Help With My Hard Cider?

[TomNotMeAtSix]

This is the recipe I used;

1G Youngs Cider Yeast
20L Asda Apple Juice
1L Mango
1L Forest Fruits
1L Pineapple
1L CHerry
1L Raspberry and Cranberry

5x 5L Demijohns with Airlocks.

250G Caster Sugar

1tsp Yeast Nutrients Per Demijohn.

The 20L was divided as 4L in each DJ and then the 1L flavors was added (1 flavor per DJ)

The brew was all mixed up form the start, firstly I forgot to warm up the juice and forgot to pitch the yeast, I just added it to the top. This lead to a slow activation as the yeast was added to 18 degree juice.

The O.G was 1.050-1.060. (with added sugar)

After this first setback I then forgot to place water in the airlocks for the first 24 hours, once I did fill them with water they started bubbling fine.

Yesterday I woke up to find a ROTTEN egg smell coming form where they're being stored witch I found out to be the infamous 'Rhino Fart'

I went to them today to find NO bubbles in the airlock form any of them (they hadn't been slowing down just stopped) I also found a thick mush at the top of some of them. I cracked open the lids, cleanded the airlocks and stuff and had a sniff to see if Rhino was still there (it is). I checked the O.G again and all of them are down to 1.005-1.010 sort of area.

What do I do next? Step by step. From what I know I think I should re racking it all for another two weeks and then bottling (maximum removal of all sedement) but when should I do this second racking? and have I ruined it? I'm sure it was supposed to be taking longer than this? What about all this thick stuff at the top? What do I do about that?

Thanks for any help guys .

 

[ewebb]

some quick research suggests airiating the batch by gently pouring it back and forth...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/cider-tastes-smells-sulphur-157361/

im sure the crew would want a pic of the mush.

 

[TomNotMeAtSix]

Heres a picture, its form my mango cider

 

[icanbenchurcat]

When I brew cider, I leave them in primary for 30 days, then bottle. They clear up pretty well on their own.

Since you have fruit particles in there, maybe someone else has better advice.

The sulfur smell subsides after primary if/when I have it, not sure how terrible it smells for you. If its extremely strong you might need to aide it.

 

[TomNotMeAtSix]

My cider doesn't have any fruit particles in it . And yeah the smell is worse on some, the mango is AWFUL but the others are bearable.

 

[jro238]

I don't brew much cider but based on my beer brewing, your 'gunk' on the top is completely normal. For future reference, most prefer to fill their airlocks with sanitizer (i.e. Starsan) or cheap vodka instead of water since bacteria and fungus will be much less likely to grow. The main fermentation time is mostly based on your choice of yeast and fermentation temperature--if you want this to be slower, lower your temperature.

As for what to do next:

I would just leave them alone for at least another week or two. This will let the fermentation come to completion (the vast majority of your fermentation is complete already, but this extra time tends to clean up the flavors). After this, you can either let it sit a little longer to clarify then bottle/keg, or you can rack to a secondary for another week or two (I personally don't do a secondary with 95% of my brews, but many do). The secondary would be beneficial if you did have lots of fruit particulate in your cider.

 

[icanbenchurcat]

My cider doesn't have any fruit particles in it . And yeah the smell is worse on some, the mango is AWFUL but the others are bearable.

Just the fruit juice you added probably wasn't 100% clear when it started, so there are some (very tiny) fruit particles in there.

They will settle out once the yeast slow down CO2 production, and cooler temperature will speed this up.

Like jro said, give it some time... and it will be fiiiiine.
Let us know how it turns out - I am very interested in the different juices, I might have to give pineapple or cherry a try.

 

[JimRausch]

I haven't used Young's Cider yeast, but last year I did a batch with Wyeast Cider yeast. There was a very distinctive sulfur smell in the 1st week that faded with time. No sulfur smell or taste at bottling time(I waited a month). I'm guessing cider yeasts must be related to lager yeasts.

 

[Veronis]

Heya Tom,

Sounds like you have some good advice already, but I thought I'd chime in for what it's worth (I agree with jro238).

If this were my cider, I would leave it sit in primary for 2-3 weeks, then rack or bottle, then let it age for a few months to settle. Those rhino farts are probably indicative that you're going to have the sulphur flavor until it settles out, which it will with time.

