Advice please....

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pintocb

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Three weeks ago I made a perry from 2.5 gallons of pasturized pear juice from my Kroger. All I did was add a little dextrose and pitch the yeast. It still smells of sulphur. It isn't the prominent aroma, but it is more than "just a presence". The flavor is ok, but the smell distracts. Is this one of those things that will work out with patience or do I need to start over?
 
What was the SG of the juice before the dextrose?

What was the SG of the Juice after the dextrose?

Which yeast did you pitch?

What is the current SG?

A hydrometer will tell you what is going on inside your bucket/jug.

If you taste the samples that you use for the SG readings, how does it taste?

Pogo
 
I'm concerned that it might be H2S, so see if it's truly sulfury or just a product of fermentation. From Jack Keller's site, I found this:


How to Treat Hydrogen-Sulphide

Hydrogen sulfide does much more than impart off-smells and flavors to wine. Hydrogen sulfide can be detected by smell in quantities as low as 2 parts per billion. It can usually be dissipated during the first 2-3 weeks after its production begins by racking and aerating the wine. After several weeks, it tends to react with other components in the wine to form less volatile mercaptans, which themselves can be further oxidized to disulfides. These latter compounds are almost impossible to remove from wine by stripping methods, and their presence in the wine makes it undrinkable. Both mercaptans and disulfides have a notable skunk-like smell.

Hydrogen sulfide is usually formed after fermentation has concluded and detected when the wine is racked. If the hydrogen sulfide has not sat in the wine too long, it can be treated with a maximum measure of 0.5 ppm of copper, the amount contained in 0.75 ml of a 1% solution of copper sulfate pentahydrate added to a gallon of wine. The hydrogen sulfide should be gone within two days and the wine can be treated normally. However, it will take about 3 rackings, 20-30 days apart, to remove all excess copper from the wine. If not removed, the copper itself can taint the wine.

The amounts of copper sulfate pentahydrate used are so small, and the risks to fatally damaging the wine by adding too much are so real, that it is impractical to treat small amounts (less than 5 gallons) of wine. The preferred treatment is still to add sulfur dioxide in the form of potassium metabisulfite solution (see Measuring Additives in Winemaking) and then rack the wine with plenty of aeration to drive off the H2S.

A proprietary compound called Sulfex can also be used to treat hydrogen sulfide formation. It comes as a 10% slurry in water and is added to wine at the rate of 0.5-5 grams per gallon. It is insoluble and settles out without leaving any traces in the wine if subsequently racked properly at least twice. I have never used it but have heard it works well.

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If fermentation is finished, and it still smells like rotten eggs, I'd try splash racking and following Jack's instructions.

If it's still fermenting, I'd try adding some nutrient, and see if it helps.
 
The problem with splash racking a small amount of perry is that the pH may be too high for the potassium-or-sodium meta (camden tablets) to work, and then the perry will be ruined by oxidation. It would be safer to use tiny amounts of copper sulphate - dilute it a couple of times. If you don't treat H2S it only gets worse with time.
 
The problem with splash racking a small amount of perry is that the pH may be too high for the potassium-or-sodium meta (camden tablets) to work, and then the perry will be ruined by oxidation. It would be safer to use tiny amounts of copper sulphate - dilute it a couple of times. If you don't treat H2S it only gets worse with time.

I would image that the pH is fine. It'd be between 3.2 to 4.0 or so, I'd guess (having never taken the pH reading of any perry myself). The campden "works" at a higher pH, you just need more of it. If it's added to the perry, and you can smell the sulfite, it's probably at least 50 ppm which would be the goal. I'd use campden and splash rack way before I'd try the copper sulphate.
 
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