Sulphur Smell from Apple wine

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PHW39

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hi there,

can any one help please, i have just started out on an apple wine, had the chopped apples soaking in water, campden tablets and pectolase for 1 week, just come to drain off the juice from the solids and it has a strong suplhur smell.
is this normal? will it go away in time? i just don't want to brew it out and wait a year to mature and then find out its only good for stink bombs !!

I just noticed while its sitting in the barrel with an air lock fitted waiting for the dissolved sugar to cool it's started bubbling through......no yeast or sugar added yet....does this mean it possibly got some other form of yeast in the and its already fermenting ?

Cheers Paul
 
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It's normal. You can lessen or even eliminate those sulfur odors by adding yeast nutrient/energizer & DAP (diammonium phosphate) in the appropriate amounts, just follow the directions on the packages.
Regards, GF.
 
If it's been sitting for a whole week, then it might be fermenting without yeast. Campden works better at lower pHs, so if it wasn't acidic enough, it might not have stopped the native yeast. What is the volume of the liquid?

Normally the apple juice is extracted from the apples rather than soaking in water, and sugar added to the juice directly.

As for sulfur, if you get rid of it by "splash racking" you might be OK. I have had strong sulfur not dissipate by itself, and finally ended up using copper wire to neutralize it....
 
copper pipe (with no solder joints since that had other nasty stuff in it), pennies, etc also all work well when sanitized and added
 
As others (above) suggest there are ways to remove the hydrogen sulfide the yeast produce but the yeast produce hydrogen sulfide when they are stressed. Best way to get rid of hydrogen sulfide is to adopt protocols that do not encourage it. Adopting other practices means that "stressed yeast" fermentations become the norm...and stressed yeast do not typically produce the best wines or meads or ciders.
 
1 week? Campden is a sulfite, how much did you use?
It has likely already started fermenting with the native yeast, mold, or bacteria that lives on the apple skins. The native yeast due to the present sulfites may have been stressed and produced hydrogen sulfide; this is very hard to get rid of in high amounts. What is harder to get rid of is acetic acid bacteria if they have had time to multiply; they are common on apple skins and produce vinegar in the presents of alcohol. I guess you can let it sit and get you some sulfur flavored apple cider vinegar.
Honestly, if it was me I would dump it. Next time press the apples instead of bathing them and if you want to add campden wait no more than 24 hours before pitching yeast.
 
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