Hmm... hydrogen sulfide, perhaps?

[ckassotis]

Hey, so I started some chardonel from real grapes two days ago. After harvest and press I had ~6.5 gallons, so I added 7 campden to the juice and let it sit for 24 hours or so.

The next night I pitched a starter of BA-11 yeast, and it quickly started bubbling away happily. It formed a significant head in the first few hours, and I've been stirring it well about 2-3 times a day since. The S.G. is slowly dropping, from 1.10 to 1.075 tonight. I've had it fermenting in a bucket with some ice added, replenishing it periodically to keep the temp somewhere a bit north of 60. I'd like it lower, but whatever - improvement from last time, and I'm learning how best to keep the ice cycled to prevent it getting too cold.

So anyway, I have what I believe is a rotten eggy smell tonight. Not a lot of it, and I've never had it in a wine before, so I wanted to check with some people. Thoughts? only two days in now. Anything to do but stir it vigorously every few minutes and see if it goes away? Add some nutrient?

 

[Deezil]

I would read some on that yeast and see if its a high h2s producer
And i'd probably add some nutrient, either way..

Did you add any nutrient in the beginning?

Take my opinion with a grain of salt, my first grape experience is right around the corner

 

[ckassotis]

I didn't add any nutrient at the beginning, though I guess I probably should have. I added it a bit ago now to the juice, and stirred it up well. Hopefully that will take care of the issue.

From what I recall, this strain is a low h2s producer, though I can't say for certain. Thanks for the input!

 

[joea132]

Be sure to use nutrients to feed your yeast. Hungry yeast give off H2S. I have had issues post fermentation and found that splash racking it vigorous stirring helps in mild cases. The next step is addition of reduless. If you think it is a severe case of stink I would suggest ascorbic acid then reduless. First try splashing, then consider reduless.

 

[ckassotis]

Well I don't want to splash rack during primary fermentation I don't think. I've stirred it vigorously a few times and added some nutrients. Can anyone else speak to splash racking during primary?

 

[Deezil]

I splash racked my Peach wine, which was my first batch, and had H2S problems, during primary.. The problem went away, i dosed out nutrients and it never came back..

Better to splash rack earlier in primary than any other time as thats when oxygen will do the least damage to the wine.. The longer you wait, the more oxidation you'll witness

 

[joea132]

Yes splash rack it during primary. The lees are likely where the problem is. The yeast will still be in the wine and the oxygen will help the yeast along. How many brix are you at now? Typically you don't want to add nutrients under 1/3 of your starting brix.

 

[ckassotis]

Alrighty, will assess when I get home this evening. I'm definitely still in the upper third of my S.G., assuming it gets to 1.00 or below.

I stirred pretty vigorously last night, and again this morning. However, I didn't get any off-smells to it this morning. We will see if I can still detect anything this PM or not.

 

[joea132]

Check it out, it still wouldn't hurt to splash off the gross lees. That's still where the problem is, as soon. As you're done get off those lees ASAP

 

[ckassotis]

Absolutely. I'll keep a close eye on it. As of now it seems to have passed. I stuck my head in there again tonight and can't detect a whiff of anything negative. Stirred it up really well again today. I'll be sure to make the move quickly once fermentation ends, and sulfite that sucker up well.

 

[robie]

Next time, even if the yeast is a low producer of H2S, you should always add nutrients.

Just curious, after you let the must set for 24 hours, did you rack it off the stuff that settled to the bottom before you started fermenting?

 

[ckassotis]

Yeah, I should know this by now. I think I was just excited to have some real juice. Go figure I would screw something up my first go around. Haha.

As for the must, I did not. I had very little, as we crushed/pressed into a large tank over several hours, and then I took my gallons off the top. So a lot of the solids had already settled out. I did have some, but figured I might as well include them. A lot of kits are low on mouth-feel, so I was thinking that might help out a bit with that issue.