WineXpert Problem with wine kit

[ChuckB1]

Hello all- First I want to say that this is a great forum! I've lurked here awhile and this is my first topic. I recently made a WE chardonnay following all the directions. The wine smelled badly of sulfur while fermenting and tastes of rotten egg. I have racked it three times with no improvement. I believe the wine is ruined.While the juice was stirred, I don't think I stirred it hard enough to incorporate enough oxygen.I snapped the fermentor lid on and that was that.My question is this: did the lack of enough oxygen stress the yeast? What can I do different next time to avoid this? Should any yeast nutrient be added?

 

[Wade E]

There are things that we can do to get rid of this taste and smell so dont pour it yet! First thing we can do is add some more sulfite because what we are about to do will introduce a lot of 02 so lets add another 1/4 tsp of k-meta beyond hat came with the kit. Once that is added we are going to do a very vigorous splash racking, preferably from bucket to bucket and do not be gentle. Really get nasty with this batch of wine. After doing so about 6 times put it all back into carboy and let it sit for a few days and then try a sample again. If this did the trick then follow the instructions from where you left off, if not there is 1 more trick up our sleeves to rid this problem. If you are still tasting and smelling this sulfur then what you want to do at this point is get a small piece of copper pipe and clean and sanitize it(even a pce of copper wire will work but will need more exposure time to your wine). Now take your pipe or wire and stir your wine with it, if using the pipe then try for about 30 seconds, if wire then do about 1 minute. Tewll us the results please.
As far as what happened, Chardonnay have a tendency to do this once in awhile, not all the time but more frequent then any other wine. What were the temps during fermentation? You could add nutrient but there should have been enough in there, You could have fermented with the lid off but you followed the directions by putting the lid on. You were just 1 of the 1-1000 ratio who this happened to, my advise, dont play the lottery this week!

Oh, by the way, Welcome to this forum and sorry we had to meet this way!

 

[pelican]

Wade's advice is spot on. If you have a piece of copper pipe to use, get it good and shiny (tarnished copper won't work as well). A copper pot scrubby (clean, new, fresh! one) can also work -- giving you a lot of copper surface area for the wine to contact.

An alternative to copper is a chemical called Bocksin, which is silicon dioxide. It interacts with the hydrogen sulfide and can reduce or eliminate the smell if the problem is not "beyond help" - and doesn't apparently put in anything undesireable to deal with like copper byproducts.

I don't think George carries Bocksin, but I've seen it in the catalogs of a few other wine making supply stores online. Here's a link to one of those, with detailed product and usage information:

http://www.fallbright.com/Bocksin.htm

I've never used the Bocksin, but I have done the bit of copper pipe swirled in my stinky wine and the splash racking -- and that helped along with stimulating some additional fervor in the ferment.

But I also stirred a long time, and left the copper pipe in over night and my batch was a 1 gallon not 6. I wouldn't have thought 30 seconds would do it in a 6 gallon volume...but Wade is FAR more knowledgeable than I am.

If your wine is all done fermenting, then you can't rely on additional yeast vigor, but you might still be able to save the wine. Vigorous splashing and exposure to oxygen will help drive off the smelly gas and disperse it from your wine.


Don't give up yet!!

(and let us know how it goes, part of the benefit of a forum like this is learning from each other's mistakes, as well as sharing what we've learned from our own).

(ps welcome to the forum from me too)

Mrs. Pelican

 

[Wade E]

George does carry Bockskin but Id rather use this or copper sulfate as a last attempt.
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Bocksin


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[geocorn]

Call me tomorrow. The rotten egg smell is mis-diagnosed 99% of the time. The smell is almost always CO2. Before we over treat or throw away, give me a call.


As wade pointed out, I do carry the bocksin, butlet's figure out the problem first.

 

[Waldo]

Call me tomorrow. The rotten egg smell is mis-diagnosed 99% of the time. The smell is almost always CO2. Before we over treat or throw away, give me a call.


As wade pointed out, I do carry the bocksin, butlet's figure out the problem first.

Ever lurking behind the fermenting buckets and bulk aging carboys. Ready at a moments notice to answer the call of plight from a wine maker in trouble that mild mannered man behind the counter dons his cape and transforms instantly into "WINEMAN".Another carboy of wine is saved as winemakers wonder in amazement...Who is that man with the Purple cape ?

I dont care what wade says about you George..You are alright

 

[Wade E]

Me? why you little!!!!!!

 

[Waldo]

Little? Wade, have you had your eyes examined lately

 

[dragonmaster42]

Now, now boys... lets not argue and show bad manners in front of a new member.

Welcome ChuckB. I've been making wine off and on for close to10 years and have learned a lot just in the past few months that I've been on this forum. It's a fun place to hang around.

 

[ChuckB1]

Thanks everyone! I did degass using adrill mounted whip, then applied vacuum until no more bubbling was present. I racked several times. Fermentation temps were 65-68 degrees.