Avoiding rhino farts in cider

Blech..... Started fermentation last night and I woke up to rhino fart central.
Recipe:
3 liters pasteurized apple juice from concentrate (no additives)
an added cup of juice that was boiled with brown sugar and raisins(removed raisins before putting juice in)
A pinch of added vanilla extract
Bread yeast (sue me)
Fermentation started fine within an hour or so. Sanitized everything properly and whatnot. One thing I might add is that the bottle I'm fermenting in contains a slight 'L' shape. Could gases be getting trapped under the curve? Is that why my cider smells like complete s***? Should I also shake regularly to degas a bit?

The only way I know of to avoid rhino farts is to not make cider.

TyTanium said:

The only way I know of to avoid rhino farts is to not make cider.

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So it's normal then? I won't have that smell stuck there forever? Because I really don't wanna bottle sulfury cider.

If you can smell it, it means it's escaping the cider. Totally normal. Degassing helps, but is often unnecessary I think.

I have not had rhino farts in the last 20 batches....

I wonder if the problem your having could be a fermentation temp over 68 Degrees F?
As far as the bread yeast is concerned: My attorney will be in touch!!
Pee will work in my truck's radiator but I will be sticking to anti-freeze in water... Gets some brewers yeast

Your temps and your container won't matter. Just as everyone has said, it's unavoidable. Sometimes it lasts a day and isn't bad, sometimes it lasts a few days and smells like a$$. If it hangs on more than a week, I'll rack it over to secondary and it usually goes away. (I typically rack to secondary from 12-14 days anyway)

wow I haven't encountered the rhino fart smell yet with cider... As for bread yeast; meh do what you want it's your cider; same to the guy that pees in his radiator; if it makes you happy, I won't stop you (for more than one reason), just don't do it in public!

I just expoxied a gas mask canister to the top of my 2-piece airlock. Picked it up from a surplus shop that was selling the past due ones for $6. It takes care of the odours and doesn't create much resistance, just make sure you put it on the right way or it won't allow gas to escape.

Do cider makers usually add some yeast nutrient before fermenting? I have never had any batch of anything smell like a rhino fart so I wonder if this is just a technical thing of not adding enough nutrients to get the yeast started off good? WVMJ

My first batch of cider is still in secondary, so I'm no expert but I filled my air lock with crown royal maple whiskey. Never got any rhino farts but my basement spelt like maple. I wouldn't advise spending $30 on a bottle to use as an air lock liquid but I had it around, didn't like the maple flavor so tried it out and it appeared to work.

SeamusMac said:

I just expoxied a gas mask canister to the top of my 2-piece airlock. Picked it up from a surplus shop that was selling the past due ones for $6. It takes care of the odours and doesn't create much resistance, just make sure you put it on the right way or it won't allow gas to escape.

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That's an amazing idea! I'm gonna try that out! Thanks everyone

WVMJ said:

Do cider makers usually add some yeast nutrient before fermenting? I have never had any batch of anything smell like a rhino fart so I wonder if this is just a technical thing of not adding enough nutrients to get the yeast started off good? WVMJ

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I've wondered the same thing. I didn't add nutrients, I just added some boiled brown sugar/apple juice/raisin water. Everyone says they're unavoidable though.

WVMJ said:

Do cider makers usually add some yeast nutrient before fermenting? I have never had any batch of anything smell like a rhino fart so I wonder if this is just a technical thing of not adding enough nutrients to get the yeast started off good? WVMJ

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Me neither. I think it's yeast-driven, though, so I don't use yeast strains that produce alot of sulfur and I ferment on the cool side. I use yeast nutrient (or energizer) in primary always, and of course stirring a couple of times a day for the first few days would encourage degassing and aeration which hellps.

Well I boiled some bread yeast as a nutrient and added it in when it cooled down. Still not really experiencing a lot of bubbling like I usually expect from my meads after about four hours. Is it normal for cider to not have those big frothy bubbles you get when making mead? Also, the smell is still present, just not as strongly as it was previously. I suspect it will go away soon. It's only been four days after all.

