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hehawbrew · 03-16-2013, 12:36 AM

So, I made a gallon of mead a month or so ago. It's been fermenting and bubbling. Today, I popped the top to see how it smelled.......yuck! It smelled sulferish......

I followed a recipe from some random YouTube guy.....

64oz local honey, some yeast nutrient, and lavlin 1118. Will it improve? Is this normal? Should I dump it?

Arpolis · 03-16-2013, 01:03 AM

SO2 (sulfer) smell can be reversed and not be harmful if caught as soon as you have. It is normally caused when there are sulfer like compounds in the water and/or ingredients used and the yeast will metabolize them into SO2 if they are too stressed or have too little nutrient.

The easiest way to get rid of it is to agitate the mead and introduce oxygen into it. I use a wine whip attached to a drill. It whips up the mead into a nice foam and that works perfect. Another method is called splash racking. Siphon off of any settled yeast but let the mead fall through the length of your new Carboy/jug/bucket and splash on the bottom. That will still agitate a bit and introduce some oxygen. That must be done 2-4 times usually to do a good job. Then for the next 24 hours or so just cover with paper towel and rubber band so the remaining SO2 can dissipate out. Smell and taste the mead after that 24 hours and if still really sulferish then repeat the process.

Glad you caught this soon. Just follow these few steps and you will be all good.

hehawbrew · 03-16-2013, 01:22 AM

Thanks! Sound easy enough. Could it be because I used city water? I appreciate the help.

Arpolis · 03-16-2013, 03:15 AM

I use city tap water but I use a brita filter on it. Well every city has different minerals in the water too. You may try a couple more batches soon and try one with bottle water and the other with just additional nutrients. See what works for you.

hehawbrew · 03-16-2013, 10:56 AM

My city water is bad, even with a house filter....

I don't have a fancy drill gadget, but this morning I took the airlock and all off, shook it up, let the pressure out, and did that a few more times to get some air in. Used your rubber and paper towel method, so, hopefully it works! Thanks again for the help!

**fatbloke** · 03-16-2013, 11:13 AM

The sulphur flavour is generally generated by lack of nutrients/energiser etc.

If you catch it quickly it's easiest just to use something to give it a good stir, like a handle of a plastic brewing spoon/stirrer (if it's in a carboy type fermenter).

You just have to start stirring slowly just in case you get a big release of dissolved CO2 and could generate an eruption of mead, but the stirring to get air into the batch to help expel the H2S that's being generated by the yeast, followed by adding some nutrient/energiser into the batch (or yeast hulls or boiled bread yeast) and usually you will find that the ferment just resumes without the sulphur/rotten egg/H2S smell fine and it doesn't cause a problem with the finished taste.

From memory, if it's not sorted out and you just leave it, you will end up with some of the H2S being converted to mercaptans, and get a bad off flavour.

But because H2S causes such a stink, it's usually sorted out before it becomes a problem......