Rhrino fart filter...

[vespa2t]

In 10 years I have never had a batch of cider get so stank that I was worried. This batch was H2S central ( just juice and s04, OG 1.050, ferm temp 38 to 65 in my greenhouse, nutrient added 2 days in, stank developed at 4 days

Took a tip from wine folks and ran my cider through a copper pot scrubber. Took a turkey baster and stuck one end in my racking cane tube and put the scrubber in the other without the bulb. Racked from one Carboy to the other, and much to my surprise it worked! Bam, smells like normal fermentation.

 

[Devo9]

Cool, good to know. Thanks for sharing!

 

[CodyA]

this should be a sticky for all the posts about rhino farts I see around here. Great info, thanks!

 

[LeBreton]

Clever!

For safety's sake though I would suggest only using copper as a last resort, since it's poisonous.

The H2S smell is at it's worse when fermentation is going. Not worth worrying about while at his stage. Once the reactions stop the smell typically doesn't linger too much. If it does, here's some suggestions in rough order of personal preference:

1- Wait.
2- Rack to new carboy, then wait.
3- De-gas by stirring gentry (no splashing!) or by bubbling with CO2 if you have the equipment.
4- Add sulfites.
5- Use copper

 

[vespa2t]

1) Im not adding copper-sulfate additive, which is typically FAR more copper than would be added by this method. I wouldnt even bother with that, Id just dump the $15 in cider before going down the laboratory-ish method.

2) The safe limit of copper is 1mg/L, which would be a huge amount of copper. EPA says you could drink water with that much copper indefinitely and not have adverse reaction.

2.5) Go look at your multivitamin in your medicine cabinet. Chances are it has ~2mg of copper

3) The resultant chemical reaction between the scrubbie and the cider is copper-monosulfide, which is insoluble and will fall out of solution.

4) Im not waiting 2-3 months. I make a crap load of cider each year as a daily delicious beverage that is typ 5.0%, not Apfelwein that needs to be aged to get to peak.

 

[LeBreton]

Copper sulfate eliminates the H2S via the same chemical reaction as the copper scrubby, where the copper binds with the sulfer and frees the hydrogen. Toxicity risk is not from the resulting copper monosulfide which drops out of solution, but from the excess copper that does not bind and is left dissolved in the product. The benefit of adding copper sulfate powder is that you can accurately, and safely, measure exactly how much copper is being added to the cider. The scrubby method however, leaves the user with no idea how much copper is actually being added.