Faint rotten egg smell: treatment until yeast nutrient arrives

Hi:

I have a batch of red wine going on with grapes from my brother's garden. I have absolutely no idea which variety, but I assume that they are some variety of red table grapes. I crushed/destemmed them and washed them in tap water. I cleaned my fermentation bucket. Afterwards I rinsed the bucked with one liter of water to which I added 18 campden tablets (read that somewhere that 15 per liter should do fine to kill anything it touches). I used the same solution on all my tools. I added 3 campden tablets to 20 L of must.

I did'nt have any yeast nutrient left, so I did not use that. I used a full packet of Young's All Purpose Red, which I sprinkeled on top of the must as is stated on the sachet. I also added pectic enzyme.

The fermentation has been going on for about 3 days now, but I start to notice a faint rotten egg smell, but only when I stir the must to break the cap (I do that 2 times a day: before and after work). When I take away the cheesecloth, it just smells like any other fermentation I have done before.

I live in Belgium and we don't have any brewers' shops around here. I ordered yeast nutrient today, but it will probably only arrive by Monday-Tuesday. Is there anything I can do in the meantime to start solving this problem? I don't want it to get worse, because we spent a lot of time with the whole family preparing the must.

Thanks in advance,

Jeroen Claes

Remember, there is rotting fruit in that must. It will have some bad smells.

If it is overpowering, then there might be a problem.

I'd stir more often, and try to get rid of the rotten egg smell, until your yeast nutrient comes.

Like Yooper said ... stirring will get rid of some of it, H2S is pretty volatile.

Lower the temperature of the ferment to the lower part of the range for the yeast you are using. This may cut back on some of the H2S production (then raise it back to a more moderate temp after you get the nutrient/nitrogen in it).

Actually, if it was an important batch I would absolutely lower it to the point of stopping the ferment until I got the nutrients. (i.e. put it in the refrigerator).

If you had no chance of getting nutrients and had to take drastic action, one could use an old distiller's sugar-wash trick and add No-Salt Tomato Paste for nutrients ... make for interesting wine I suppose but a bit of an experimental gamble in terms of what it would add to the taste and aroma of the wine.

I would just keep the must chilled and ferment stopped until the nutrients arrive, then when you get the nutrients in it, warm it back up to room temp, give it a vigorous stir or shake, and the ferment should start right back up. Note too that you should take an SG reading and if your ferment is for instance, half finished, you should add approximately a half dose of nutrient (or just a bit more than a half dose) etc. And btw: the nutrient we're talking about here is DAP - aka Diammonium Phosphate... not just "energizer" which tends to have a much lower nitrogen content.

If its already gone too far you need to get the hydrogen sulfide smell out after ferment you might check out this (the post is about halfway down the page) ...
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/do-i-have-stabilize-fine-278270/index2.html#post3457241

Thanks for your tips. I have stirred the must 4 times in the past 24 hours and the smell is gone.