Cider Tastes and Smells of Sulphur

[Izzoard]

Hi All,

After the first tasting of my first real batch, I've found that the smell of sulphur is so off putting I'll probably have to bin the batch.

Before I do this a couple of questions:

1) Is there something I can add to take this smell and taste away?
2) Will bottling it and leaving it have any affect?
3) Where did I go wrong?

I used campden powder to clean all equipment and I added it to the original juice. I needed to add 1g and think I was more or less there in the quantity.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

How long into fermentation are you? Cider yeasts typically give off a lot of sulpher smells. It'll go away with time.

 

[Yooper]

Unless it's H2S, you're fine. You can try "splash racking". That is, rack the cider to another sanitized container, but allow it to splash a bit down the sides so the sulfur smell can disipate. I'd try that, before tossing it out. If it's a mild H2S, you should fix it easily.

From Jack Keller's website:
Rotten-Egg Smell: Hydrogen-sulfide gas manifests itself as the smell of rotten eggs. Pour the must or wine from one container to another for a few minutes to aerate it. Refit the airlock and wait a few hours. If the smell persists, repeat the procedure. If the smell persists after four such procedures, destroy the batch.

 

[Nurmey]

Rhino farts have been fairly common with my ciders. Time has always made the smell go away and the ciders came out just fine.

 

[Coastarine]

I've never experienced the sulphur smell from cider but I have heard that using a yeast nutrient can help prevent it, which I always have done.

 

[Nurmey]

I have never used the nutrient in my ciders but I should because I know that it would prevent the rhino farts.

 

[Teromous]

Yeast naturally produces sulphites, and campden is sodium metabisulphite It's normal and will go away with time.

 

[Izzoard]

How long into fermentation are you? Cider yeasts typically give off a lot of sulpher smells. It'll go away with time.

It was an odd batch. Didn't ferment at all for 2 months then in a couple of weeks fermented out to 7.5%.

I've decanted it to bottles now but the smell is so strong it's pretty much undrinkable.

Saying that, I drank a bottle, the next day I had a vague sulphur taste in my breath - not nice.

 

[Yooper]

It was an odd batch. Didn't ferment at all for 2 months then in a couple of weeks fermented out to 7.5%.

I've decanted it to bottles now but the smell is so strong it's pretty much undrinkable.

Saying that, I drank a bottle, the next day I had a vague sulphur taste in my breath - not nice.

If it's bottled, there's not much you can do about it now. It definitely sounds like H2S, and should have been splash racked/aerated before bottling.

 

[lelmore]

I have the same problem. I just finished primary fermentation on a 5 gal batch made with Safale-S04 (blue packet) ale yeast. I went to rack it today and the smell/taste was overpowering with sulfur. I checked my notes and did use potassium metabisulfite on that batch, along with yeast energizer and pectic enzyme. The original pH was 3.5 and is now up to 3.8. I raised the original gravity of 1.004 by adding honey. Fermentation went just fine with no clues that anything was amiss. I think getting it off the lees can only help but I'm not hopeful that it can recover. I'm going to leave it be for now and see if it can age out somehow unless anyone has some other suggestions.

 

[patriqq]

I'm having the same problem with one batch. It is the first batch I've done without a little bit of honey.

I'm looking into using bee pollen and/or TVP to use as a natural yeast nutrient. I added some TVP and the smell has diminished somewhat. Not sure if that is cause/effect or not.

 

[FilJos]

I too am having a similar problem. I also used S04n on a batch from last fall, but could detect no smell of sulphur on racking into the bottling bucket. But after adding a bit of priming sugar and bottling, not only did every bottle end up with a good quarter inch of new yeast sediment, but now it all tastes horribly of sulphur. It has improved over time in the bottle, but I wasn't really planning on letting this sit for very long, you know? That, and now I'm concerned about what that amount of sediment in the bottle will do. Individual bottle autolysis?

