Smells funny

[aylamarie]

Ok I'm kinda new at this iv only made a little bit but never tasted it but I was making the Jack Keller recipe for apple juice wine I did boil my juice until my sugar was dissolved even though the recipe did not but i did add 1/4 tsp tannin added 1 tsp of acid blend added my nutrient and a crushed camden tablet stirred well waited a little over 12 hours and added pectic enzyme and waited another 12 hours and now I'm on day three of stirring and it has a funky smell like funky smellin apples please help me I would appreciate it thanks

 

[g8keeper]

Ok I'm kinda new at this iv only made a little bit but never tasted it but I was making the Jack Keller recipe for apple juice wine I did boil my juice until my sugar was dissolved even though the recipe did not but i did add 1/4 tsp tannin added 1 tsp of acid blend added my nutrient and a crushed camden tablet stirred well waited a little over 12 hours and added pectic enzyme and waited another 12 hours and now I'm on day three of stirring and it has a funky smell like funky smellin apples please help me I would appreciate it thanks

well, unfortunately nowhere in your post do you mention pitching your yeast....if you didn't add yeast, and your "must" has been sitting now for 3 days, without actually fermenting, then it could actually be spoiling, hence the smell....if you did add yeast, a few more details are needed, such as your starting gravity and type of yeast used....

 

[aylamarie]

well, unfortunately nowhere in your post do you mention pitching your yeast....if you didn't add yeast, and your "must" has been sitting now for 3 days, without actually fermenting, then it could actually be spoiling, hence the smell....if you did add yeast, a few more details are needed, such as your starting gravity and type of yeast used....

My reading was .1056 before I pitched my Yeasts and I used lavlin 71b-122 the first day of stirring there was a lot of foam I for got to stir the second day and the third day there wasn't hardly any foam

 

[g8keeper]

My reading was .1056 before I pitched my Yeasts and I used lavlin 71b-122 the first day of stirring there was a lot of foam I for got to stir the second day and the third day there wasn't hardly any foam

well it definitely sounds like it is fermenting...i have to admit, though, your starting gravity does sound a little bit low....definitely going to be a low alcohol content wine, somewhere in the vicinity of about 7%....it's possible the smell you have is just the aroma of the yeast fermenting the apples....if you've only done a little bit of wine, it's possible you aren't very familiar with the smell of an active fermentation....i would still take another gravity reading just to make sure it is actually dropping....

 

[tonyandkory]

That is what I was thinking when I read the post also.
When I first started, I thought my first 4-5 batches were going bad before they were finished and even after they were done in secondary.
The smell does go away after a couple rackings.

 

[aylamarie]

well it definitely sounds like it is fermenting...i have to admit, though, your starting gravity does sound a little bit low....definitely going to be a low alcohol content wine, somewhere in the vicinity of about 7%....it's possible the smell you have is just the aroma of the yeast fermenting the apples....if you've only done a little bit of wine, it's possible you aren't very familiar with the smell of an active fermentation....i would still take another gravity reading just to make sure it is actually dropping....

I just did one and it's dropped a lot within the last couple of days but thanks for the help I'm just glad to hear that I didn't mess it up because I haven't had one smell like this but never done apple either and never this low in alcohol but I was following the recipe to but thanks for ur input

 

[jswordy]

You can add an invert sugar syrup to the primary and up your alcohol. Make that by bringing 1 cup water to a boil, turning off stove, and slowly adding about 3 pounds sugar. Allow to cool down to lukewarm and add the syrup to the wine until hydrometer reads about 1.050 or just below at this stage, then add yeast nutrient. This would work up through Day 3 to ramp up fermentation. I am unsure how far along in the process you are now, though. Might be too late for that. Generally speaking, a starting specific gravity of 1.085 and up is what you'll see in most recipes. I start my apple high - at 1.100.

Sometimes, just adding yeast nutrient will kick off slow ferments, but your starting sugar level is low in this wine.

Wines that fall below 9% abv (alcohol by volume) will need extra care with the addition of potassium metabisulfite to make sure they are well preserved. Make sure your sulfur dioxide (SO2) levels are spot-on and kept up.

Speaking of SO2, fruit wines sometimes do give off a sulphuric smell during fermentation. It won't hurt the wine.

One last note about apple. Sometimes it takes long aging to get it to taste good. Up to a year. If you find off flavors in it young, do not dispair. Go ahead and bottle it and wait.