smelly Prickly pear wine

[Darwin2010]

So i just opened a bottle of prickly pear wine that i have been aging for about 6 months and it tasted good perhaps a little sweet but it was my first attempt. i followed the reciepe on jack keller's website (http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/prickly.asp). however the problem is that it had a nasty smell that was a little hard to get over, some people described it as being ether like and some others said it smelled like cat urine. I'm about to try another batch of this i already have the fruit can anybody tell me some possible reasons for the off smell?

 

[Arpolis]

What yeast did you use? The recipe on jack Keller's site just says Wine yeast and nutrient. Also what kind and how much nutrient did you use? With that info I can probably give you a couple tips to improve that aroma.

 

[Darwin2010]

i used lavin ec 1118 and i would have to check but i used whatever the recomended amount of nutrient was on the package from my lhbs

 

[Arpolis]

Hmmm I am not exactly sure what cause your aroma issue then. Lalvin ec-1118 is a nutural yeast with low volitile acid and H2S production. You may just try a different yeast strain and try a little different method on nutrients and give it a go. A good all around yeast that is easy to use and has always given me good results is Lalvin 71b-1112.

Look up staggard nutrient additions or "SNA" and follow that. If you want to be less exact then basically you split up your nutrients into 3 additions add add them evenly over the course of the first week of fermentation. For instance I may add 1/2 tsp per gallon of yeast nutrient at yeast pitch then 1/4tsp per gallon 2-3 days later and the same again.

 

[Darwin2010]

ok thanks