H2S problem - advice needed

[Powerman]

Hello all,

Here's the situation - On the 23'rd of October I pressed my Chambourcin and transferred it to a 6 gallon carboy. SG at the time was about 1.02 or so (at work without my logbook and going from memory). I had planned on leaving it on the skins for longer but I had to go out of town for work unexpectedly and my wife is not involved in my hobby to be a reliable stand-in to punch the cap down and do whats necessary. So I pressed early. When I pressed everything seemed fine (no funky smells or anything) Well, fast forward to yesterday. I got home from my trip Wednesday night and saw that I had a good amount of lees (maybe a little over half an inch). Decided to wait to rack as it was late, so last night I popped the airlock and whoa did it stink. I've never had a problem like this so I immediately got on the net and looked for what to do.

I racked it and had the siphon tube just inside the carboy neck so the wine fanned out and went down the sides of the carboy. I did that twice. Then I took a length of copper pipe (left over from some plumbing I did in the spring) roughed it up with a wire brush, cleaned and sanitized it, and stirred for maybe 5 minutes or so. Lastly, I beat the crap out of it with my wine whip on my cordless drill. In the end, my whole house stunk like rotten eggs. I could not tell if there was any more odor coming off the wine as all I could smell was rotten eggs (even going outside).

So my questions are, Have I done all I can do? Is my wine ruined?

Thanks in advance for any advice or constructive criticism that will help me grow as a winemaker!

-T

 

[jamesngalveston]

dang....maybe let he house clear out of the smell, then smell the wine again. check here for info.

http://www.bcawa.ca/winemaking/h2s.htm

 

[Turock]

The source of the H2S may have been the lees. All wines have SOME H2S on them. Racking and aerating may have been enough but this isn't a straight forward cure in and of itself. And sometimes aeration can cause problems.

The best thing to do is get some Reduless and dose the wine. In the futire, good nutrient management will keep your ferments from producing so much H2S---when yeast gets stressed, it produces alot of H2S.

 

[Powerman]

OK, I read the article that you linked and found it very informative! I did not smell any of the other odors mentioned (garlic, cabbage, onion, rubber, skunky) so I may have gotten lucky and just had volatile H2S and hopefully no mono-mercaptans have formed. The house was rotten egg odor free when I left for the office this morning and I will check again when I get home. Follow up question - If I detect a whiff of rotten egg, should I repeat my above processes? I'm a little worried about oxidizing the wine at this point.

 

[jswordy]

I'm betting you will have no further problem. Sheet racking is generally very effective, then you overkilled it with the copper tube. Please don't be extra-sensitive to the smell when you get home, to the point where you create a problem in your mind that isn't there (been there).

On the other hand, if you do definitely smell it, I think it would be time for Turock's Reduless cure.

 

[Powerman]

Thanks for the advice folks! Turock - I see you are in Ohio. Just outside of Columbus here.

 

[Turock]

If it continues to smell like rotten eggs, definitely use the Reduless. H2S needs to be dealt with as soon as you can smell it---because if you leave it alone, the wine will eventually take on the taste of it.

The tricky part is that you can't tell the difference between H2S and mono-mercaptans and aeration can convert them into poly-mercaptans which is VERY difficult to remove. That's why aeration can cause problems sometimes.

By the way--be sure you have enough sulfite on this wine,too.

 

[Turock]

Powerman--I'm in Northeast Ohio between Kipton and Wakeman.