Whats wrong and how to fix it

[SimpleSimon]

Hi
I am kind of new to the forum. I make wine mostly from kits. My very second batch was a Islan Mist California Moscato. It was great when I bottled it, and we were giving much of it to friends. One day my friend from work who had a bottle, said he did not like it. His wife said it tasted funny. I tried to not take it personally, but it eats at you. I asked if they dumped it out and he said it was still in the fridge if I wanted it back. I did retrieve it and tasted it and they were right. It is not fit for consumption. I eventually dumped the remaining bottles.

Fast forward 8 months and 16 kits later with good results and the other night I opend a bottle of Island Mist Pink Lenonade and it tasted funny again. This is about three months in the bottle and only 5 bottles left. I had two batches of pink lemonade back to back, so I opens one form the second batch and same thing. What gives?

Nothing touches the wine that has not been double sanitized. I went over the instructions and my notes and I did everything to the letter. Maybe I shouldn't have.

Any thoughts?

I suppose some will want to know the details. Skipping the Mascato since it is long gone.

pink #1 Pitched 5/28/14
SG 1.062
Temp 74 F

SG .998 6/9/14 Racked to Carboy

SG .990 6/19/14 degassed, K-meta, and Sorbate, add Fpak and isinglass in the proper order following instructions.

Bottled 7/3/14

Had a blast on 4th of July More than half of the bottles were empty. Liked it so well the wift made me get another kit.

3 months later it stinks and taste bad.

Pink #2 kit started 7/10/14

Very similar numbers and dates. Bottled 8/30/14
Same results.

About ready to dump them. I do not have any fancy equipment except the Hydrometer.

 

[acorn]

Based on your description there could be multiple issues, but from what you say your problems with wine are recurring, potentially because of same one thing that you consistently miss. It is not uncommon to have a spoiled bottle or even a batch once is a while, but knowing that you make the wine from kits it is kind of alarming, because everything is usually pre-measured and pre-tested in those to make sure you get the best possible results.

While you say you sanitized everything, one thing still comes to mind. Added free SO2 in wine, in whichever form it comes, K-meta or Campden tabs, is something you should be very concerned about at all times. If there is one piece of extra equipment you could get on top of the hydrometer, I would recommend the SO2 titrets (unless, of course, you want to invest in fancy electronic equipment). Consider how much money went down the drain that comparatively cheap basic testing equipment could have saved you.

Also, do your best to minimize the contact of wine with the air.

Again, there could be other things, I just described one of the common faults. Can you describe in more detail any other visual observations you made of the wine that gone bad on you, or elaborate a bit more on what that funny odor smells like?

 

[SimpleSimon]

I do find it difficult to describe the aroma and the taste.. Sitting here with a bottle of each of them and the first thing that comes to mind is pungent sweet smell. The newer one taste worse than the older one. One time I opened a bottle of store bought Mascato that had been in our wine rack for about 7 years and it was really bad and I remember the smell and my wine smells and taste the same way.

 

[acorn]

Taking everything into an account, it seems to me that you might have problems with oxidized wine. Besides excessive exposure of wine to air (during racking, splashing, and bottling), and lack of free SO2 in wine to protect it, if your temperatures are high and fluctuate, that only facilitates the oxidation process.

To confirm, you can check the following things:

1) does your wine taste flat or "tired", compared to what it should?
2) does the color of the wine become darker compared to the juice it was made from?
3) do you smell vinegar?

Answering "Yes" to any of the above might just confirm that oxidation/lack of free SO2 prior to bottling, and Acetobacter (acetic acid or vinegar bacteria) as the cause.

 

[SimpleSimon]

The color is fine and they are crystal clear. I have a vinegar fruit fly trap nearby and comparing the two, they are not vinegar although I am suspecting that low SO2 has caused some kind of bacteria.
Time to free up some bottles.

Thanks for your help

 

[acorn]

No problem, glad to help. Because the key point in this conundrum is that your wine is made from relatively stable kit juice and pre-measured ingredients, and is usually made to be drunk young (as opposed to aged), I would like to reiterate that some kind of SO2 testing is critical in your situation, particularly prior to bottling. Titrets do just fine, if you are on a budget or simply don't feel it's worth investing in more expensive chemical or electronic testers.

 

[SimpleSimon]

I will look into SO2 testing before bottleing the 3 DB carboys I have and the SP version of Pink Lemonade.

Thanks again

 

[deRicardo]

This sounds like this could be a sanitation issue, like it or not. For this to happen so consistently, something is getting into your wine that doesn't belong.

Make sure you properly sanitize everything that touches your wine, including your hands.
Make sure you pre-rinse your super clean bottles with Kmeta and let them drain before you fill them.
Make sure you do not make or store vinegar EVER in the same room as you make wine. Nor should you use common utensils for making both wine and vinegar.

Do you do anything special with your corks before you use them? If you soak them in Kmeta, which you don't really have to do, depending on how you store them, don't leave them in the Kmeta solution for more than a couple minutes. Never heat your corks.

Make sure you keep wine topped off in the carboy after fermentation is completed.

I could see a possible shortage of free SO2 for bottles that are older than a year, but the supplied dose of SO2 should be adequate for anything less than that tine.

 

[vernsgal]

Hi just thought I would throw my 2 cents in.You say by the 3rd month your wine is tasting off with a sweet smell.
I notice the month you're making this wine is in summer.It could be caused from the temperature of your wine being stored too warm.Heat damage can make you wine smell kind of jammy with an off sweet smell.This can also cause oxidization.Are you able to store your bottled wine in a cool area?

 

[cpfan]

The second batch of wine that I ever made went bad after a few months in bottle. But it was only SOME Bottles. The wine stunk and did not taste as good. I figured out that it was how I sanitized that set of bottles. I used the wrong product due to my mis-understanding. I corrected it for future bottles.

Thus whenever I hear about wine going bad after a length of time, I figure it was a sanitization issue. So how did you sanitize your bottles? What product did you use, and what do you mean by double sanitizing?

Steve

 

[SimpleSimon]

For both batches, the bottles were new (purchased about a month previous) washed in Easy Clean by hand and then just hours before bottling washed in Easy Clean again.

Thanks for everyone's helpful answers.


Sent from my iPad using Wine Making

 

[deRicardo]

Just before filling, I would rinse the bottles with a standard Kmeta solution, turn upside down and allow to drain for 10 minutes, then immediately fill them. This might cure your problem but only time will tell. Problem sounds like more than this, though.

 

[cpfan]

"washed in Easy Clean". I'm not sure exactly what this means.

Please note the following from Northern Brewer. The BOLD is mine.

No-rinse oxygen-based cleanser for beer- and winemaking equipment. Use one tablespoon per gallon of water and allow two minutes contact time.

Did you allow two minutes contact time (I would prefer to err on the longer side) ?

Not allowing long enough contact rime is exactly what I did wrong when I had the problem described above.

Steve