New cider batch smells awful

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marshall

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I've just started my first few batches and all of them smell disgusting.

One 1-gallon batch was made from pasteurized store juice -- after fermenting great for a week, lotsa bubbles etc, I drank a sample and it doesn't taste like much of anything, but the smell of it is overpowering. Like rotten eggs.

I used 1 campden tablet, Lalvin EC1118 white wine yeast, and energizer.

Another 3-gallon batch, made from apples I pressed, started fermenting nicely a few days ago, and it also smells.

Nothing in my books said anything about this, but there are various mentions here of how smelly cidermaking can be. Would someone please confirm that the finished product won't taste/smell like this? I'm afraid that my larger batches will be ruined.
Is there anything I can do to reduce the smell in the end product?
Thanks in advance.
 
Yep...They're called Rhino Farts.....Very common in brewing ANYTHING not just ciders...but especially ciders and lagers.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/rhino-farts-43210/?highlight=rhono+farts
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/how-long-do-rhino-farts-last-98726/?highlight=rhono+farts
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/no-more-rhino-farts-117730/?highlight=rhono+farts
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/stupid-question-rhino-farts-95699/?highlight=rhono+farts

also....Here's this is an old post of mine...but the message is the same for you;

The thing to remember though is that if you are smelling this during fermentation not to worry. During fermentation all manner of stinky stuff is given off (ask lager brewers about rotten egg/sulphur smells, or Apfelwein makers about "rhino farts,") like we often say, fermentation is often ugly AND stinky and PERFECTLY NORMAL.

It's really only down the line, AFTER the beer has been fermented (and often after it has bottle conditioned even,) when you should consider using this or the off flavor charts to diagnose the beer.

I think too many new brewers focus to much on this stuff too early in the beer's journey. And they panic unnecessarily.

A lot of the stuff you smell/taste initially more than likely ends up disappearing either during a long primary/primary & secondary combo, Diacetyl rests and even during bottle conditioning.

If I find a flavor/smell, I usually wait til it's been in the bottle 6 weeks before I try to "diagnose" what went wrong, that way I am sure the beer has passed any window of greenness.

Fementation is often ugly, smelly and crappy tasting in the beginning and perfectly normal. The various conditioning phases, be it long primary, secondarying, D-rests, bottle conditioning, AND LAGERING, are all part of the process where the yeast, and co2 correct a lot of the normal production of the byproducts of fermentation.

Lagering is a prime example of this. Lager yeast are prone to the production of a lot of byproducts, the most familiar one is sulphur compounds (rhino farts) but in the dark cold of the lagering process, which is at the minimum of a month (I think many homebrewers don't lager long enough) the yeast slowly consumes all those compounds which results in extremely clean tasting beers if done skillfully.

Ales have their own version of this, but it's all the same.

If you are sampling your beer before you have passed a 'window of greeness" which my experience is about 3-6 weeks in the bottle, then you are more than likely just experiencing an "off flavor" due to the presence of those byproducts (that's what we mean when we say the beer is "green" it's still young and unconditioned.) but once the process is done, over 90% of the time the flavors/smells are gone.

Of the remaining 10%, half of those may still be salvageable through the long time storage that I mention in the Never dump your beer!!! Patience IS a virtue!!! Time heals all things, even beer:

And the remaining 50% of the last 10% are where these tables and lists come into play. To understand what you did wrong, so you can avoid it in the future.

Long story short....I betcha that smell will be long gone when the beer is carbed and conditioned.

In other words rdwhahb, :D
 
If I were you I'd check that other thread out and research the "staggered nutrient" regimen talked about.

What you are smelling is normal but at the same time isn't a good sign of yeast health. The yeast are struggling for nutrients and producing that sulfur smell as a result.

Besides fermenting it a bit cooler, a sure fire way to care for it is to hit it with a little DAP for some nitrogen and then use some nutrient. I use Fermaid K and I use about 21 grams or so over the fermentation of a 15 gallon batch. I start with about 12.5 grams or so, after 1/3 sugar depletion I add another 6 or so, and then 3 grams more a little later on.
 
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