snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (LC312) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mb-m12.aol.com:
Give it time. What you are smelling could be the by-products of the yeast. I do not remember a sulpher/egg smell with my cab, but there was a very noticable sulpher/egg smell when I did a lager beer last winter. What yeast are you using? I used a vial of the White Labs cab yeast.
i have 6gals. of cab. from grapes. after 1st rack i have an egg smell. is the wine bad or is there a way to save it.
Info here LC.
Sounds like hydrogen sulfide to me. Left untreated it'll get worse, but you can save it by treating it with copper. Try stirring it with a clean piece of copper pipe or pouring it over a sheet of copper into another container. If it's only a slight case, simply aerating the wine might blow it off.
Tom S
No need to be afraid of using copper sulfate Roger. Here is some info
Wines with mold are not necessarily lost -- how does the wine taste and smell? If that is ok, the wine is not yet spoiled. What you need to do is rack off the wine, leaving all the mold behind and dose it with sulfite to keep more mold from growing. Keep it in a topped up container.
Hmm, without an initial sugar reading, you are shooting in the dark. You could estimate the alcohol if you know how much sugar you added in the beginning and estimate a brix from the amount. Otherwise, you could feed your wine a little bit of sugar at a time until it tastes like it has a high enough alcohol to be wine.
No, all your yeast is not dead. If you add sugar, it will undoubtedly restart fermentation -- however, if it is pretty clear, it will be slow. You could make a new yeast starter and pitch that in. If it is still on the lees, there are probably lots of yeasts still alive down there. You could add sugar and stir up the lees.
That is likely -- was your gallon container not topped up? That is inviting trouble.
The wine still has a "perm solution" type smell which it has had from the start. As far as taste it is still pretty bitter but then so is all the wines we have so far. They seem to be getting better with age. You suggested adding sulfite. I have a little Potassium Metabisulfiite and a lot of Sodium Metabisulfiite. Would either work? How much would I need to add to a 5 gallon carboy. I also have Campden Crush tablets and Potassium Sorbate stabilizer. I guess I should consider another way of toping off. The gallon jug was the smallest container I had at the time and it was not topped up. I hate to add water because most of our wines have such a weak flavor to begin with. Maybe I will buy some small bungs and use wine bottles full to top up when I don't have a gallon.
"Greg Cook" wrote in message news:BBC9B64F.1382% snipped-for-privacy@blockermac.com...
Maybe I will buy some small bungs and use wine bottles full to top up when I don't have a gallon.
try buying a couple of 1liter wide mouth sodas, then use the bottles when your finished drinking the soda. a # 6 and # 7 bung will fit. dont forget to clean bottles before use. they work in a pinch. i dont know how long you can keep wine in them tho.
If, by "perm solution", you mean your wine smells like the chemicals used by beauty parlors to make hair curly (e.g. Ammonium hydroxide, Ammonium thioglycolate, Glyceryl monothioglycolate, and Sodium hydroxide ), I suggest you take it to the nearest toxic waste dump.
If you are describing a different odor, there may be a remedy.
Metabisulfiite
Sulfite (SO2) should not be added to a fermenting wine. It can and should be added pre-ferment, and post-ferment to a level of ~50ppm depending on the condition of the wine. Potassium Metabisulphite is preferable to Sodium, but both will do the job. 0.33 gram per gallon will yield ~50ppm, as will one CRUSHED campden tablet per gallon. Potassium sorbate has an entirely different purpose.
You can top off with distilled water or similar wine. Alternately, you can add sterilized glass or stainless steel marbles to the carboy. Alternately, you can use a variety of smaller containers. If you leave excess headroom (more than an inch), you are inviting (if not guaranteeing) bacterial spoilage.
I always add 1/4 tsp of Potassium Metabisulfiite or Sodium Metabisulfiite yo
5 gallons of wine. I use a little less than 1/2 of a 1/8th teaspoon for 1 gallon I always use it whenever I rack and I have no problems with mold or even stopping the ferment in secondary Potassium Sorbate is used to stop yeast from regenerating itself. I very seldom use it because I feed my wines with sugar to high alc to kill the yeast. I use Cote de Blanc yeast for wines I want less alc volume in.
watermelon/
Saran wrap with TWO rubber bands (in case one break) will not only keep the air (and bacteria) out, but it will also act as an airlock, and allow any CO2 to escape (the pressurized gas can push past the rubber bands). So you don't need to order smaller bungs.
I assume you removed the mold from the surface before racking? It might not be a bad idea (even now) to pour the wine through a coffee filter, although the sulfite should kill it. The additional aeration should also help somewhat with the H2S problem (if it is H2S).
Hopefully, that will suffice.
H2S is the chemical formula for hydrogen sulphide, which is the chemical which gives rotten eggs their peculiar odour. The smell is quite different from permanent wave (?) solutions, but it is more likely that you are smelling H2S. If so, racking, aerating, and stirring with a piece of copper wire, or length of copper pipe, will help. I believe the most common cause of H2S problems is over-sulfiting.
The mold is a different problem, and almost certainly the result of the excess head room.
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