a 'wine whip' shape and stirred the apfelwein for a few minutes. The eggy smell wet away almost immediately and as soon as the yeast settles gain, I'm gonna bottle and enjoy.

It's been 6 1/2 weeks since making the batch. And it's been clear for 3 weeks. And dadgummit, I want me some apfelwein!

707 said:

Well I had a bout of impatience and took matters into my own hands. Followed HappyCider's advice and stripped a 14 gauge copper wire. Made it into a 'wine whip' shape and stirred the apfelwein for a few minutes. The eggy smell wet away almost immediately and as soon as the yeast settles gain, I'm gonna bottle and enjoy.

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Glad it worked out for you. If you're really in a hurry to get it clear you could try some sparkalloid to speed up the settling. It's a coagulation agent that helps form flocs from the particulates in the cider so that they settle out faster. I've used it for making Skeeter Pee and it cleared in about two weeks.

707 said:

Help! my Apfelwein smells baaaaaaaad

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I was wondering the same thing, I just started my first cider and it smells like something terrible! Rhino farts it would seem... I had the same question and it sounds like if I just give it time it should turn out just fine... right???

Also, I kind of put this together after I had tipped a few back. Here's my recipe, let me know what you guys think

3 gallons of apple juice
2 gallons of apple cider
64 ounces of pear juice
2 apple juice concentrates

OG = 1.060

I meant to do 5 gallons of juice but the store was out of juice so I went with cider because I really wanted to get things going. No preservatives in the juice or cider, some absorbic acid in the pear juice only.

Thoughts? Good idea to mix in the pear juice? I thought about it after and thought it might be bad, but its too late now!

kylelarson said:

Here's my recipe, let me know what you guys think

3 gallons of apple juice
2 gallons of apple cider
64 ounces of pear juice
2 apple concentrate

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I don't know much about using the concentrate, but for what it's worth a winemaker I work with just finished a pear wine and said its the best he's ever made. (And he's got several hundred gallons under his belt.

ChshreCat said:

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Hahahaha!! Man do I dislike cats.