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Blackberry must stinks of H2S

I picked and froze blackberries from a neighbor's plants, and when I had enough (about 3kg) I prepared my must for the primary. After crushing the fruit I added the usual things, including 1.5 tsp of yeast nutrient in the form of food-grade urea. I also sulfited with two Campden tablets primary must, which by this time was nearly 2 gallons. This sat for 24 hours.

I then pitched the yeast, Lalvin RC212 (Bourgovin), per their directions, which involved dissolving some of the yeast in warm water and letting sit for 15 minutes before adding it to the must. I noticed at the time that the yeast solution smelled a little off-putting.

Within 24 hours of pitching, my must acquired a thick bouquet of hydrogen sulfide, and 5 days later it's still as bad.

This happened last year when I made wine from the same plant's berries., but then I'd used Red Star's Premier Cuvee. I eventually drove out the H2S with agitation, but it made me wonder what went wrong. This time I was very attentive to sanitation, and I'm rather disappointed that the H2S presence has recurred with such vigor.

After doing some internet searches, I get the impression diammonium phosphate might have been a better nutrient. Does anybody have other suggestions? There's still plenty of berries to pick this season, and I might be able to re-try a batch this season.

Marshall

Reply to
Marshall Jose
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No, one campden tablet is about right for a gallon of must, contributing

150 ppm total SO2. And I wanted to be heavy-handed this time s>
Reply to
Marshall Jose

I think the very best way to add SO2 is from a "stock solution" made by adding fenough water to 100 grams of Potassium Metabisulfite to enough water to make the total volume 1 liter. This will produce a 10% solution.

Here is a "C" program to calculate how much of this solution to use:

{ float gallons, liters, ppm;

printf("Enter the number of gallons of wine\n");

scanf("%f", &gallons);

printf("Enter the desired SO2 in ppm\n"); scanf("%f", &ppm);

liters = gallons * 3.785;

ppm = ((ppm * liters) / 100) / .576;

printf("The number of ml of stock solution needes is %.2f\n", ppm);

}

You could put the same math in a spread sheet without writing a "C" program.

For the documentation on this approach see page 37 of the following link:

formatting link

I started using this method of adding SO2 and it is very easy and probably more accurate than campden tablets for reasons mention by Rotter in the link above.

Paul

Reply to
Paul E. Lehmann

Give it a good stir with a copper rod. I often have a similar problem with apple wine and the sulphur seems to bind with the copper. It could be your yeast nutrient causing the odor, but some yeasts are known for H2S production. Steve

Reply to
Steve Peek

I made a "frond" with some 16 ga. copper wire and scoured it, then swished it around in the must. Sadly, there was no apparent reaction.

I've since transferred it to the secondary, and I'll be periodically oxygenating it using an aquarium pump and a bubble stone until the odor is inoffensive.

Reply to
Marshall Jose

A postscript:

I gave up on the blackberry wine for a couple of months, fully expecting to destroy it eventually. But I gave it a sniff recently and found no trace of the hydrogen sulfide odor present earlier.

I do think the oxygenation helped, but I guess I was too impatient for results.

Marshall

Marshall Jose wrote:

Reply to
Marshall Jose

I tried to make blackberry wine, but I got sick of picking bits of LCD screen and circuit boards out of it. Sorry, I couldn't resist that.

Reply to
Sam

Post-postscript: When racking the blackberry wine recently, I diverted some for tasting, and found it delightful but extremely acid. Titration showed to be somewhere close to 0.65-0.70% acid. I added enough potassium bicarbonate to neutralize 0.3% of it, so we'll see what I get in a couple of months.

Marshall

Marshall Jose wrote:

Reply to
Marshall Jose

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