Question about sulfuric smell

[Dan1]

Hello all -- this forum has been insanely useful as I've started getting up the cider-making curve. Lots of people asking questions I've had as my wife and I tried making our first few batches.

I had a question about two of the batches. They're each a gallon from fresh-pressed cider we bought at a farm. Per what I've read, we decided to add one campden tablet to each.

It's two weeks later, and the primary fermentation appears to be more or less complete -- their gravities are both around 1.000.

What's troublesome is the smell and taste of the cider. It's extremely sulfuric (a few sips made me queasy). I noted to my wife that one of the gallons "smells like fireworks." Out of all of our batches, these are the only two that smell sulfuric, but they're also the only one we put a campden tablet into. Because they're the only batches from cider from this source AND the only ciders we used campden tablets on, I don't have a control to narrow down the cause of the smell, though I suspect the tablets.

Is a sulfuric smell normal two weeks after adding the tablets? Can I expect it to dissipate? Or should I be worried?

(Yeast for both was Red Star Champagne)

 

[Maylar]

No, it's not normal. Campden is a sulphite but in normal doses doesn't have any smell. How much did you use?

 

[Dan1]

1 tablet per gallon of these tablets, which is the recommended dosage: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0064H0LHA/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

You think the batch is probably bad?

 

[dmtaylor]

Sulfur is indeed pretty normal in ciders, especially where Campden was used. This stresses out the yeast. And two weeks is barely enough time for the yeast to be finished, much less for sulfur to dissipate. Typically the sulfur will be gone after a good 4 to 6 weeks. Give it time. Be patient. That's the best thing you can do. Don't dump it.

One other idea that's been tossed around, although I haven't tried it personally, is that you can add copper to the cider, and this is supposed to react with the sulfur and settle it out. I mean, throw in a couple of copper pennies, or a short length of copper tube, for a few days, and see if that helps. My fear and reason that I have not tried it is that this could result in a metallic flavor in the cider. But, might be worth a shot if you're in a hurry. But, more than anything else, what you really need is...

Patience. Patience.

 

[brewing_clown]

Did you add yeast nutrient? I found that adding nutrient stops the sulfur.

 

[dmtaylor]

Did you add yeast nutrient? I found that adding nutrient stops the sulfur.

That's not a bad idea. Personally I don't use nutrient and don't have problems with sulfur, but if you do have problems, it sure couldn't hurt anything.

 

[Dan1]

Did you add yeast nutrient? I found that adding nutrient stops the sulfur.

Not into these batches. Worth adding now, you think?

The consensus seems to wait a few more weeks, and to exercise that most challenging virtue, patience.

 

[DarkStarNJ]

Not into these batches. Worth adding now, you think?

The consensus seems to wait a few more weeks, and to exercise that most challenging virtue, patience.

I'm only one batch in but....


The entire fermentation closet smelled horrific for about two weeks. Insane sulfur smell. It was highly offensive. THe rest of the family complained a lot


Fast forward a few months and there is no remaining sulfur smell or taste at all.

Let it ride.

 

[brewing_clown]

Not into these batches. Worth adding now, you think?

The consensus seems to wait a few more weeks, and to exercise that most challenging virtue, patience.

Not sure it will do much if fermentation has completed.

 

[jsiddall]

Do not add any nutrients now. Doing so will only help spoilage organisms.

Nutrient can help early in the ferment (before the half way point) but what @DarkStarNJ said is correct: it should age out fine. I made my recent batches with no nutrient after reading this post:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=518060

So far no issues with H2S despite them smelling bad during ferment.

 

[andrewf1985]

If its totally finished then patience, however if youve still got fermentation under way then splashing will help knock it out. I had to pour a batch of mead from demijohn to demijohn to get rid of the smell early on and ive had no adverse affects from it. If its caught early, its easier to remove

Edit - just seen fermentation is complete so maybe a thought for the future

 

[Paps]

Sulphur smells can be an indicator of `unhappy yeast`
yeast get unhappy when they lack nutrients, which apple juice definately does lack it for yeast.
They also get unhappy if they ferment too warm ( over 70-f liquid temp is too warm, some would argue over 66-f is too warm )
On your next batch use yeast nutrient/energizer and ferment cooler.
On this batch, patience and the smell will go away in time (months)
-hope this helps.