Beer Forum

I added 150ppm of Potassium Metabisulfite (15 camden tabs) to 5 gal of fresh apple juice
OG 1.064 PH 4
FG 1.003 right now... its smells like rotten eggs, but If I take my hydrometer sample and poor it back and fourth between glasses: after a minute the rotten egg smell is gone and it tastes great.
What’s the best way to get the smell out? Do I poor the batch between buckets then keg? Or will force carbonating clear the smell?
Any thoughts?

Never had that exact problem but I would think if you kegged it, hooked up gas to the liquid post & vented the PRV, you could likely scrub it out.

I've had good luck burping the sulfur off the keg as Ozwald suggests. I used about half the suggested Camden tablets because I was worried about the sulfur and still wound up with some excess.

Yes, kegging and venting lets you do it in a closed system, pouring between buckets is going to pick up oxygen (although not as big an issue in ciders as in beer, still not what you want), and possibly bugs (though not much left to eat).

Thanks you guys. I'll Try kegging it first.

What temperature were you fermenting? How long did it stay on the yeast? How much DAP & nutrient did you have in the must? When did you notice the H2S gas?

Without getting into the full biochem discussion, you have a higher risk of forming H2S gas in the cider from these:

~ Yeast nutrient deficiency (Nitrogen, Pantothenate, Oxygen) = yeast produces more sulphide than it needs which forms as H2S gas - look at the Fermaid K and DAP additions (staggered similar to mead)

~ Too much Nitrogen (yeast metabolizes too fast- stagger nutrient additions, don't chuck it all in at the beginning

~ Wild yeast contamination

~ Higher fermentation temperatures (yeast stress)- look into cooler fermentation temps 59F to 64F

~ too much free SO2 in the must - test your must, the SO2 level needs to be less than 80mg/litre = limit your campden tablets to 1 per gallon (prefermentation) or 2.5 grams per gallon

~ Yeast autolysis - left on the lees too long (more than 2 days is pushing it)

~ when the must is 2-3 degrees Plato from being finished stir up the lees - this will help avoid redox at the bottom and control H2S production

NOW that the H2S is in your cider, CO2 flush as the others have stated. A Potassium Caseinate fining can be used. Also activated carbon filter.

BrewChoPs wrote:What temperature were you fermenting? How long did it stay on the yeast? How much DAP & nutrient did you have in the must? When did you notice the H2S gas?

Without getting into the full biochem discussion, you have a higher risk of forming H2S gas in the cider from these:

~ Yeast nutrient deficiency (Nitrogen, Pantothenate, Oxygen) = yeast produces more sulphide than it needs which forms as H2S gas - look at the Fermaid K and DAP additions (staggered similar to mead)

~ Too much Nitrogen (yeast metabolizes too fast- stagger nutrient additions, don't chuck it all in at the beginning

~ Wild yeast contamination

~ Higher fermentation temperatures (yeast stress)- look into cooler fermentation temps 59F to 64F

~ too much free SO2 in the must - test your must, the SO2 level needs to be less than 80mg/litre = limit your campden tablets to 1 per gallon (prefermentation) or 2.5 grams per gallon

~ Yeast autolysis - left on the lees too long (more than 2 days is pushing it)

~ when the must is 2-3 degrees Plato from being finished stir up the lees - this will help avoid redox at the bottom and control H2S production

NOW that the H2S is in your cider, CO2 flush as the others have stated. A Potassium Caseinate fining can be used. Also activated carbon filter.

Thank you. I staggered nutrients. fermentation temperature stay between 62 and 72. I transferred of the yeast appropriately when fermentation was finished. I didn't get a chance to rose the yeast before the end of fermentation.

hey homebrew shop owner told me to add mallable copper to a sample of wort to see if the sulfate would bind with the copper and drop out. The test worked. So I sanitized an inch piece of metal copper and dropped it in my keg last night. according to this home brew shop owner I should leave it in there for a few days let everything settle and transfer of the yeast, stabilize and back sweeten.