10 Gallon Barrel of Cab Franc - off smell

[4score]

Recently crushed and pressed 2014 cab franc. Some of my portion was put into a 30 liter barrel. Some was saved for topping and some was blended with syrah in a flex tank. Went to top the barrel and got a strong sulfur smell. The topping wine smells fine, so the only variable is the barrel.

The barrel is in its 2nd season. It was last used for a petite syrah port project that turned out great. I rinsed the barrel and brought it to a friend to prep for this next season. I think he applied a sulfur stick (burned), but I need to double check. He's very experienced with barrels. I picked up the barrel from him and before I filled it, I rinsed it out with a small amount of star-san.

What do you think happened and what can I do? The wine is still going through MLF (as is the topping wine).

Thanks

 

[JohnT]

Did you use the appropriate amount of yeast nutrient when fermenting your wine?

I would first splash rack the wine and (if that does not do the trick) treat with reduless.

 

[4score]

Did you use the appropriate amount of yeast nutrient when fermenting your wine?

I would first splash rack the wine and (if that does not do the trick) treat with reduless.

Thanks John...yes I believe I used the precise amount of nutrient. The topping wine is fine, plus a friend's portion of the same batch is fine. I believe my barrel is the issue.

If I splash rack out of the barrel, what would you (or others) recommend to do to the barrel at this point before returning the wine to it?

Thanks,
Mark

 

[JohnT]

Thanks John...yes I believe I used the precise amount of nutrient. The topping wine is fine, plus a friend's portion of the same batch is fine. I believe my barrel is the issue.

If I splash rack out of the barrel, what would you (or others) recommend to do to the barrel at this point before returning the wine to it?

Thanks,
Mark

I would fill it with boiling hot water and let it sit for a couple of hours.

 

[ReefKeeper]

You mentioned that you pressed the wine recently. Did you let the gross lees settle before putting the wine into the barrel? If not, that could be the source of your volatile sulfur compounds.
If your barrel has a microbial issue you could try to fill the barrel with a 200ppm solution of sodium percarbonate and leave it for 24 hours. Rinse with water and treat it with a 1% citric acid solution to neutralize the alkalinity of the sodium percorbonate. If that doesn't work, your barrel will make two very lovely planters. The porous nature of wood makes it impossible to fully sanitize. In this case an ounce of prevention is worth a 100# of cure.

 

[4score]

You mentioned that you pressed the wine recently. Did you let the gross lees settle before putting the wine into the barrel? If not, that could be the source of your volatile sulfur compounds.
If your barrel has a microbial issue you could try to fill the barrel with a 200ppm solution of sodium percarbonate and leave it for 24 hours. Rinse with water and treat it with a 1% citric acid solution to neutralize the alkalinity of the sodium percorbonate. If that doesn't work, your barrel will make two very lovely planters. The porous nature of wood makes it impossible to fully sanitize. In this case an ounce of prevention is worth a 100# of cure.

Thanks. Yes, it was settled. Remember, the topping wine is fine. Thanks for the barrel tips.

 

[4score]

I saw this on the WineMakers site - concerning someone with a similar problem but may hve also dropped some of the sulfur stick into the barrel.
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I think your barrels should be salvageable. Since you fished out the sulfur stick and are aware that you might have some residual sulfurous acid hanging about, you’ve already won half the battle; you know you need to do something to neutralize any acid in there. I would imagine you could get rid of most remaining sulfurous acid in your barrels by doing the following:

1. Put on protective goggles (as we all should when dealing with sanitizing solutions or chemicals).

2. Rinse a barrel well with water (warm or cold is OK, hot not needed) and drain the water out the bung hole. If your barrel still has pieces of the sulfur sticks or any other kind of solid residue inside the barrel you can see, you need to get it out. One of my favorite tricks is to feed a length of stainless steel chain (about 2 feet/60 cm long) into the barrel, add about 2 gallons (~8 L) of warm water, bung the barrel up and rock back and forth vigorously to help scour the sides. If you have heavy leesy solids that are dried on (though you should rinse these out prior to storage) sometimes the only thing you can do is fill the whole barrel up with water to soften these solids. If you have some kind of a very long-handled scrub brush that can reach interior spots, that can be helpful too. When the inside of the barrel is completely free of solids, proceed to the next step.

3. Introduce a basic sanitizing solution into each barrel to neutralize the sulfurous acid, using about three tablespoons of PeroxyClean, TriSodium Phosphate (TSP) or soda ash to 3 gallons (11 L) of water. Allow solution to contact all parts of the barrel by rocking back and forth, turning the barrel on its ends, etc. Do this for about five to ten minutes and drain.

4. Rinse well with water again and let drain for about three to five minutes.

5. Introduce a slightly acidic solution made with 3 tablespoons of food-grade citric acid to about 3 gallons (11 L) of water. This is to help neutralize any residue from your basic solution.

6. Citric acid is a food-grade and “friendly” acid that, with the above quick contact time, will do its job of neutralizing the basic chemical you added without soaking into the wood of the barrel with any level of significance, especially as you’re following with another water rinse right away in the next step below.

7. Rinse well with water and drain again. You are ready to fill!

 

[sdelli]

First question is do you have the same smell in the containers of the same wine you made to use for topping? This will tell you if it is the wine or the barrel.....


Sam

 

[4score]

First question is do you have the same smell in the containers of the same wine you made to use for topping? This will tell you if it is the wine or the barrel.....


Sam

"Recently crushed and pressed 2014 cab franc. Some of my portion was put into a 30 liter barrel. Some was saved for topping and some was blended with syrah in a flex tank. Went to top the barrel and got a strong sulfur smell. The topping wine smells fine, so the only variable is the barrel."

 

[sdelli]

Sorry missed that part... I had that happen to me once.... so2 levels crashed... Brought them up a little higher then specs for binding and it went away in a few weeks...


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