Smell first batch

Fermentations all produce at least traces of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) which has a rotten egg smell. A little of that is normal; a _lot_ is a problem.

Addition of yeast nutrient while the fermentation is active often fixes an H2S problem almost instantly. Your homebrew shop should have yeast nutrient on hand and be able to tell you the recommended dosage, but don't add it if the fermentation is about finished. BTW, straight diammonium phosphate will work too; that's the main ingredient in nutrient.

If the problem is only traces of H2S, a splash racking at the end of fermentation will usually suffice to release the gas. That will also help get rid of dissolved CO2.

Sounds pretty normal to me. Give the must a stir from the bottom to release gas and resuspend the yeast on the bottom. That should help some.

Tom S

Tom's advice is good for an experienced home wine maker who knows what he is doing. But this is your first batch and here is a different take.

Your friend is probably more sensitive to off smells than the rest of us. not being use to them. It may smell bad to him and smell perfectly normal or even delightful to us. Others may visit my wine room and ask "What's that smell?" with wrinkled nose. And I respond, "The glorious smell of wine in the making!" You get to love it.

I would not suggest a beginner go adding nutrient to a kit without good reason as they are usually very well balanced in that department. Just leave it alone. As Dick says, Your description of the ferment sounds very normal.

Ray

In the past year of ferment and drink, I've noticed a slight smell or off taste on only a couple of occasions. And I don't sterilize anything, I just keep using new containers that come with the juice I buy.

When something does acquire an "off" odor I discard it and rinse anything it came into contact with (like the cap and air hose) with tap water for a minute or so and I believe the chlorine in that gets the bad bac down to an inconsequential level.

I considered that was a possibility, but these guys are experienced beer makers. They should know well enough what a fermentation smells like, so on the off chance that they have an H2S problem I suggested the nutrient addition.

Pretty hard to troubleshoot a fermentation problem without a smellovision uplink... ;^/

Tom S

In this case I would go with Ray and not add any more Nutrient. -- it could also give off flavours to your wine.

If you have followed normal sanitising procedures it would be MOST unusual for a kit wine to fail. They are, after all, designed to be somewhat foolproof -- 'cos the Manufacturer wants you to buy another kit. The kits wines methodology gives you belt, bootlaces, braces ( suspenders) and string to ensure a successful result.

I know that many of us "older brethren" ( "old farts" to quote TomS } ) play around with different ideas while wine making, but in the early learning stages I suggest strongly that you stick to the instructions and just don't mess around with the must/wine too much.

When I first started I was prodding and poking, sniffing and tasting every day -- and worrying like mad! I'm surprised the wines ever survived it all! But, although I was making "fruit wines" in those days, I was following recipes provided by C.J Berry and H.E Bravery and in early days I relied utterly on their experience. I can say that I have never thrown away a wine due to it failing to complete its fermentation processes. ( Where's a piece of wood!)

But wine is after all amazingly tolerant of interference. That being said, just leave it alone to get on with what ever stage it is at. Read and follow the instructions carefully and enjoy the results.

I've since checked up on this, and the odor he's talking about is the yeast itself. I had this same odor when I first tried carbonating root beer. I was using champagne yeast. The problem with it was the yeast flavor remained in the root beer afterwards. I could taste it and know what it was. Others tried it and hated it because they couldn't discern that off flavor. Is this what the wine will taste like? If so, is there a way to reduce it?

Homemade root beer does tend to have a bit of yeast in the flavor, but then, I leave the yeast in the bottle, and it only "ages" for a week or two. Racking wine off the yeast lees and aging for a reasonable period should get rid of the yeast flavor.

I suppose if you did root beer by methode champenoise, got rid of the yeast, and aged it for six months or more, it might lose the yeast flavor. That's a lot of work for root beer, though. Me, I kind of like the yeasty flavor of homemade root beer.

Doug