eggy cider

[Mr and Mrs luvpie]

we have bottled up our ciderish and it has an eggyish whiff, any ideas as to what could have happened??

[MKG]

I take it by eggy you mean that bad-egg kind of smell reminiscent of a classroom full of farting boys.

It's hydrogen sulphide, and it usually means that you have, or have had, a bacterial infection in the cider-making process. If it was wine, a good dose of sodium metabisulphite (Campden tablets) is the usual recourse - so it must work with cider. If you have any, pour the cider back into bulk and dose it at 5mg per gallon (one tablet or about an eighth of a level teaspoonful if it's powder). Give it a good stir and leave for a couple of days, then smell again. It may smell a bit of sulphur dioxide (which will go) but any hydrogen sulphide remaining will get through that, so you'll know if it's cured.

If you don't want to use the chemicals, there's a kill or cure method which may work. Put the cider back into bulk and give it the best shake you can to get loads of oxygen into it. If you had an anaerobic infection, this'll kill it off. If it was aerobic, the bacteria will love it and you'll lose all the cider. DO NOT, of course, try this if your cider is fizzy.

Best of luck.

EDIT: I've just read the "ciderish" recipe, and to be honest, I'm not surprised you got an infection. Depending upon wild yeasts like that is very hitty-missy.

[hoomin_erra]

As an aside, i have another question.

I am tempted to try something different this year. I've mulched all the apples through a grinder (50 Gallons worth). Has anyone tried doing it by just leaving all the mulch to ferment, and then press later? Or is this going to be a real bad idea?

[MKG]

I'd say a very bad idea. Leaving that lot to go its own way in uncontrolled conditions may well result in cider of a kind - but I'd bet that the more likely result is bacteria heaven and one hell of a big mess. You can certainly ferment your apples on the pulp - but they need to be sterile to begin with and you need to inject a robust yeast which will swamp anything else around. If you are going to depend upon wild yeasts, the pure juice should be your starting point rather than pulp - it stands a smaller chance of infection.

Having said all of that, uncontrolled fermentation can sometimes work - but I wouldn't gamble 50 gallons of anything on that possibility. The greater probability would be the development of exactly that bad-egg niff that the Luvpies got.

[hoomin_erra]

Cheers MKG