Pineapple wine

[servthecross]

I have been learning from a friend how to make home made wine. He started a batch of pineapple wine from welch's pineapple juice . It's been three months, we have racked it 3 times and it smells funky like a stale beer. Any advise out there would be great.

 

[BernardSmith]

Hi there, and welcome. More information, I think , would be helpful: What "recipe " did you follow? What processes did you use? What measurements did you take and where in the process did you take them? .

 

[servthecross]

Bernardsmith he had done a 5 gallon batch. Ingredients but don't quote me, lol!!! Beginner! Welch's pineapple juice. Potassium sorbate, wine Tannin, acid blend, wine nutrients, 24 hours later wine yeast wine nutrients. Hope that's enough info.

 

[BernardSmith]

Potassium Sorbate? Could you mean Potassium Meta-Bisulphate (K-Meta ) rather than K-Sorbate? K-Sorbate is used to prevent yeast from reproducing and I don't think that it evaporates quickly from the must in quite the same way that the sulphates in K-meta do. You use K-Meta to kill off bacteria and wild yeasts lurking in the must and so after it evaporates the lack of competing microbes allow the yeast that you inoculate the must with room to grow and flourish. If you added K-Sorbate then you may have prevented fermentation because you prevented the yeasts from reproducing, so they could not flourish. The yeasts you introduced would live as long as their lifespan allowed but they would be unable to divide and create a second and subsequent generations. You would then , ironically perhaps, allow other less friendly bacteria to thrive and spoil the juice because the yeast you introduced would be unable to create an environment that was best for them and bad for competing organisms. However, if you in fact added K-meta then my explanation holds no water.
I am not familiar with Welch's pineapple juice. Does it contain any preservatives? What was the specific gravity of the must before you added the yeast? What is it today?