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I think my mead is going bad

I put on 3 gallons of mead last Sunday. 9lb of honey, some sugar to bring the SG up to 1100

Until a few days ago it seemed to be going fine, the SG was dropping steadily and I was hoping to have it transfered out of the must bucket on Friday. On Wednesday I took a reading and the SG was 1060. I thought I'd give it another day or so to let the SG drop a bit more, ideally less than 1015, it went to 1050. The SG is still at 1050 today and hasn't dropped at all since Friday. The bucket is hissing and sounding like its fermenting away happily. If I shake the bucket, and smell it, the gasses burn my nose slightly and smells a little bit like match heads.

I've never had problems with my wine before and am at a loss as what to do.

Reply to
alien
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Though some yeasts do produce the sulfurous smell naturally, this can also be a sign of lack of nutrients. What kind of honey did you use, and did you use any nutrients in the initial must?

- WB

Reply to
nospam

I used 6lb of orange blossom, 3lb of eucalyptus and 1.5 teaspoons of ammonium sulphate, ammonium phosphate dibasic as nutrient. The yeast was a Gervin strain, type 4 I think, the one with the yellow sticker, designed for medium dry wines.

Reply to
alien

This sounds very similiar to a few other posts on rec.crafts.winemaking (the threads "What happened?" and "Rotten Edd Odor" (yeah it is spelt that way I think they meant Egg)). It maybe that you can get something of use out of those posts. Ken

Reply to
Ken Vale

I read those threads, but I don't have a rotten egg smell, at least not yet. It's more like the smell of a match head and is harsh on the nose. This suggests to me a different sulpher compound than H2S.

Reply to
alien

I've just added 1/2 a teaspoon of more nutrient, I can't see it doing any harm. I also gave it a good thrashing of a stirring to get some O2 in there. I'll have a look at it in a few hours to see if things are getting better.

Reply to
alien

How about just waiting a while. It's only been in the bucket a week?

IIRC my last batch was something like:

1.100 at pitch 1.050 at 3 weeks 1.030 at 3 months 1.008 at 15 months
Reply to
Danny Williams

least

A good solid whiff of CO2 will hurt your nose pretty bad. Is is possible that you experienced this, with just a little H2S mixed in to give the sulfury impression?

--arne

Reply to
arne thormodsen

The nose is very sensitive to H2S, even a tiny amount would give a rotten egg smell, I didn't get that at all. Apparently some yeast behaves this way when it runs low on nutrients, more nutrient and a good airation seems to have solved the problem.

Reply to
alien

Interesting. I've had plenty of ferments give off H2S, but never anything else from sulfur.

--arne

Reply to
arne thormodsen

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