Turbo Cider Question

[reidy125]

Hi All,

On Monday evening I brewed my first turbo cider.

22l AJ 100% from concentrate
600g sugar (dissolved on the hob in 1l AJ)
Strong tea (6 bags)
5 tsp pectolase
5 tsp yeast nutrient
3 tsp Youngs super wine yeast

OG 1058

I tested gravity 2 days later 1044 - brew smelled kind of like fizzy vomit!
Gravity tested again yesterday (after 4 days in FV) hydrometer reading bang on 1000 - still smells of vomit but disappears after a minute.

My worries are 1 - the 1058 has dropped to 1000 very quickly (4 days) and 2 - it smells of vomit!

Followed normal sanitation procedures. The yeast was pitched higher than planned due to the wife sticking all the cartons of AJ next to the bolier all day. Pitched at 30 (86F) but quickly dropped and maintained between 20 - 24 C (68-75F).

I would appreciate people's opinion on this. Does TC normally smell like this early on? Thanks for your guidance in advance!

 

[WilliamSlayer]

Hi All,

On Monday evening I brewed my first turbo cider.

22l AJ 100% from concentrate
600g sugar (dissolved on the hob in 1l AJ)
Strong tea (6 bags)
5 tsp pectolase
5 tsp yeast nutrient
3 tsp Youngs super wine yeast

OG 1058

I tested gravity 2 days later 1044 - brew smelled kind of like fizzy vomit!
Gravity tested again yesterday (after 4 days in FV) hydrometer reading bang on 1000 - still smells of vomit but disappears after a minute.

My worries are 1 - the 1058 has dropped to 1000 very quickly (4 days) and 2 - it smells of vomit!

Followed normal sanitation procedures. The yeast was pitched higher than planned due to the wife sticking all the cartons of AJ next to the bolier all day. Pitched at 30 (86F) but quickly dropped and maintained between 20 - 24 C (68-75F).

I would appreciate people's opinion on this. Does TC normally smell like this early on? Thanks for your guidance in advance!

Sounds like too much nutrient to me. Was that 5 tsp the reccomended ammount?

Considering you put in quite a bit of yeast as well, it does not surprise me you are finished with your fermentation so quickly. I would recommend that you leave it in the primary for at least a week more, to clear up issues like that smell. Yeast many times will clean up a brew after fermentation is finished as they are looking for more sugars to chew on.

 

[reidy125]

Hi, yes it was a recipe I found on a forum, recommending 5 tsp of nutrient.

Hopefully the primary fermentation will clean up the smell then! I'll leave it another week.

Thanks for your advice. Has anyone else experienced this kind of aroma? I was wondering if it is was normal this early in the process.

 

[bambiying]

If you look a page or two back on this forum, I posted last month about my cider smelling like vomit. I will say after adding extra AJ concentrate and a bunch of sugar that it now tastes wonderful and doesn't smell like puke anymore. I don't know if it needed sugar, or just a couple weeks time, but I totally know what you mean. I thought I was going to have to dump 6 gallons because there was no way that I was going to be able to drink that. Good luck!

 

[reidy125]

That's reassuring bambi! Would you mind telling me more about the process? Did you leave it in the primary the whole time or transfer to secondary/bottle? Also how long did you leave it at each stage for?

Hoping this will be ready for Xmas!

 

[bambiying]

I'm horrible at keeping records, reidy, but here's what I did: It was 6 gallons of apple juice, sugar and EC-1118 yeast, started at 1.052, down to .990, which took about a week or so. I then racked and added potassium sorbate and some pectic enzyme. It was really sour and had the throw up taste. Let it sit for a week, but it didn't taste better. Then added sugar and 2 cans of Treetop apple juice concentrate to backsweeten....went up to 1.015. Still throw up taste and not quite sweet enough for myself or hubby. Let it sit a few more days while deciding what to do with it. I decided that I better do something to try to fix it, so I dumped in more sugar...not sure how much, but got the gravity up to 1.027, and thought it tasted better, but still had the bad taste in the background. I then bottled the whole mess by filling up the 6 plastic gallon containers that the juice originally came in and threw them all in the back of the pantry for a few weeks before I got curious and pulled one out.

Guess what??? It's delicious now. No puke taste, not too sour, and I think I screwed up in a good way by adding all that extra sugar, because when I opened it, it made the carb hiss, and when I poured it had bubbles in it, so not only did all my tinkering and messing up worked, I got a great carbed cider out of it. I'm ready to make more because I'm drinking it so fast, and man, it packs a wallop!

Good luck to you!

 

[reidy125]

Haha bambi. Thanks for this, it's reassuring. I'll go straight from primary to bottle, if it's clear enough in a few days.

I'm not surprised yours packs such a punch if you added that much sugar! I added 600g to the 22 litres so I'm expecting about 8.5% which is more than I have planned (1058 - 990).

I can't add any more sugar because it's already too strong so I suppose I'll just have to let it clear a few days before bottling. Hopefully a few weeks in a dark place will help it lose the awful smell.

Can I ask what the potassium sorbate was used for? I've read it's to kill the yeast but why would you want that if you want carbonated cider?

 

[bambiying]

Ha! I used the sorbate to stop fermentation, because I was making a still cider since I know nothing about carbonation....I'm a wine maker, not a beer maker. So if I sorbate, then I can add sugar to sweeten. Guess I had a few yeasties still lurking around, hence the carbing. It all worked out in the end though.

 

[skitter]

Which brings about another question...

Supposedly Sorbate just keeps the Yeast from Multiplying, not killing them off. So wouldn't if make sense if you didn't want bottle bombs to add sorbate at bottling, after racking?

 

[Randzor]

If you racked/bottled correctly the amount of yeast cells wouldn't live long enough to create a bottle bomb. You never really get to 0 yeast, its all about ratios and what time table we are talking about.

 

[skitter]

If you racked/bottled correctly the amount of yeast cells wouldn't live long enough to create a bottle bomb. You never really get to 0 yeast, its all about ratios and what time table we are talking about.

Exactly, so wouldn't you be able to carbonate before it trashed?

 

[Randzor]

Correct