Apple Wine - rotten egg smell

[misskimmie]

I have a batch ( 7 gal.) of apple wine in primary ferment. It's day 3 since pitching yeast. (champagne yeast is all I had). I used 3 gallons of apple cider from a local cider mill and the rest was juice from windfall apples. I divided the batch between 2 buckets. All seemed well - good ferment, and I've been mixing it 2x a day. After an afternoon of running errands, I returned to check on the buckets. After lifting the lid off bucket A, I noticed a strong rotten egg smell. Bucket B also smells, but not as strong. Did I contaminate? Can this be saved? I also have 2 more batches - a plum and an apple-blackberry nearby. They smell fine. What should I do.

 

[Julie]

try splash racking your wine a couple of times.

 

[Tom]

I doubt it. It may just be the yeasties doing their thing.. Continue as you would...

 

[ffemt128]

Being day 3 I don't think there is anything to worry about. As Tom said, probably just yeast doing it's thing. I can't remember if my first batch had any odors, it probably did also.

Give it time, it should work out okay.

 

[misskimmie]

I do LOVE the smell of fermenting wine, It makes me happy. But not this smell.

 

[Racer]

Did you add any yeast nutrients at the start?

 

[JasonH]

I had a similar experience my first time switching to k-meta from campden tablets. I added a little too much k-meta and both of my buckets had a rotten egg smell but one was much worse that the other. It went away after a few days and the wine was fine.

 

[countrygirl]

I had a similar experience my first time switching to k-meta from campden tablets. I added a little too much k-meta and both of my buckets had a rotten egg smell but one was much worse that the other. It went away after a few days and the wine was fine.

i was just reading that montrachet had a tendency to do this more so than some others...but i see u used champagne yeast...hmmm

 

[gird123]

Look up apfelwein on homebrewtalk. It looks like that smell is very common. I have finished 5 gallons and have another 15 in carboys. The first 5 smelled bad at first, but turned out so good i did 15 more.

 

[misskimmie]

I did use yeast nutrient (and campden). I have been mixing it to incorporate air. It seems better. I'm watching this batch closely.

 

[winemaker_3352]

Yeah - if you over sulfited it then air exposure will correct the smell.

You are making 7 gallons - how many campden tablets did you add in?

 

[xoltri]

In the future you can add yeast nutrient and energizer at the recommended amounts before pitching the yeast to prevent the 'rhino fart' fermentation smell, if that is in fact what it is. But as mentioned by another poster on users on the site homebrewtalk.com say this thing is common with apple wine and it will turn out fine in the end.