Green Onion Blackberry wine?

[Guapo]

I bought two cans of Vintners Harvest Blackberry and made six gallons of wine. During racking, I kept smelling an odor, like B.O. After checking myself, I determined that it was coming from the wine. Before bottling I found the wine to be thin bodied, so off to Sam's Club for some blackberries and a F-pack. Long story-shortened, I have a terrible green onion/ Body Odor smell/taste in my wine. Ughh!!! Six gallons of Blackberry/green onion/ B.O. .
Anybody have an idea what happened. It seems as if their was possibly a patch of wild onions growing near where the berries were grown and possibly corrupted the flavor somewhat. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Wade E]

Never encountered that. I always take a taste of whatever Im using to make the wine just to make sure it tastes good up front cause if its bad up front youll usually get the same or worse on the back end! Did you follow the 3 gallon recipe on the can?

 

[Goodfella]

Just remember.... Lots of things can change as it goes...


So don't dump it yet!!!

 

[Wade E]

Never dump a batch unless you at least give it a year! Ive had a few wines that I felt like dumping but didnt mainly for the reason as I just started and wanted something on my shelves to fill the empty space!

After about 8 months I broke down and tried a bottle and it had come around full circle and really was awesome. Im not saying that every crappy wine will come around like this but give it the chance. I still have one batch down there that after 6 months was still nasty and honestly its about 2 1/4 years old now and I havent tried it since so its about time I give it another try, it was the Joe Mattiolis Orange mead.

 

[First250]

For what it's worth..I have been making wine for onlya few years but have experienced bad tastes in a few fruit wines. One was blueberry that tasted good at bottling but developed a strong 'cloves ' taste after about 6 months. Several months later the cloves taste was gone and the wine is nowpromising. The only bad taste that never went away was a batch of peach wine that stillsucks after a year and half. There were several batches various types of wine that tasted bad prior to bottling but turned out fine after ageing.

 

[Guapo]

I will not pour it out, but will wait for a few months and try it again. Wade, yes I followed the instructions on the can. I've had very good luck with all the VH fruits before. I've made, Cherry (twice), elderberry (twice), black currant, and now Blackberry. All were very good until now.

 

[xanxer82]

All you can do is buy a new carboy and move on while that one sits a while...

 

[Waldo]

Make sure the fruit you are using to make wine from is good quality fruit, cull or cut out any blemishes, bad spots, etc. It can and will cause you problems. Stay within acceptable parameters of temps during the fermentation stages and practice good sanitation procedures with everything your wine comes in contact with and you should not encounter any problems

 

[Brewgrrrl]

That is such a weird flavor/odor though... any chance that a fruit fly or other such bugger might have wiggled into the fermentation? I really just don't know what would cause an onion flavor, but that might be a possibility.

 

[Guapo]

I really don't think I have a spoilage problem. The wine would be great ( and is according to friends who like onions) If it didn't have that taste. The blackberry seems fine, just perhaps tainted somewhere along the way with wild or green onions. I would be interested to see if anyone else who might have purchased Vintners Harvest blackberry has the same taste.

 

[intoxicating]

How much yeast nutrient or energizer did you use? I had one batch of yeast get stressed and start smelling like BO during fermentation, but a teaspoon of yeast nutrient and splash rack cleared it right up.

 

[Guapo]

I feel sure it was the appropriate amount, due to me going by the recipe on the can.

 

[Guapo]

UPDATE!

The blackberry wine is awesome after aging it some more. A friend of mine said the green onion taste/smell was from the strain of yeast that I used
( Red Star Premium Cuvee ). It went away and has made a fine wine. Thanks for the replies!

 

[Bert]

Hey, that's great...and thanks for the update....enjoy..

 

[Goodfella]

Glad to hear it Buddy