sulfur smell/taste?

I have 2 gallons of apple juice fermenting in an old Mr. Beer keg while my primary is tied up with a Brown Ale.

I pitched some pasteur champagne yeast after hydrating, that had been opened and stored in the frig for about 2 months.

I wanted to see if it would work, and if not I would just repitch with more yeast.

It has VERY gradually fermented. Its been 8 days and I think its still going because its only at 1.011, and I am getting a very noticeable sulfur smell and even TASTE when I take hydrometer samples.

Is this normal for this yeast? Could it be stress from underpitching?

Do a search before putting up a new post next time, but here's what a 2-second search for "sulfur smelling cider"

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/my-cider-smells-like-egg-71732/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/still-stinky-2-weeks-into-ferment-still-usable-88305/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/sulphury-ciders-91379/

Hope that helps

I have only used that yeast once before and experienced the same thing. Over time, if i correctly recall it was a couple of months, the smell and taste disappeared. What I would like to know is....What causes the yeast to be stressed. Is in underpitching, temperature...or what

I've had this happen with every batch of apfelwien, multiple yeasts, nutrient/no nutrient, existing cake or fresh pitch.

They all turned out fine.

I wished I had known this would happen, because I was hoping for a quick turn around to have some ready for Christmas.

My last batch with brown sugar and S-05 fermented clean and clear, and tasted great at 3 weeks in the bottle. I wished I had just made sme of that.

Some yeasts are more prone to make that sulphor smell. Just let the smell dissipate before you bottle and all will be fine. It will take longer than your other batches to ber ready for consumption, but with patience it will be as good!!!

heyvail said:

Some yeasts are more prone to make that sulphor smell. Just let the smell dissipate before you bottle and all will be fine. It will take longer than your other batches to ber ready for consumption, but with patience it will be as good!!!

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Yeah its just a bummer, I had requests from my dad for more cider and Christmas would have been the perfect time to ship some to him.

An established way of de-oxygenating wort is to bubble CO2 up through it. I wonder if putting a carbonation stone or sanitized (read:new and clean) aquarium bubbler at the bottom of your container and applying gentle CO2 agitation might bring the sulfur out of solution. You'd want to clarify it first though to avoid issues with bringing yeast back into suspension.