So, my Jasmine Tea Mead has been chugging along very nicely. Best smelling ferment I've come across yet! Just this gorgeous, lightly floral jasmine scent. I'd also decided to use 2 tsp of nutrient instead of 1 tsp, because it appears I have really crappy nutrient - and the wine has next to no nutrients to begin with.
Overnight, all of a sudden, HUGE sulfur smell (burned match, not rotten egg) eek! And it appears that the ferment had stopped dead. No fizzing, no nothing. Crap. I stirred the heck out of it right away, then worried about it all day.
So tonight, I dumped the mead back and forth between two buckets for a good few minutes. Went out for couple of hours, and voila! Ferment appears to have re-started and the smell is gone. Just a nice jasmine scent coming out of the bucket. Thank the gods!
I couldn't believe it though! This is EC1118 we're talking about. I've never had trouble with it in the past.
Then I started thinking: (sorry for the long rant here folks) the yeast nutrient was from that other LHBS I've recently been trying, but have been questioning the quality of regarding everything they supply. So's the yeast - and the bucket! Crap. So's the supplies in the other two batches I've had H2S issues with! I think I know where my problems are coming from.
Never, ever, buy the cheap stuff. Now I need to go back to my other guy and get new buckets, yeast, and my nutrient I'm getting the good stuff, as I've mentioned.
Learn from my mistakes people.