Stinky Brew, Infected?

[Mutaneer]

Hi All,

Been pushing out a few smaller batches of the last couple of years and decided I'd scale up this year with one big 60 Litre batch of the good local juice (100% Orange Pippins)
Using my same procedures and process, same Yeast, Lavlin 71B
Ferments were good, nice and clean nothing out of the ordinary.
left them for a couple of weeks to clear and settle in the fermenters as I usually do.

Came to the time of bottling and noticed they had a slightly yeasty smell and taste still.
Have had this occur in the past and it dissipates during the conditioning process.

I'm now 6 weeks in the bottle and the brews are not carbed up anywhere near where they usually would be for the same time and dose (13g/L) and they still maintain the smell and taste aswell as they haven't dropped the sediment yet,
they are usually at least 80% clear by this stage....

Any ideas?
anything I can actually test for??

It looks normal and has for the entire process.
I've had an infected beer before and you really knew it, horrible rotten smell and taste,
none of that here, just yeasty.

 

[manticle]

Get a couple into a warmer spot and see if the yeast drops out as the carb increases.

OT slightly but where do you get the pippin juice and do they have other cider apple juice available?

 

[Mutaneer]

Yeah, might throw some down on teh hot water cylinder.

Duggan Brand Apples/ Juice
Get into the Farm Gate Market in the CBD on Sundays.
Mark and Christine will hook you up.

the Orange Pippin juice is only limited times of year and goes very quickly,
the rest of the year is a blend of usually at least 50% Jonagold and then Fuji or whatever else is being pressed.
Vitamin C added already, but unpasteurised are ready to go.
Usually about 16-18% sugar so good for a 7-8% cider..

this is the first bad batch I've ever had in Cider, and can't put it down to the juice or ferment itself, unless there were some hardy wild yeasts in there, but the ferments went off steadily as usual

 

[Mutaneer]

Well. another 5 weeks on and it's not looking good for this batch.

cracked a couple of bottles last night after re-priming them,
they have carbed up nicely, but still retain the smell and won;t clear.

I think it's time to just dump this lot and move on.

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

If the juice is unpasteurised I think you've just caught some wild yeast.

Canberra Brewers did a Batlow run a couple years back and all chose unpasteurised because of the clear flavour difference (it was a hard hot pasteurise setting that day)

All our cubes were fermenting by the time we got home. It was a really weird yeast. Super white, and both flocculant and suspended at the same time - some of it hit the bottom of kegs and cubes like concrete and some of it stayed in suspension so the cider looked like milk.

It kept fermenting at even 2 degrees, but one of the boys added a saison yeast and killed the white stuff at high 20s.

Very unusual yeast but ultimately tasted ok.

I've done other wild yeast experiments that sound closer to what you have. There's a lot out there!

 

[Mutaneer]

I'm wondering if I splash it back into the fermenters with a good dose of a EC1118, GOferm and another couple hundred grams of dextrose if it'll kick it out and salvage something at least.

I've been using the Lavlin 71B as it retains much better flavour, but is also slower,

 

[scmgre]

It might be the wild yesties.

I have made about 5 batches of cider this year from apples i just picked from trees i found, some crabs, some Bramleys and I think some true bitter sweet cider apples.
I didn't use anything to inhibit the wild yeast (sodium metabisulphite/camden tablets) or pitch any of my own yeast.

I just let it ferment out all 5 batches were a bit different.
some smelt like nail varnish manily due to the different yeast strains on the apples. The klockera apiculata are pooly tolerant of alchol and die off at very low ABV 2-4% unfortunately they are the most populus initially and produce ethyl acetate. They make it smell like nail varnish remover these are the most common strain on apples (I have since Learnt i should have used a campden tablet to inhibit these while the saccharomyces cerevisiae multiply and conver the sugars to alchol). all my cider finished at below zero on the hydro `very dry`.

Perhaps if you leave your batch for a few months in the keg it will mellow out. (malo lactic fermentation)

 

[Mutaneer]

Yeah I'll just let it sit around and see what becomes of it I think.

Such a pity, was hoping to have that as my single batch to last me the year,
and it was the 100% Orange Pippin juice which is only available from teh grower for a few weeks of the year...

 

[scmgre]

been drinking mine over the last 3 months and every keg has been awsome leaving it over winter has really helped mellow it out. it's very tart but refreshing and not too dry definitely some of the nicest cider I've had, I will be doing the same again this year