Blackberry must stinks of H2S

I don't use campden tablets but I thout each tablet was good for 5 gallons of wine. I think you added 10 gallons of sulfite into 2 gallons of must. If you added yeast nutrient, I would say that is your source of H2S.

Correction for clarification:

I d> I don't use campden tablets but I thout each tablet was good for 5

No, one campden tablet is about right for a gallon of must, contributing

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:

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

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

"This happened last year when I made wine from the same plant's berries., but then I'd used Red Star's Premier Cuvee"

This is why I assumed it's not the yeast nutrient. PDM has very low nitrogen requirements.

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.

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:

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.

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: