Need some quick advice!

I'm in the process of brewing 15 gal of cider. Got the cider frozen from an orchard for cheap. It's uv pasteurized. Smelled a little funny but tasted fine. Pitched yeast yesterday morning.

Og 1.070. s-04

Tonight there's a 1/8" of dark froth at the top that smells absolutely rancid. Should this be removed!???

I stirred it into the cider a couple times I hope it won't ruin it...

bleah! Yeah, that doesn't sound right at all. I'd definitely scopp that out, and maybe consider taking the whole batch back.

Out of curiousity, how did it smell "funny"? By "rancid" do you mean like rotting, or sulphur, or sewage?

Smelled a little like rotten eggs but tasted fine when I started it. I added 5 Camden tablets, yeast nutrient 12 hours later pectic enzyme, 12 hours later safale s-04 yeast. The cake on top smells like sewage. I have 30 gallons of this stuff....

The rotten eggs (sulfur) smell could be nutrient-deficient yeast - I think they call that "rhino farts" - but I don't think that could have developed so quickly. And anyway, you say it smelled that way when it was still nothing but juice. Nothing should ever smell like sewage, I don't think. Especially if you just defrosted and pitched it yesterday, I don't think anything could grow that quickly unless it was already in there when it was frozen.

Of course I'm just one guy and I'm not there, but to me it sounds like you got a bad batch, and as soon as you warmed it up it started putrefying - this is why you're not supposed to refreeze meat.

I skimmed the top off it an hour ago and I still can't stomach eating breakfast. Here's a picture l...

I think I'll pasteurize the other 15 gallons before starting it

Something's very wrong. Any chance of bringing that back to the orchard and ask if they've ever smelled anything like that? Fresh cider should smell like apples. Period.

I'm going to call them today. It didn't smell as bad when I first unthawed it..

why had the orchard frozen it?

I have a completely different theory from all you other guys:

Everything is just fine. The brown stuff on top is just signs that the yeast has taken off, and is normal.

It's very normal for cider to throw off a lot of sulfur, especially early in fermentation, and ESPECIALLY if you added 5 Campden tablets. The yeast doesn't like metabisulfite, plus, by adding sulfite, you've ADDED sulfur to the cider.

Just leave it alone. I'll bet it turns out alright.

Also, for whatever else it's worth, I've not been super impressed by S-04 yeast in cider. It will probably turn out okay, but S-04 does indeed throw the most sulfur of any yeast I have ever used. They all do, but S-04 is the worst. So there's some of that going on as well.

Personally I'm an advocate for zero chemical additions to cider. Just get your juice, pasteurize it or don't, add your yeast, rack after about 7-10 days, then just let it go until it tastes good, usually about 4-6 weeks. Low and slow is good. Aim for 55-60 F.

My 3 cents.

awesome, I really hope you're right dmtaylor! I used to do a lot of surfing down by you btw... This is my second 15 gallon batch of cider (and I have 30 gallons of different wines and ports going) and I'm using cider from a different orchard. The first 15 gallons I used s-04 and cote de blanc and bottle pasteurized, they turned out better than any cider that I have ever had! They were both good but I thought I had more residual flavor from the s-04. This next 15 gallons I'll pasteurize rather than adding campden tablets, do a couple batches with the cote de blanc, and see what happens. I'll be starting those tonight. I plan on bottling these batches through a keg, though, so I will be stabilizing it eventually.

and the orchard froze it to make it last longer, were in the off-season

I'm a pasteurizer and Cote des Blancs man myself, which perhaps you'd gathered from some of my other posts....

Cheers and good luck.

the last stuff I brewed did turn out AWESOME. However, it did taste very different after bottle carbing and pasteurizing. I'm hoping by bottling through a keg I can have a better idea of what the end product is going to taste like. The last 10 gallons I did 5 with all white sugar, 5 with all brown, and then split those up and did a gallon of each with a flavor additive. Mango, and blueberry were by far the best! I also tried raspberry, strawberry, caramel. I went very light on the flavoring..

I had that happen once with a gal. of cyzer. So bad I still get a tummy ache thinking about it. I dumped it but it was just 1 gal.