JoeLowPro
Active Member
I've made dozens of successful batches of cider and now I've got my first batch of funkiness.
Here's my basic modus operandi. I primary in Corny kegs, with a gas out coupler to about 18 inches of clear tubing which is submerged in a large bottle of water for an airlock / overflow trap. I add 4.5 gallons of juice and 2lbs of sugar with Nottingham Ale yeast and ferment at 65 degrees. I start the yeast in water, prior to adding it to the kegs. This gives me a O.G. of 1.085. After about 2 weeks, I get a 10%+ ABV with some residual sweetness, which is my goal. Then I cold crash, to about 38 degrees, and eventually rack off to a serving keg. After at least another two weeks off the trub, I force carb and serve. Very happy with the fairly consistent results... Until now.
A little over two weeks ago, I started three nearly identical batches. I had two gallons of spiced apple juice sitting around so one keg got that and that much less regular apple juice. Two nights ago, I cold crashed them. Last night we took final gravity. I know that was backwards but until now results had been very consistent and I we were a day or two past two weeks in primary, so the readings were just to confirm. We disconnected the gas in / airlock coupler, connected the cobra tap to collect the sample, and add just a couple of lbs of C02 to push it out. The spiced keg had a F.G. of 1.008 or 10.8 ABV. Smelled nice. Tasted dry and the spices came through nicely, so Ill rack that over to a serving keg soon. The second keg had a F.G. of 1.016 or 9.7 ABV. This one was a little estery, which I find desirable. It had a slight smell and taste of banana and a mouth feel similar to a buttery chardonnay. This has happened before and if I recall, it turned out to be a standout batch.
Now, the third keg is where things went funky. We disconnected the gas in coupler/airlock, popped on the Cobra tap and the cider blew past the thumb valve and hit the wall at about 60 PSI. We pulled the Cobra tap off fairly quickly and then discovered the poppet was missing from the gas coupler / airlock assembly. It had fermented under pressure the entire time. Interesting, I thought. I remember reading once about people doing this on purpose but I dont remember any more details, other than that I thought I might like to try that someday. Apparently, that day came accidentally. So we bled off pressure but since the cider was overly carbonated it kept rebuilding pressure. We got a foamy sample out and tried to flatten it by shaking it vigorously. I got a F.G. of 1.026 but the sample was still carbonated so I left it sitting out overnight to flatten. I wondered if I would ever have a good F.G. reading since alcohol is evaporating along with the gas now. Of course I forgot to check the sample this morning, so who knows.
Anyway, after the gravity reading last night I noticed an off smell. I said, it smelled like cooked vegetables or tomato sauce. My buddy said it smelled like Cioppino to him. A quick Google search suggested maybe this was a DMS (Dimethyl Sulphide) smell, which might not be a bad thing It kinda made sense, because at least in beer production it is part of the process and can be driven off through evaporation when boiling wort. Since we fermented under pressure, there was no opportunity to evaporate. So we gave it a taste. It wasnt terrible but a little sour and there was something odd it took several sips before I could put my finger on it. Once I did and voiced it, we were in agreement. There was a slight smell and to a lesser extent taste of VOMIT! So this had me worried that it might be Butyric Acid from a Clostridium infection, and I just ingested an ounce or so. Ive read that Brett might eat up Butyric Acid and think that DMS may off gas, so I reconnected a gas line to the air lock and left it in the chamber. I am likely going to move the first two kegs to the Kegerator to finish and bring the fermentation chamber back up to 65 and hope it will continue to ferment.
I woke up this AM with a minor headache. Did I mention we were drinking a little wine before we started? Headache went away once I rehydrated but so far, no other ill effects. Does the fact that I survived unscathed, thus far, seem to indicate that DMS is most likely the problem? Could something other than infection cause the Butyric Acid? Does Clostridium take a couple of days to wreak havoc on your system? Anyone have any insight?
Here's my basic modus operandi. I primary in Corny kegs, with a gas out coupler to about 18 inches of clear tubing which is submerged in a large bottle of water for an airlock / overflow trap. I add 4.5 gallons of juice and 2lbs of sugar with Nottingham Ale yeast and ferment at 65 degrees. I start the yeast in water, prior to adding it to the kegs. This gives me a O.G. of 1.085. After about 2 weeks, I get a 10%+ ABV with some residual sweetness, which is my goal. Then I cold crash, to about 38 degrees, and eventually rack off to a serving keg. After at least another two weeks off the trub, I force carb and serve. Very happy with the fairly consistent results... Until now.
A little over two weeks ago, I started three nearly identical batches. I had two gallons of spiced apple juice sitting around so one keg got that and that much less regular apple juice. Two nights ago, I cold crashed them. Last night we took final gravity. I know that was backwards but until now results had been very consistent and I we were a day or two past two weeks in primary, so the readings were just to confirm. We disconnected the gas in / airlock coupler, connected the cobra tap to collect the sample, and add just a couple of lbs of C02 to push it out. The spiced keg had a F.G. of 1.008 or 10.8 ABV. Smelled nice. Tasted dry and the spices came through nicely, so Ill rack that over to a serving keg soon. The second keg had a F.G. of 1.016 or 9.7 ABV. This one was a little estery, which I find desirable. It had a slight smell and taste of banana and a mouth feel similar to a buttery chardonnay. This has happened before and if I recall, it turned out to be a standout batch.
Now, the third keg is where things went funky. We disconnected the gas in coupler/airlock, popped on the Cobra tap and the cider blew past the thumb valve and hit the wall at about 60 PSI. We pulled the Cobra tap off fairly quickly and then discovered the poppet was missing from the gas coupler / airlock assembly. It had fermented under pressure the entire time. Interesting, I thought. I remember reading once about people doing this on purpose but I dont remember any more details, other than that I thought I might like to try that someday. Apparently, that day came accidentally. So we bled off pressure but since the cider was overly carbonated it kept rebuilding pressure. We got a foamy sample out and tried to flatten it by shaking it vigorously. I got a F.G. of 1.026 but the sample was still carbonated so I left it sitting out overnight to flatten. I wondered if I would ever have a good F.G. reading since alcohol is evaporating along with the gas now. Of course I forgot to check the sample this morning, so who knows.
Anyway, after the gravity reading last night I noticed an off smell. I said, it smelled like cooked vegetables or tomato sauce. My buddy said it smelled like Cioppino to him. A quick Google search suggested maybe this was a DMS (Dimethyl Sulphide) smell, which might not be a bad thing It kinda made sense, because at least in beer production it is part of the process and can be driven off through evaporation when boiling wort. Since we fermented under pressure, there was no opportunity to evaporate. So we gave it a taste. It wasnt terrible but a little sour and there was something odd it took several sips before I could put my finger on it. Once I did and voiced it, we were in agreement. There was a slight smell and to a lesser extent taste of VOMIT! So this had me worried that it might be Butyric Acid from a Clostridium infection, and I just ingested an ounce or so. Ive read that Brett might eat up Butyric Acid and think that DMS may off gas, so I reconnected a gas line to the air lock and left it in the chamber. I am likely going to move the first two kegs to the Kegerator to finish and bring the fermentation chamber back up to 65 and hope it will continue to ferment.
I woke up this AM with a minor headache. Did I mention we were drinking a little wine before we started? Headache went away once I rehydrated but so far, no other ill effects. Does the fact that I survived unscathed, thus far, seem to indicate that DMS is most likely the problem? Could something other than infection cause the Butyric Acid? Does Clostridium take a couple of days to wreak havoc on your system? Anyone have any insight?
