Help-Run smells like amonia

[Lcarter114]

I fermented some apples last week and this time I tried a turbo yeast and yeast nutrient. After the fermentation was done I added baking soda to try to make the final product smoother (a friend of mine tried this and worked). I am running it right now using a thumper which has a few apples, apple juice and some tails from my last run. When it comes out it has a blue tint and smells like amonia. Can anyone tell me why it has a blue tint and smells like amonia? Is it safe?

Thanks
Luther

[rubber duck]

That's exactly what you just made, you made ammonia. It's not salvageable and it would be dangerous to drink, toss it out.

Where you made your mistake is that you upped the PH of the wash not the low wines. If your going to add baking soda to up the PH it should only be done to low wine/ IE a striped wash. When you up the ph of a wash to the point is alkali it makes ammonia.

Also you really only want to do this if your making a neutral vodka, In an apple wash there is a lot of flavor in the heads and your going to want to blend some of that back. Adding baking soda will strip a lot of flavor that your going to want in your final product.

[Lcarter114]

Thanks, I thought I messed up with the yeast nutrient. I won't do that again.
Thanks again for the information.

[Dnderhead]

two things ,,yes to much nutrients . the turbo has to much to start with, then you added more? this made over abundance of nitrogen,,then adding alkaline created ammonia.. both bad choices..

[rubber duck]

HMMM, I was so focused on the baking soda part I missed that.

Thanks for pointing that out.