Copper Clears it Up

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CoachPieps

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I made a riesling using Sun-Cal concetrtate, I made two mistakes, I used monchete yeast and added campden at the beginning. I am so used to doing non-grape fruits, I didn't even think twice. Well it stinked very bad, the rotten egg smell. I tried stirring, degassing and splash racking, none of those worked. I cleaned up and sanitized some copper wire and copper pipe. Let it soak in the wine overnight and my smell was gone. I was about ready to dump it, just to let everybody know, Copper Clears it up......
 
I have heard that technique is suppose to work - good to hear that someone has tried and been successful with it..
 
Thanks for the tip! I recently started up some batches of concentrate and accidentally added Campden as well.:slp I'll keep this in mind if this turns into a problem.
 
As long as you let the sulfite disperse as in giving it 24 hours minimum with a lid off and give it a good stir before adding your yeast and use the recommended amount the sulfite used will not make any difference as wine yeast is very tolerant of sulfites, its the not using nutrient and energizer that is most likely giving everyone this problem. I use Montrachet yeast all the time and never have this problem ever but I use both nutrient and energizer. Yes the copper does work and work well but lets fix the problem before it is a problem everyone and give the yeast the food it needs.
 
As long as you let the sulfite disperse as in giving it 24 hours minimum with a lid off and give it a good stir before adding your yeast and use the recommended amount the sulfite used will not make any difference as wine yeast is very tolerant of sulfites, its the not using nutrient and energizer that is most likely giving everyone this problem. I use Montrachet yeast all the time and never have this problem ever but I use both nutrient and energizer. Yes the copper does work and work well but lets fix the problem before it is a problem everyone and give the yeast the food it needs.

Even with a proper start, things can go wrong. For example, I found my nylon bag was completely covering the top of the must, preventing good o2 access.

When doing the daily (or twice a day) stir, *really* stir! Make foam! Get more o2 into the must.

Suffocation has been the root cause of the few h2s problems I've had. I don't have *that* problem any more :)
 
Thanks for the tip! I recently started up some batches of concentrate and accidentally added Campden as well.:slp I'll keep this in mind if this turns into a problem.

Am I understanding that the campden (SO2) caused this problem? I always start my juice with campden. :b
 
Last edited:
Lurker explain.
R U adding it 12-24 hours BEFORE adding the yeast? Then no problem unless you have it under airlock.
 
Am I understanding that the campden (SO2) caused this problem? I always start my juice with campden. :b
The problem was that the concentrate comes with sulfites already in it. What i did was add even MORE!:slp Needless to say, I had to stir it up real well, but even then the yeast had a harder time starting up than the other container I did not add Campden to (after I realized my mistake).
 
I agree with bigbyte, the concentrate comes with sulfite and I also added more campden, causing the stink.....
 
Lurker explain.
R U adding it 12-24 hours BEFORE adding the yeast? Then no problem unless you have it under airlock.

I add the sulfite as soon as I open the bucket and then add yeast 24 hrs later. I still never heard of sulfite making the rotten egg smell, burnt matches (sulfer) but not rotten eggs. So what does the copper do, does it dispell or eat the sulfite? :c
 
I add the sulfite as soon as I open the bucket and then add yeast 24 hrs later. I still never heard of sulfite making the rotten egg smell, burnt matches (sulfer) but not rotten eggs. So what does the copper do, does it dispell or eat the sulfite? :c
As I understand it (and I could be wrong since I'm still learning this hobby), when a yeast struggles to ferment wine to dryness, it releases (insert chemical here) that causes the rotten egg smell. Since my adding of the extra sulfites seemed to make the yeast have trouble starting up, I'm worried it is at risk of being stinky. So just in this case it might be the sulfites that caused the problem, but it other cases it could be acidity, or even chlorine, etc. So I'm glad to hear of this solution. Maybe there are other solutions I just don't know about yet. I may have this problem with this Skeeter Pee I'm trying to make up now too. It is having a heck of a time getting started (which is my fault really).
 
Is it specific to this concentrate? I always add campden and have done mostly concentrates without issue. Nice to know the copper trick though.
 
I used Alexander's Pinot Chardonnay concentrate in this case (see below), and all of their concentrate products have sulfites already in them.

15119242.jpg
 

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