Two to three years ago, I used to make glorious cider using nothing but store bought apple cider and MO2. Aged 3 months in secondary and six months in the bottle resulted in smooth, savoury cider, bettter than most of the commercially available stuff.
Then last year something changed. MO2 was always prone to producing sulfur smells, I just had to baby it a little. Keep the temperature cool (around 64F) and feed it about 1 tsp of yeast nutrient per gallon (in this case DAP) in two 50% additions and we were set. No longer! Now, no matter what I do, adjust the temperature, increase/decrease the nutrient, change the type of nutrient or whatever, everything I make with MO2 is now a sulfury stink bomb.
Age it out you say? That's what I tried. Two months, three months, six months and on and the cider still stinks. It's not a subtle sulfur smell, it full on sulfur stinks. Weekly degassing with a whip for two months straight almost, ALMOST, gets rid of the smell, but you can still smell/taste it when drinking it.
So farewell MO2, we have some good memories...
Then last year something changed. MO2 was always prone to producing sulfur smells, I just had to baby it a little. Keep the temperature cool (around 64F) and feed it about 1 tsp of yeast nutrient per gallon (in this case DAP) in two 50% additions and we were set. No longer! Now, no matter what I do, adjust the temperature, increase/decrease the nutrient, change the type of nutrient or whatever, everything I make with MO2 is now a sulfury stink bomb.
Age it out you say? That's what I tried. Two months, three months, six months and on and the cider still stinks. It's not a subtle sulfur smell, it full on sulfur stinks. Weekly degassing with a whip for two months straight almost, ALMOST, gets rid of the smell, but you can still smell/taste it when drinking it.
So farewell MO2, we have some good memories...