Oxidized, Spoiled, or Too Young?

[bover907]

OK, so as the thread title describes, I'm worried if I ruined my first batch of wine, or if it's just too young, and I don't know what "young" tastes like.

It's just welch's wine that I started on the 17th of September. The wine is clear now, and I re-racked, and added k-meta/sorbate, and backsweetened the other night. I tasted it at this stage, and it still tastes and smells nasty. I can't describe the taste really. I don't think it's spoiled, because there would be some sort of signs of bacterial or mold growth, right? There's no sign of any of that.

I'm also wondering if I over-sulfited it. I noticed last night, that people talk about putting something like 1/4tsp of k-meta in at every other racking, but I think I followed the measurements of 1/8tsp per gal, at second racking, and then at stabilizing. What would over sulfiting taste like and is that curable?

After I stabilized/back-sweetened the wine, I put it in several 4L jugs to bulk age in hopes time is what it needs, but I just am worried that I screwed it up, and if so, I am trying to figure out what I did wrong, so I don't screw up future batches.

My second batch, which is a Cranberry/Niagra has been racked once from secondary after a couple weeks with sparkalloid, and I haven't touched it since. Once I did the rack off gross lees/sparkalloid, I also added the 1/8tsp per gal of k-meta but that was only the first dose there. I guess I'm going to get an SO2 test kit. 1/8tsp per gallon is the directions on the bottle of K-meta powder. Is this wrong?

 

[Pumpkinman]

Brian,
We normally add 1/4 tsp of meta per 5 gallons. Over sulfiting can be fixed by introducing oxygen.
Not all spoilage will manifest itself as mold.
A wine that was started in September is still very young, it can be very tart/bitter, a wine that has excess amounts of CO2 can taste very bitter as well.
I'm more interested in hearing what the smell that you describe as "nasty" smells like, also, various tastes can be indicative of various problems, it would be beneficial to us in trying to diagnose any issues if you could describe it in detail.
Also, it is always better to bulk age rather than age in separate smaller bottles.
The best way to tell identify how much SO2 you may need is with an SO2 kit and a PH meter.

I'm sure that others will have more or similar questions for you.
I look forward to your reply.

 

[bover907]

I can't really describe the smell/taste, because I've never smelled or tasted it before. Since this is my first wine, I don't know if it tastes like it's 'supposed to' at this point or not. I'm pretty sure it's not H2S because it doesn't smell like eggs, or rotten eggs. I started this on Sept 17th. Sept 21 was when it went to secondary @ 1.018 Sg. Sept 30th, I racked off gross lees with k-meta, and vacuum degassed the wine very thoroughly, so I'm sure it's not CO2. I racked it again a month later, with no k-meta. I racked it again a month later. It was pretty much clear then, with about 1/4" of sediment, and that's when I was starting to wonder if something wasn't quite right, and posted about it.

I should've maybe re-read that thread, or resurrected it, because I'm guessing after that reading, that three months time isn't enough to have a drinkable wine? If that's so, how do they make "4 week" and "6 week" kits?

I guess a mod could feel free to merge this thread with that one.

 

[Poormanfarm]

I am fairly new to this also. this is my third year. I can understand your cerncern. When you are starting out you really don't know what smell and taste might be or even how to articulate them. The only thing that I think that I have done so far that have kept me out of trouble is that I started off by following a recipe. I have never done a kit yet. I also am a stickler for cleanliness and sterlizing every thing I touch or use in the process. I will have to say that I have not enjoyed or appreciated any of the wines that I have made until they got some age on them. I am talking 1-2 years. They were all very harsh to me and I thought about quitting several times because of taste. Now I am glad that I had a little patience and let time do what it does to the wine. If I would advise you do anything not knowing your situation is that if it were me I would back way off of the chemicals. I know that everyone has an opinion but I think less is better than too much.