When to give up on sulfur smell?

[koden]

I have a 5-gallon batch of fresh pressed cider that I started Sept 21. I treated with campden, added yeast nutrient (at least I documented that I did) and pectic enzyme and then threw in some WLP 775. It fermented well and cleared up. I never did a secondary, but kegged it right from the primary on Oct 26. I added Sorbate and K-Meta (per instructions) along with 3.5 cups of corn sugar to backsweeten.

I noticed a strong sulfur smell when racking to the keg and assumed it would go away. It has now been in the keg with a CO2 head for a month with periodic degassing and it still smells strongly of sulfur.

This is one of 5 batches I did this year and the only one I've ever had this problem with. It is also the only one I have not added sugar to initially to bump up the SG.

At what point do I give up and call the batch ruined? Is there any way to salvage it?

Thanks for any tips

 

[Gitmoe]

Did you possibly use too much sulfite? I accidentally put a 5x dose of sulfite in one of my batches pre-fermentation this year. Took a lot of splashing and 3 pitches to get it to ferment. The so2 smell during fermentation was awful. (very unhappy SWMBO) After fermentation and 2 racks later the smell and flavor of sulfur is completely gone. You can also try a product called Reduless. It's basically Copper Sulfate which will scrub sulfur out. It's a principal old time winemakers and moonshiners use.

 

[koden]

I am pretty sure I measured my sulfite out correctly. Thanks for the tip on Reduless though, I will look into that!

 

[hamiltont]

Try putting a piece of sanitized copper in the keg for a week or two. You could use a length of copper tubing suspended with monofiliment fishing line. Cheers!!!

 

[Gitmoe]

Try putting a piece of sanitized copper in the keg for a week or two. You could use a length of copper tubing suspended with monofiliment fishing line. Cheers!!!

That's a real old school method that could work too. Traditionally old winemakers would transfer from vessel to vessel (rack) through copper lined pipes or chutes. Same idea.

 

[klug]

Copper sulfate and copper racking tubes are actually still in use with winemakers today. It's really the only way to fix sulfide issues. The best this is to avoid sulfide problems is to make sure you use the appropriate amount of yeast nutrient so the yeast don't starve. It is important though to not over do it, as you want the cider/wine to be nutritionally barren so spoilage yeast and microfloral growth is discouraged. I would also suggest to not add Potassium Metabisulfite to your cider until after fermentation, as most yeast are SO2 sensitive.

You don't need to use copper sulfate for a home application. When I make small test batches of cider/wine, and I notice a sulfide issue I'll rack through a copper condenser twice. The copper converts the sulfides into a salt which then falls to the bottom, so it's important to rack off of these before they hydrolyze back into the solution. It's also very important to fix the sulfide issue early, as they become mercaptans and then dimethyldimercaptans which have an awful stale fritos/ mouse poop flavor.

Cheers!