Orange Wine started or gone off?

Hmmmm... doesn't sound good to me, unless u like drinking terpenes. Gene

Let it go. It is probably just working through a stage and will turn out fine. I have had wines to this and then turn out fine.

Ray

I am starting to wonder if it is a sulphur smell. Starting to smell a bit eggy. I whipped it up a bit and it really smelled bad, then the orangey smell started to reappear.

Could this be down to how I sterlised the oranges? I crushed out the juice and soaked the skin and added one campden tablet to the gallon of liquid. I left this tightly covered for a day to sterlise before adding the yeast. Should I have left it uncovered?

1 campden tablet to 1gal liquid is only enuf to retard spoilage and inhibit wild yeast growth (about 65 ppm SO2).

If you wanted to 'sterilize' the oranges... would take 200-300 ppm like when I sanitize my 'tools'... and I'd do that on the unopened, whole orange (prior to cut or crush). Sometimes oranges do come in with a bit of mold starting on the skin from poor storage conditions. I hope your latest update observation is true. Won't hurt to continue if the bad smell is gone.

Did u sanitize ur bucket and all tools before you touched the oranges with them?

Gene

I sterlised the bucket and tools with BruClean

The recipe I used was adjusted from CJJ Berry - the book suggested that 1 campden in the 'must' should be used 24 hours before to kill any wild yeasts before adding the wine yeast. This I did and left the lid on the bucket - not sure if this is right or not?

Update from this morn>> I am starting to wonder if it is a sulphur smell. Starting to smell a

Just hang in there. As Ray suggested, sometimes there's a point in the fermentation where a batch will smell bad but then it clears, and smells nice again. Darlene

Next update :-)

Starting to smell right again, hurray!

My jar is bubbling away and there is lots of pressure building in the bucket. I had expected to see some foam on the top by now but perhaps it isn't coming. My orange blossom mead (now fermenting for about a month) never got going in any vigorous way either so maybe I expect too much.

Just read a post by Jack Kellar talking about covering with muslin for the primary fermentation. I used the bucket lid. Does anyone have any views on this?

You can use muslin - it is up to you. I think Jack's wife made muslin covers with a bit of elastic at the edges to keep it on the bucket. Because you end up stirring the must a couple of times a day, I've never used the plastic bucket top. I use plastic wrap with a large rubberband. Easy to take off and on, keeps the undesirables out, and you can see how the ferment is going because the plastic will expand up without opening it up. Darlene

I might try that.

No idea where I would get muslin from. What type of plastic would you use?

Reynolds wrap and Saran wrap are probably the best, because they won't clump together with repeated removals and such. Some of the cheaper plastic wraps clump too easy. Darlene

Wow, not heard of either of those. Are they available in UK?

Gee, I don't know. I'm sorry I didn't realize you were in the UK - I would just get any plastic wrap you normally get to cover food. It might help if it were more on the higher end of plastic wraps rather than a real cheap kind - here in the US, I've noticed a difference between plastic wraps. Darlene