Strawberry Wine with Nail Polish Smell

I'm 2 days in to fermenting a 6 gal batch of strawberry wine. It has a bit of a nail polish smell. I've seen some suggest that during fermentation that's not a big deal.

If there's ANYTHING I need to do to rescue this I suspect it needs to be done NOW and not after fermentation is done. Hoping someone can help or at least convince me its nothing to worry about.

Lalvin 71b.

Temp is high (75ish) but should be with in range for that yeast. I've always fermented at this high before and never had a problem.....I just don't have a good AC.

There shouldn't be any contamination beyond what you'd expect from working with fresh fruit. And I put in 6 campden tablets so I wouldn't expect there to be a problem.

I forgot to buy extra acid blend, peptic enzyme, etc so I added an extra day before dropping my yeast to allow the peptic enzyme (once I got it) to work. Maybe that extra day was a mistake? I wouldn't think it would start to turn after just a day.

I over estimated the volume I'd need for my bucket to do this batch so I only have an 1/2 inch of head room. Could that be the problem? Nothing's over flowing and my bubbler seems to be happy.

I had a similar experience with my first strawberry wine. The odor disappeared with time in the carboy. In fact, it was gone by the end of secondary fermentation. Just be patient with it and don't panic!
I'm guessing the head room is not an issue if you are opening the bucket and stirring a couple of times per day. That should introduce plenty of oxygen to keep the yeast happy.

I'm stirring once a day and to make matters worse I'm out of town this weekend so my daily stirring will get neglected.

I've heard this both ways I think.... Does the yeast need oxygen and is the lack of oxygen the cause of this? I figured that with all of co2(?) being given off there was no way for oxygen to get to the yeast any way.

IF the lack of oxygen is the cause and I have way too little head room I would think that there is a problem that I should try to correct.

I figured I'd pull enough juice off to give me an extra couple of inches at the top, throw that juice in the fridge, and then use it to top off for the secondary fermentation.

Stop stirring you never stir wine. Nail polish smell come from Ethyl acetate which forms along side of acetic acid (acetobacter which converts alcohol into vinegar. I could go on with more problems but stop stirring at so2 and make sure your ph is under 3.5 and free so2 is around 40

Both of these bacterias are Oxygen loving keep your headspace low. Only experienced wine makers know when and how much oxygen to let wine come in contact with and it's rare and small. Best bets is to minimize all oxygen contact

jdpx4c said:

Stop stirring you never stir wine. Nail polish smell come from Ethyl acetate which forms along side of acetic acid (acetobacter which converts alcohol into vinegar. I could go on with more problems but stop stirring at so2 and make sure your ph is under 3.5 and free so2 is around 40

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Actually, I stir my wine often in primary. It's important to break up the "cap" as well as to bring oxygen into the must. Once the fermentation slows or stops, then of course you want to stop stirring and airlock the wine to protect it from oxidation.

I've never heard of the "nail polish" (acetone) smell occur on day 2 of primary, but of course it is happening so I'm unsure as to what I would do at this point. My guess is that it bacterial contamination, but it seems early for that too. I would agree that in this case to stop stirring, and make sure you have enough sulfite in the wine. I would also suggest yeast nutrient to make sure the odor isn't coming from stressed yeast.

My mistake. I didn't understand he was fermenting on fruit. I thought the juice had been pressed. The main reason in grape wine production is to mix the skins for color extraction not to incorporate oxygen. Most oxygen is pushed out with co2 through airlock. Oxygen is important but too much is worse than not enough.

But this could be the problem you have enough so2 but it's not very effective with a hight ph and I beige u said you forgot to add acid. Strawberries don't have a lot of natural acid so low acid low so2 and low alcohol plus oxygen is prime grounds for oxygen living bacteria that can be found on fruit skins and causing your problems.

Thanks, Yooper.... Could the low head space be resulting in stressed yeast because they aren't getting enough oxygen? I have 3 1 gallon test batches on the floor right next to it.....same start time and same contamination potential. They all have lots of head space.

The only other time I've had this happen is when I let 2 half gallons of cider ferment with whatever natural yeasts came with it.....I could see the potential for contamination with those because I didn't use any campden.

I have acid mix in there. 2 tsp per gal I think....

Sorry again ( am wring under my desk at work) I thought I read earlier that u forgot acid. I can tell you for fact that ethyl acetate is what causes nail polish smell and it is a volatile acid created along side of acetobacter contamination. Acetobacter can live on fruit and loves oxygen and rather alcohol tolerant. Usually so2 kills it but like I said so2 is not effective when ph is high. I would get ph test strips If u don't have a meter. They are cheap.

Ok. What I'm looking for is a quick solution..... I have to leave in about an hour for an out of town gig this weekend and my local brew shop where I could get so2 is 30 minutes in the wrong direction.

Wouldn't 6 campden tablets kill the acetobacter in the first place? Topped by 4 gallons of boiling water?

If the consensis that oxygen is my problem I won't stir before I leave. If oxygen is the problem I think what I need to do is pull off about 1/2 gal of juice, throw it in the fridge and use to top off for the 2nd fermentation. Pulling off that 1/2 gal should leave some extra room at the top for oxygen.

sorry....let me rephrase that. If too much oxygen is my problem I won't stir. If not enough oxygen is the problem I'll do the other....

its too early for your wine to turn into vinegar mainly because its hardly even wine yet.....I would just let it rip, maybe give it some yeast nutrient and see what happens, you could treat with campden but your yeast will suffer.....good luck

Honda88 said:

its too early for your wine to turn into vinegar mainly because its hardly even wine yet.....I would just let it rip, maybe give it some yeast nutrient and see what happens, you could treat with campden but your yeast will suffer.....good luck

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That's my thought, too. It's pretty early for the acetone smell. It sounds more like stressed yeast- but I just don't know.

I won't through out the possibility of stressed yeast but that doesn't produce the nail polish smell. It is never to early for acetobacter to start converting alcohol into vinegar. It just normally doesn't happen to latter in the process when wine has been in long term oxygen contact and s02 has depleted. If the bacteria was present on the fruit in the wine, the so2 was ineffective, oxygen was in abundance ( the perfect storm) it possible. when you start getting into fruit chemistry the possibilities and their combination. Is endless. Also I am an enologist and only work with grapes so there could be unknown interactions with strawberries and aroma compounds that create a smell similar to nail polish but not caused by ethyl acetate.