 

[oldmate]

I had a sulphury smelling batch once (easily fixed with some yeast nutrient in warm water and whisk while in the fermenter), but I bottled it anyway and it has now mellowed it and smells alright. Too bad it was an apple and blackcurrant cider, it now smells like a sweet port.

 

[gregbathurst]

H2S and rhino farts are not caused by sulfite from camden tablets. The smell from camden tablets is quite different, and only a problem if you use too much. You can get sulfur on apples from antifungal sprays, that will cause the sulfur smells, also lack of nutrients, but not camden tablets.

 

[Dragonmead]

Cider has a tendency to produce sulfur compounds. When making cider you need to pull out all the tricks. First, add nutrients (Diammonium phosphate) before any sign of fermentation. Second, whenever it gets a little stinky add more nutrient. Third, if you messed up and didn't provide proper nutrition to your fermenting cider then you can use a carbonating stone and CO2 to bubble off the odor. During this blow off period do not under any circumstances rack your cider. You treat this cider like a lager in that you let it sit on the yeast. The yeast should in time (8 weeks or so) reabsorb the sulfur compounds.

 

[dmf38]

If I understand correctly, the hydrogen sulfide that causes the smell has antimicrobial properties. If that's true then maybe Rhino Farts is a good thing, since it would help prevent bacterial contamination. Since we humans were meant to drink cider, maybe this is nature's way of helping us to successfully make cider.

 

[podz]

Sulphur smell always indicates too low nutrient level.

Fermenting apple juice with too low nutrient level alters the biosynthetic pathways causing yeast to metabolise sugar differently, and as a result ramp up fusel production. It also causes fermentation to take about 4-6 times longer to complete than normal.

Increased fusels will lead to headaches. Increased fusels adds significantly long aging requirements to the cider as well, we are talking an order of magnitude here.

It's pretty stupid to ferment cider without DAP unless you simply have no way possible to obtain it.

 

[madscientist451]

I don't add any yeast nutrients, sulfites or chemicals of any kind to my cider.
I did have severe sulfur problems last year when running two test batches with Nottingham yeast. I tried splash racking and aging the cider but it ended up as a drain pour.
Some yeasts do much better with yeast nutrients in cider and Nottingham apparently is one of those yeasts. I've used WL 002, WLP 775, WLP 565,
WL 013, Brewer's best cider house select and a few other yeasts without having sulfur problems. Apples and and available juice are widely variable so your results may be different. If your are having sulfur problems, you might want to try a test batch with no sulphites and one of the above yeast strains. Cheers!

 

[MarkKF]

Easy fix for low nutrient problems is to add some chopped raisins.

 

[Two Hooligans Cider]

Easy fix for low nutrient problems is to add some chopped raisins.

Can you elaborate what it is that the raisins will do? We are having an issue with sulfur scented cider right now. We racked one of our barrels, it smelled normal. Then four days later we opened it and it reeks of sulfur. We had issues with this aroma earlier in fermentation, but the smell had blown off awhile ago.

 

[Maylar]

Can you elaborate what it is that the raisins will do? We are having an issue with sulfur scented cider right now. We racked one of our barrels, it smelled normal. Then four days later we opened it and it reeks of sulfur. We had issues with this aroma earlier in fermentation, but the smell had blown off awhile ago.

Yeast needs nutrients, in particular nitrogen, to make them healthy. Apples have some nitrogen but not much. When the nitrogen runs out, the yeast start converting amino acids into nitrogen - and a byproduct of that is hydrogen sulfide H2S. That's what stinks. To prevent that, we add yeast nutrient.

Using raisins as nutrients is very old school. It has been shown that the amount of nitrogen they contain is very small and not really effective (though better than nothing). As a DIY solution, boil a packet of bread yeast in a small amount of water and when it cools add it to your cider. Living yeast will cannibalize the dead yeast and extract nitrogen from them.

But this only works if the ferment is still active. If the cider is finished, you'll need to explore other solutions.

