bad smell

[danroh]

I put together an 5 gal batch of mead last friday w/ sulfide and pitch the yeast the following day. The recipe called for a low SG which turned out to be 1.065. Fermentation took off on Sunday and stopped on tues. I checked the SG and it had fermented out. The smell was wonderful before ferm. but now has a Hydrogen sulfide ( rotten eggs) smell.
Any ideas? Edited by: danroh

 

[grapeman]

Sometimes when it is too warm you will get the H2S as a byproduct of fermentation. Here is a post reply from Dean with a couple fixes. You can search on rotten egg and get a lot of hits for other replies. Remember the search tool is here to help also.



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<TD =msgOddTableSide vAlign=top rowSpan=4><A name=52627></A>Dean
Senior Member

Joined: 17 October 2005
Location: Canada
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 389
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<TD =msgOddTableRow vAlign=top> Posted: 05 August 2007 at 12:34pm</TD></TR>
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<DIV =msg style=": left; OVERFLOW: auto">Rotten eggs is H2S, or Hydrogen Sulphide. It is a nasty smell. 2 ways to get rid of it. Splash rack to blow off the smell, or stir the wine with a copper rod. I'd splash rack first, wait 2 days and if it still there and strong, then get a copper rod, and polish it up so there is no oxidation whatsoever on it, and then stir the wine for about 30-40 seconds with it. Wait 2 days and stir again, if the smell is still there. If the wine is still fermenting, then, you might want to add a bit of yeast engergizer, since that smell is usually caused by stressed out yeast. </TD></TR>
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IP: 70.71.22.168 </TD></TR>
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[masta]

From my experience mead does smell pretty bad when it is young and a good stirring along with racking off the lees usually will take care of a mild case ofhydrogen sulfide.


What is the current SG and is the batch still in the primary?

 

[danroh]

The current SG is .9 something and it is still in the primary. I will be freeing up a carboy full of blueberry/ bananawine tonight and will rack the mead into it. I didn't expect it to finish this fast and the only extra 5 gal carboy I have is plastic. This recipe calls for the mead to stay in the secondary for a full year so i wanted to use glass

 

[grapeman]

Be a little rough when transferring it to the secondary, just leave most of the lees behind. That will help dissipate the H2S gasses and all should be good.

 

[danroh]

Thanks Guys
This is the chocolate mead that I posted about earlier this week and my next step is to stain it. I have been trying to come up with a way not to get to rough with it. I quess I'll just strain through a nylon bag in a stainless basket.

 

[Wade E]

Being gentle is typically what you want but to help get rid of that smell you will want to be rougher and make it release some of that stank! Its called splash racking.