There's nothing to be done right now about the stuff on top. It's krausen from the yeast, and is to be expected. It will drop out, and if it doesn't, just rack from underneath it in a couple weeks. If your sanitation/pasteurization was good, it'll be fine.

For the future,
1. If you're concerned about the juice that you added, in the future you could pasteurize it by steeping it in a few cups of water (if whole) for 15-20 minutes, at anywhere between 150-160 degrees F. If it's juice, no need to add any water. Cool, then dump everything into the carboy. Maybe you already do this; I didn't see you mention it.
2. Like a lot of cider yeasts, Young's produces sulphur during fermentation, which results in the rhino farts smell. There are two things you can do about this:
a) Add yeast nutrient (at the recommended amount on the bottle) to your steep, or to a small 5 minute boil of 1-2 cups water. This greatly reduces the "fart" smell. It may even change to a pleasant, almost pumpkin-y smell. This will not fix the sulphur taste, however. Only time fixes that.
b) Create a carbon filter. I used this guide, and cheap Petco brand fish tank activated carbon, and it reduced the sulphur/fart smell by 100% instantly - and the smell was so strong it had taken over half the house. I was amazed. http://www.flickr.com/photos/8338840@N06/5363776771/in/set-72157625845526344 Click the "Next" button on the far right to scroll through pictures; descriptive how-to text is below the pictures. It works and takes very little effort; just a trip to Michaels/AC Moore and a pet store is all you need.

 

[TomNotMeAtSix]

Wow guys, thanks for all the replies .

ican- if you plan on trying a similar recapie then there's a few things I would change about mine, firstly make sure all juices are 100% concentrate (some of mine were only 40-75%) and whatever juice flavoring you pick use multiple titres of it, for example 2L of apple to 2L of pineapple as mine have a VERY subtle taste of the flavor.

and to everyone else thanks for the advice, its officially one week today that it was started and the rhino seems to have lessened, although I keep checking the gravity and its still 1.005 (down .045 from its OG) I'll just keep waiting and waiting, guess I'm just being impatient.

 

[Kahless]

Looks like the fermentation is going well up there

A lot of the flavours of the juices will be changed by the fermentation; although not without its worries, you can stabalize with a combination of potassium sorbate and campden tablets, and then add fruit juice to get the full fruit juice flavour like many commercial ciders (and also add some apple juice in there too). The main drawback is that the cider then has to be flat (as the yeast have been killed off by the stabalization, and they do the carbonation by fermenting the small amount of extra sugar added at bottling) unless you have kegs and CO2 (and a keg to bottle gun for bottling pressurised beer - all too expensive for me, so its flat sweet cider and tart fizzy cider).

 

[TomNotMeAtSix]

Ahh! That's interesting! My plan is a half a teaspoon of sugar to each bottle (varying 330ml-500ml) I'm going to see how this brew goes and maybe add a bit of fruit juice to each bottle, for example with a 330ml bottle i might add 300 cherry cider and then 30ml of cherry juice or concentrate just to boost flavour! It'll be a tad trial and error I suppose .

 

[Kahless]

Be careful with the amount of juice and sugar you add, as if you add too much the bottles could explode as it gets fermented out. The juice at bottling is maybe a bit harder to properly measure and calculate, as the sugar is only part of the juice, and you want to get the right measurement. It can be done though, if calculated well.

Considering most bottles ability to handle pressure*, between 30 and 200g of sugar is the amount I would add to my normal 23 Litres batches (so thats 0.65 to 4.35 grams of sugar per bottle). Most fruit juices that you get in cartons have 9-11g of sugar per 100ml, so just the 30ml of juice to each bottle would be 3.3g of sugars: enough to prime on its own, and another half teaspoon of table sugar would make it too much: glass bottles could explode!

* brown glass ones can take 3 or 4 volumes of CO2, I've heard plastic can take 10; see this calculator: http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/.

 

[TomNotMeAtSix]

Ahhh, thanks for that! I think I've changed my plan again though. The extra juice I was going to add is out of the window and I'll count this as cider with a hint of other flavors, not flavored cider. I'll make flavored cider next time aha. Thanks for all the help guys, this is great .

 

[icanbenchurcat]

For sweet, sparkling cider you could pasteurize.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/cider-v1-0-a-145045/