 

[Geremy]

If you need to remove H2S after fermentation you will need to use a copper sulfate solution. Recommend buying a 1% solution. With 1% copper sulfate solution 0.75 mL of solution per 1 gallon cider will be a 0.1 ppm addition. Make additions in that increment with 48 hours in between.

COPPER IS TOXIC, you need to be precise and do this gradually, using the minimum amount of copper sulfate possible. Don’t be scared of using this method, it is common for h2s removal in wine production, just be aware of what you’re doing.

I posted about this same thing recently and someone gave me some good information, you could check that post as well.

 

[Lovelady82]

Unless it's H2S, you're fine. You can try "splash racking". That is, rack the cider to another sanitized container, but allow it to splash a bit down the sides so the sulfur smell can disipate. I'd try that, before tossing it out. If it's a mild H2S, you should fix it easily.

From Jack Keller's website:
Rotten-Egg Smell: Hydrogen-sulfide gas manifests itself as the smell of rotten eggs. Pour the must or wine from one container to another for a few minutes to aerate it. Refit the airlock and wait a few hours. If the smell persists, repeat the procedure. If the smell persists after four such procedures, destroy the batch.

Instead of dumping it, can it be turned into apple cider vinegar? I realize I would want to keep it away from my main room. I have a batch that has fermented to dry and smelled fine, then when I went to blend, it smelled like sulfur. I’ve been wanting to make vinegar and wonder if I can use this since it’s almost there. Just concerned it’ll have a sulfur taint

 

[Yooper]

Instead of dumping it, can it be turned into apple cider vinegar? I realize I would want to keep it away from my main room. I have a batch that has fermented to dry and smelled fine, then when I went to blend, it smelled like sulfur. I’ve been wanting to make vinegar and wonder if I can use this since it’s almost there. Just concerned it’ll have a sulfur taint

I don't know. It will turn to vinegar, but I'm not sure that the flavor/aroma will be better.

 

[joys of cider]

Cider has a tendency to produce sulfur compounds. When making cider you need to pull out all the tricks. First, add nutrients (Diammonium phosphate) before any sign of fermentation. Second, whenever it gets a little stinky add more nutrient. Third, if you messed up and didn't provide proper nutrition to your fermenting cider then you can use a carbonating stone and CO2 to bubble off the odor. During this blow off period do not under any circumstances rack your cider. You treat this cider like a lager in that you let it sit on the yeast. The yeast should in time (8 weeks or so) reabsorb the sulfur compounds.

On 5th day ot ferment and can smell the h2s now so can i add a little DAP or is it too latr and if i do can you tell me how much i should put in a 23litre bucket? Also dont have co2 tank to bubble off so will giving the bucket a shake couple times a day do the same?
Lastly since this was an old powt would you still recommend leaving it on the yeast to clear up for 8 weeks? Was hoping for a drink sooner but if can be saved it's worth the wait. If not i will bin it as im not using copper in any way.

 

[Raptor99]

@joys of cider The comment that you are quoting was made 9 years ago. The poster has not been on the site since 2018. So I doubt that you will receive a reply from him.

Since you asked:

1. H2S odors and flavor are often due to a lack of yeast nutrients, but once fermentation is mostly finished, it is too late to add nutrients. The yeast no longer need it, and it won't remove H2S.

2. You can determine whether or not the ferment is mostly finished by measuring the SG. If it is below 1.0 it is probably finished, or nearly finished.

3. The best way to remove H2S once the ferment is finished is to splash rack back and forth several times between two carboys or buckets. Shaking the bucket is not enough. You should also add Kmeta at the same time. If the H2S odor is strong, you might want to add a double dose of Kmeta.

4. I would not use copper, because you cannot control how much copper you are putting into your cider. More than a tiny amount of copper is poisonous.

5. Since you have H2S problems from stressed yeast, I would rack it off the lees sooner rather than later (which you need to do anyway to get rid of the H2S). Don't leave it in that condition for 8 weeks.