Nasty smell!

[newbie2]

Hi, I recently started two melon wines, one honeydew and one watermelon. I used the same 'recipe' for both, nothing too unusual just sugar, yeast, tannin, lemon, campden....

The honeydew wine is fine and smells divine. The watermelon however is at the end of its ferment and has a horrendous gassy smell that is beyond description, other than one whiff makes me want to gag!

Don't know if there is anything I can do to save it and have no idea what has caused it. I combatted some nasty smell in my skeeter pee with some brisk whipping, racking and a couple of copper pennies in the bucket. It's a different smell this time but should I try the same thing?

Any ideas?

 

[Runningwolf]

I think Julie made this a few years ago and said the same thing but the smell goes away. Hopefully she'll chime in here soon.

 

[ibglowin]

Moved to Country Fruit Winemaking forum.

 

[newbie2]

Thanks dan, that gives me some hope that i am not alone!

 

[salcoco]

in the future add some yeast nutrient to keep yeast happy. since lag time, the period it takes to get a good fermentation going, can be lengthy in watermelon, the must can spoil thus the nasty smell. a yeast starter may be better in the future.
no knowing what a nasty smell is to you ,cannot help with solutions, does it smell of rotten eggs, vinegar, Band-Aids?

 

[newbie2]

Thanks salcoco it's a kind of rotten cheesy feet smell, I added yeast nutrient with the yeast and it has fermented, looks normal other than that.

 

[Julie]

if it is done fermenting, get it off the lees and kmeta it. If the smell does not go away within the next couple of weeks, then I am afraid it is no good. Watermelon is one of the worst wines to make, the juice spoils very easy. If you plan on making another batch, wait until fall when the temps are becoming more cooler. let it ferment outside when the temps are no higher than in the 60's and low's in the 40's, use lavlin 1118, step feed it nutrient and stir daily.

 

[Turock]

Chessy smell sounds like a spontainious MLF, with diacetyl production from the breakdown of citric acid.

 

[Julie]

Chessy smell sounds like a spontainious MLF, with diacetyl production from the breakdown of citric acid.

does it matter if the fruit is a low citric acid fruit? I read somewhere that the ph of watermelon is around 5.1

 

[newbie2]

thanks all, I have racked it and will k-meta. The smell has reduced but is still noticeable. Will see how it goes and report back later!

 

[Turock]

Well, he DID use lemon in the recipe so he had a bit more citric acid in there. The citric is SOMETIMES a potential problem.

I thought watermelon was more acidic. Someone in our wine club mentioned that the PH was very low and he didn't adjust the PH with calcium carbonate and the result was tart. But I don't have any experience with watermelon wine so not quite sure of its beginning PH.

 

[Julie]

Watermelon is very low in acid, and yes he did mention about adding lemon but I can't see that bringing the acid up very much but that would, also, depend on how much he added.

newbie2, if this makes it for you, make an fpack out of watermelon to backsweeten with,

 

[flyfishun]

I to have a bad sort of metallic smell in my red grape wine. I'm thinking oxidation. The taste is not bad but the smell is tough to get by. Any ideas how to save it.

 

[Turock]

Now---I don't know ALOT about this but Casein will remove the browning from oxidation but I'm not sure it will remove the flavor. You could call Scott Labs and discuss it with them--they are very good at answering questions by home winemakers.

Yep--metallic flavor is a severe case of oxidation. You need to know the PH of a wine in order to know sulfite dosing. So I recommend buying a PH meter and always test your must and adjust as needed, AND buy a Vinmetrica 100 so you can test sulfite levels as only free sulfite preserves the wine--not the bound sulfite.