I never have sulfide smells brewing with my own home made juice. I keep my trees well fertilised with nitrogen etc. You can buy DAP very cheap, better than boiled yeast. Adding sugar seems to be the cause of the smells in most threads.

In my experience the sulphur smells are the result of a poor nutrient environment for the yeast. There are a variety of solutions, but start with a regular wine makers yeast nutrient blend from your LHBS, and the smell should improve dramatically. Alternatively, if you add some malt a-la the graff thread on here, that can supply vital nutrients as well.

Well, it's been about a week, and I didn't take a gravity, but I did sample a little. I get a really sour, sort of alcohol, slightly fruity taste. It isn't just fermented dry. It's too sour for that. I know I sanitized well also. I know it isn't a good amount of details to go on, but what could I have done wrong?

You used a bread yeast.

I've done (drank) two 5 gallon batches, one fermented dry, one was the caramel apple hard cider, I have 2 other batches going right now, 8 days in primary. They smell sweet and good. Never an unpleasant smell out of any of the airlocks. My dry cider wasn't bottled, I just put it in gallon jugs and it started to get a bit vinegary (made some good BBQ sauce out of some a month later!

I plan to do a cyser with 5 gallons of unpasteurized (campden tabs tho for a day before pitching yeast) cider, 5# honey, and I have a wine yeast......that's next.

All of my batches so far have been 15 gallons from the local orchard, 5 gallons from whole foods "365 organic".

So bad juice or yeast I guess.

I don't know anything about rhino farts, as I haven't had any yet. I am on my 4th and 5th (2 different batches) round of cider. One batch is fresh apples I picked and juiced, and the other is 13 cans of AJC, water, 4 green apples, and 2 fuji's. I know the flavors will be different, I just want to know if adding fresh apples to concentrate will give more of a "fresh" taste. I have used London ESB 1968 for all 5 batches, and had great luck. I use ESB 1968 for everything I brew; beer, cider, you name it. I did find out under pitching yeast makes the kick off times very long. (slow). I am on the same batch of yeast since last year, and I am not anal about yeast washing or anything. I collect a quart of the yeast cake from my fermenting bucket, put it into a sterile jar and into the fridge until I need another batch of starter. I warm the yeast up to room temperature, add 2 cups of preboiled water with 1/4 cup of sugar added, mix, wait an hour or so, and add it to my fermenter. I have never had to wait more than 4 hours for the airlock to get busy. YMMV. Oh, by the way, I have been freeze concentrating some of my previous hard cider, and wow!, I don't know what the actual proof is, but at 16F the concentrate is still liquid.

Im currently in the process of Pressing and pitching yeast for my first ever Cider. (80 liters in total!) We are using local apples with varying degrees of sweetness. We used Campden powder, and added yeast Nutrient to our starters. As far as Rhino farts are concerned Ive observed a fair amount of flatulence from the Ale yeast we pitched and very little fermentation, where as the White wine yeast seems to of really kicked off and is producing a less nostril stinging air of sweetness. Hopefully the First batch picks up a bit and the smell goes away!

So it's the yeast and not the lack of nutrients or the juice is what you guys are saying?

I'm a complete newbie so don't put too much into my opinion just yet. I'm in the middle of several brewing books, on my 10th solo batch (mixed). Red star Montrachet yeast was only $1, I'd have used that instead of red star bread yeast (was it quick rise?). I tossed 2 batches (1/2 gallon each in 1G jugs) of naturally fermented cider. I might've smelled something less than pleasant on my first 2 batches when I moved them from the basement to my bedroom when I thought it was too cold, but if I did it didn't last long.

No matter how it turns out you'll have at least learned something, & we will too. I watched a youtube vid where a 1 gallon brewer used bread yeast to make his cider but I didn't watch follow up videos to see the results. Maybe it's common. There's a lot of types of bread yeasts though (I have a simple, single bread recipe I've been making for a few years).