Wine Nutrient

[Kivanc]

I am fermenting orange wine. I racked the must to secondary. It has got a lot of bubling activity for 2 weeks. I'm on the 4th week now. On Sunday, I am gonna rack it from its sediments. I haven't added yeast nutrient at the begining. Can I add wine nutrient in the middle of the process.

 

[Julie]

What was your sg and what is your current reading? If you are almost done fermenting there is no reason to add it.

 

[winemaker_3352]

Is your fermentation complete? Usually you add this at the beginning to aid the yeast. You can probably add some in if it is still fermenting - but if you don't have any off smells and fermentation is going good - i wouldn't add it.

 

[Kivanc]

The fermentaion is not finished yet. It bubbles every 3 minutes. Does it improve the fermentation process if nutrient is added?

 

[Julie]

just because it is bubbling does not necessary mean that it is still fermenting. If might be done and just needs to be degassed. The bubbles could be from co2. What is the hydrometer reading?

 

[winemaker_3352]

The fermentaion is not finished yet. It bubbles every 3 minutes. Does it improve the fermentation process if nutrient is added?

It keeps the yeast from struggling during fermentation - struggling fermentation can lead to a stuck fermentation or HS2 issues.

Like Julie stated - get an SG reading to be sure that fermentation is complete.

 

[Kivanc]

What was your sg and what is your current reading? If you are almost done fermenting there is no reason to add it.

I racked them and also got the SG readings. As I have two airlock attached bottles: the first one is 0,988 and the other one is close to 0,999.

Could you explain what is HS2 means?

 

[Julie]

don't bother with the nutrient, your wine is done or very near being done.

 

[winemaker_3352]

I racked them and also got the SG readings. As I have two airlock attached bottles: the first one is 0,988 and the other one is close to 0,999.

Could you explain what is HS2 means?

I actually said it wrong it is H2S - Hydrogen Sulfide.

The possible causes of hydrogen sulfide contamination are:

• Too much sulfites, usually the result of grapes being dusted with too much sulfur during the growing season
• Lack of proper nutrients (nitrogen, yeast hulls) during fermentation
• Yeast combining with various forms of sulfur (some folks swear that Red Star Montrachet yeast is notorious for causing H2S, but we've never experienced this ourselves)
• Bacterial contamination due to poor sanitation technique

H2S contamination can be prevented if you:

• Add proper amounts of sulfites to wine
• If making wine from scratch (not from a kit), add a proper amount of yeast nutrient prior to pitching yeast (Fermax, DAP, etc.)
• Use proper yeast for the wine you're making, and make sure it has not passed the expiration date or gotten too hot in storage.
• Maintain sanitary conditions for your equipment and must (especially prior to pitching yeast)

I have read that you can do the steps below to rid the rotten egg smell:

• First, measure the amount of sulfites in your wine using a test kit
• If deficient, treat wine to 50 PPM sulfites
• Rack and splash - rack your wine two or three times, being sure to splash it around a lot as the wine goes from vessel to vessel. The aeration (introduction of oxygen) will help counteract the H2S.
• Put the airlock back on and wait a couple of hours or overnight. If it still smells like rotten eggs, keep going...
• Get a piece of copper (i.e. copper flashing) from a home supply store.
• Pour the wine over the copper so that it runs over the surface of the metal into a receiving vessel.
• Fine or filter the wine.
• By now, the sulfur smell should at least be greatly diminished. If you can still detect a smell (we've heard that humans can detect H2S in quantities as low as 2 parts per billion), you might try to use an egg white or a gelatin fining agent and fine your wine. Add normal amounts recommended by the manufacturer.
• Filter wine through a tight filter.
• When all else fails you can use copper sulfate on your wine. A 0.1% solution added at about 0.5 ml per gallon, will give you about 0.3 PPM copper sulfate in your wine. BE CAREFUL. Remember, this stuff is poisonous. DO NOT EXCEED 0.5 PPM of copper.
• Fine your wine with a bentonite or Sparkolloid fining agent. This will remove all the copper sulfate.
• Filter wine if necessary to remove fining agent.

 

[Wade E]

Like said above they are done or damn near done and you shouldnt add any nutrient or energizer to these. Take another reading in 2 days and if the sg is the same then its time to add some sulfite (Kmeta aka campden tablets) and also sorbate if you plan on sweetening your wine. You should add nutrient in the very beginning before even adding your yeast to make the yeast as happy as can be and make fermentation go as smoothly as possible. Not doing so can make your yeast struggle and therefore cause off flavors or even end up with a stuck fermentation.