1st time barrel. What happened?

[JohnT]

Folks,

A general distress call....

I decided to barrel age for the first time. Here is the scenerio...

1) A purchased a 59 gallon keg from my local wine shop. The cask was a used cask from a winery and was NOT used for the production of either brandy or whiskey.

2) Soaked the barrel 6 weeks ago to the point that the wood swelled and was tight and leak free

3) Filled the barrel with a strong k-meta solution. Completely drained and refilled the cask every week.

4) Fermented the wine in a large primary. Did my first racking after one week to secondaries (54 liter demijohns).

5) After another 2 weeks, racked wine into the cask. Filled the cask to the very top and sealed with a trap and a bung.

6) The wine has now been in the cask about 1 week.


Here is the issue... I pulled a small sample (to test so2 levels) and noticed a very strong "Burnt" smell. This burnt smell very strong and is really OFF!

I know what you may be thinking, that this may be mercaptans, but the smell seems to be slightly different. I ruled out mercaptans by treating the sample with copper sulphate. For a 100ml sample, I added a whopping 10 ml of 1% solution. I gave it a stir, and let it sit for 5 minutes. This had no effect on the oder.

Does anybody have any ideas? Could this be from the "charring" of the barrel? Should I take a "wait and see" approach? Have it tested at a lab?

This one have me stumpped. Any thoughts would be appreciated!

johnT.

 

[winemaker_3352]

All i know is when a wine contains too much molecular sulfur dioxide it will smell like a burnt match and excess sulfur dioxide is not easy to remove from wine. However, sulfur dioxide slowly dissipates as wine ages and the problem will often disappear after a few months unless a gross mistake was made.

But it sounds like you ruled this one out - what were your SO2 levels?

Did you take a PH reading?

 

[JohnT]

Acid titration is right at .6

I need to check the SO2 level. I will do this tonight and report back on the findings.

I have had that "Burnt Match" smell (mercaptans) before and copper sulphate has always cleared it up. This smell (although simular) seems a bit different and hard to describe.

I was thinking of doing a "splash rack" this weekend.

johnT.

 

[JohnT]

I think that I will also send a test sample to the wine lab.