First Time Cider Help

[baseballstar4]

I know this is in the wrong section and should be in the cider forum, but I posted there and have not received any responses in a few days.

I have kinda jumped right into making a hard cider before pulling my boots up. I used 5 gal of cider from local orchard with no preservatives in it. I added a pound of honey and cup of brown sugar to it and pitched my yeast before my packet was swollen. (to impatient to wait for it to swell) It has been 4 days with zero activity at all.

Today I pitched some active champagne yeast, but when I took the lid off of my fermentor, the smell was awful. It was of rotten food/apples and had no cider smell to it. After stirring to aerate it for the yeast it smelled of normal cider. The question is: is this normal? is the batch ruined?

thanks

 

[mojotele]

As yeast ferments it often puts out a lot of horrible smells. That could've been what you smelled. It could also be an infection due to poor sanitation or if you didn't pasteurize your apple juice.

As for the fermentation - assume for a second you have a leak where CO2 is escaping instead of going through your airlock. Cider can have no visible signs that it is fermenting - there may be no krausen like there is in beer.

You have to check your gravity with a hydrometer. If it is going down, it is fermenting. See this thread for more information.

 

[robertvrabel]

I bet it was fermenting, did you take a gravity reading on it before pitching the 2nd yeast? Don't gauge the smell of fermentation to the taste of the product. I've fermented stuff that smelled awful (sulfur like etc..). Just put trust into it and let it ferment out and settle.

 

[l1ranger]

i got my first batch of apfelwein going right now based on edworts recipe and when it was actively bubblin the airlock, it was foul smelling. after a bit, the smell cleaned itself up, but i was suprised!

 

[mojotele]

Do a search on rhino farts.

 

[baseballstar4]

I bet it was fermenting, did you take a gravity reading on it before pitching the 2nd yeast? Don't gauge the smell of fermentation to the taste of the product. I've fermented stuff that smelled awful (sulfur like etc..). Just put trust into it and let it ferment out and settle.

I did take a gravity reading and it was the same at 1.060 no movement at all. It was an older packet of yeast, dated June of 2010.

 

[hudsonj6]

I've had my first cider in a carboy for about a week and a half.

Do a search on rhino farts.

Did that and wouldn't say it was the worst smell thats ever come out from fermentaion in my house but it was pretty funky :cross:

 

[mojotele]

I did take a gravity reading and it was the same at 1.060 no movement at all. It was an older packet of yeast, dated June of 2010.

I suppose it could've been autolysis. The yeast that you pitched could've died (or already been dead), and I've read that smells pretty bad. I've never personally experienced it, though.

From what I understand, live yeast will cannibalize the dead yeast. Dead yeast is a big part of yeast nutrient. I'm not sure if it permanently affected the taste of your cider or not if in fact it was autolysis, though. I assume the champagne yeast is doing its thing (or is finished). Perhaps you just gave it extra nutrients. Taste it. If it tastes fine, it is fine.

 

[baseballstar4]

The champagne yeast is working, but very slow. From researching I think that is just how that yeast strian is, very slow to complete a full job. But my gravity is dropping and have a very high krausen. The smell from the airlock is in fact of a cider fermenting instead of something awful.