When will my Brew Buddy rotten egg 'rhyno fart' smell go?

[Schnell88]

Yesterday, I opened my fermenting bin for the first time in 7 days to check the hydrometer reading, and wow what a stench. The hydrometer read 1.000, today it also read 1.000, and still there is an horrendous stench. Could anyone enlighten me on when this is likely to disperse?. I have just bottled it, and it wont be very pleasant to smell this when I open one to drink it, let alone offer one to someone.

Thanks :sick:

Rob

 

[corby_brewer]

hiya.
ive done 3 of the brew buddy bitter starter kits now, 1 with normal sugar, 1 with dark brown sugar and the other i bottled yesterday which ive used DSM. With all 3 kits i bottled when the hydro reading was at 1004. on neither of the kits did i experiance any off smell. what type of sugar did you use? and at what point did fementation stop?

DS :

 

[Schnell88]

Just used normal sugar, 1kg. It tasted OK, I had a sip, and read that it is normal for it to smell when brewing a cider. I have done a lager and a bitter and did not have this problem. Fermentation started at 1.036 and finished at 1.000 and was at that for 2 days. Three days ago it was 1.002, so it has not been left long after fermentation has stopped.

 

[Schnell88]

Ahh, this is Cider sorry.. forgot the most important info, as didn't realise that brewbuddy do other stuff

 

[corby_brewer]

Ive never done a cider kit, but ive just searched the inter web and found out that, The rotten egg smell is sulphur compounds coming out of the brew. and all the sites ive visited say that it should stop when fementation stops. which is usualy about 7 days or when th sg is down to 998. sorry cant help . but im sure someone out there can :hmm:

 

[corby_brewer]

just found this information on another site -
it looks like the smell is just an 'ester' called ethyl acetate, which is a natural by-product of fermentation.

Ester is produced by certain strains of yeast, but you tend to get a lot of it when you ferment at relatively high temperatures. Are you using a heat belt or something? That might be why.

But it's not an infection, so everything's cool.

 

[Aleman]

Most esters generally have a fruity smell, Ethyl Acetate smells of 'Pear Drops'. As you said earlier the rotten egg smell is some sort of sulphide . .. It is common with certain lager yeasts (S-23 is a classic), but they generally mop up after themselves at the end of fermentation, which is a good reason to extend fermentation to 10-14 days.

Unfortunately it is also a sign of infection and recently I had to 'judge' a competition where one entry could only be described as 'Fart in a glass' . . . If when you open it it still smells bad . . I would suspect you have an infection . . . fingers crossed