I've helped others with H2S, in the distant past -- I recently got the "opportunity" to help myself. I also have a couple of questions (see below).
My son and I racked a carboy of a second run Vinifera blend and it smells and tastes great (for a totally green wine). Then we started racking the 54 liter demijohn. After a minute he backed up rapidly with a wrinkled nose. "Dang Dad! That is rank!"
Except it wasn't me (not sure a live human can produce a smell like that). I sniffed, my first thought was, "what the heck!" and my second thought was, "Oh @*#$!!!". Yup, H2S.
I immediately checked my barrels for H2S. Losing the demijohn would hurt, but it's 2nd run wine, so I can philosophically handle that. If I lose either barrel? Serious catastrophe! Thankfully both barrels are good!
Recently @sour_grapes recommended Reduless for treating H2S. BITD we racked over new copper pennies or copper scrubby pads, as that was the accepted method at that time. If I had no other choice I'd do it, but since I do have choices I opted otherwise.
Quick research found several sites that I figure I can trust, that all recommended stirring hard to drive the H2S off and then hitting it with K-meta. I racked the wine into 3 separate buckets and stirred each for 5 minutes with a drill mounted stirring rod, changing direction every 30 seconds. This drove off a LOT of gas.
WARNING: H2S is apparently flammable -- I opened all the windows and had a fan running across the buckets.
I ordered 30 grams of Reduless, which arrived yesterday. The directions say 0.4 to 0.6 grams dissolved in 6 ml water per gallon of wine. The demijohn is 14 gallons and I went with the middle ground, 0.5 grams, so I need 7 grams. Except I don't have a scale fine enough to measure. 30 divided by 4 is 7.5, so I divided the package in 4 and added 1 portion.
I siphoned 1 gallon out of the demijohn, added the Reduless, and stirred for 2 minutes, changing direction every 30 seconds. There was some sediment on the bottom, but it was completely distributed, so I figured the Reduless was distributed. This produced a lot of gas, but almost no perceptible H2S smell. Then I poured the reserved gallon back in.
Directions say to rack in 72 hours, so on Wednesday I'll rack.
Question 1 -- is there anything I should have done differently? While it won't change my situation, it may help others who read this. Given the lack of smell this morning, I'm wondering if I needed the Reduless, or if I should have used less.
Question 2 -- should I add a fining agent to help precipitate the solids? I have bentonite, but can buy Super-Kleer tomorrow.
Thanks!
My son and I racked a carboy of a second run Vinifera blend and it smells and tastes great (for a totally green wine). Then we started racking the 54 liter demijohn. After a minute he backed up rapidly with a wrinkled nose. "Dang Dad! That is rank!"
Except it wasn't me (not sure a live human can produce a smell like that). I sniffed, my first thought was, "what the heck!" and my second thought was, "Oh @*#$!!!". Yup, H2S.
I immediately checked my barrels for H2S. Losing the demijohn would hurt, but it's 2nd run wine, so I can philosophically handle that. If I lose either barrel? Serious catastrophe! Thankfully both barrels are good!
Recently @sour_grapes recommended Reduless for treating H2S. BITD we racked over new copper pennies or copper scrubby pads, as that was the accepted method at that time. If I had no other choice I'd do it, but since I do have choices I opted otherwise.
Quick research found several sites that I figure I can trust, that all recommended stirring hard to drive the H2S off and then hitting it with K-meta. I racked the wine into 3 separate buckets and stirred each for 5 minutes with a drill mounted stirring rod, changing direction every 30 seconds. This drove off a LOT of gas.
WARNING: H2S is apparently flammable -- I opened all the windows and had a fan running across the buckets.
I ordered 30 grams of Reduless, which arrived yesterday. The directions say 0.4 to 0.6 grams dissolved in 6 ml water per gallon of wine. The demijohn is 14 gallons and I went with the middle ground, 0.5 grams, so I need 7 grams. Except I don't have a scale fine enough to measure. 30 divided by 4 is 7.5, so I divided the package in 4 and added 1 portion.
I siphoned 1 gallon out of the demijohn, added the Reduless, and stirred for 2 minutes, changing direction every 30 seconds. There was some sediment on the bottom, but it was completely distributed, so I figured the Reduless was distributed. This produced a lot of gas, but almost no perceptible H2S smell. Then I poured the reserved gallon back in.
Directions say to rack in 72 hours, so on Wednesday I'll rack.
Question 1 -- is there anything I should have done differently? While it won't change my situation, it may help others who read this. Given the lack of smell this morning, I'm wondering if I needed the Reduless, or if I should have used less.
Question 2 -- should I add a fining agent to help precipitate the solids? I have bentonite, but can buy Super-Kleer tomorrow.
Thanks!