Degassing and Sulphur Smell

[kryolla]

I made a batch of island mist and while it was fermenting at room temp 70 it had a sulphur smell. I just poured the F pack and the smell is still there will this go away as the yeast drops out of suspension? Also I bought a degassing stick and while using it it caused a whirlpool should I be concerned about oxidizing my wine? Thanks

 

[giligson]

Sulfur smell late in fermentation and after the yeast are done fermenting is often the result of mercaptan production - sometimes also more of a burned rubber smell. You cannot get rid of these without some serious and potentially deadly chemistry (deadly for you and possibly the taste of the wine). If the sulfur is still in a fairly labile form ( I think its sulfate or sulfite form - its been a while since basic organic chemistry for me) it can be brought out of solution by flowing a gas throught the wine -ideally this would be an inert gas like nitrogen but most beer brewers have some CO2 around that they can use. The proceedure involves force carbonating and decarbonating the wine to "pull" the sulfate out of solution into a volatile form that partitions in the gas.
The last ditch is to actually aerate the wine (i.e. you are using air instead of inert gas) - this has to be pretty vigorous like tipping out one vessle and pouring into another. This is guaranteed to oxidize the wine and it has to be drunk within about a month.
And yes -the "degassing" mixer usually does add some air into your wine, even if you are carefull. Its best to reverse the drill from time to time to get agitation rather than whirlpooling.
I would suggest that you just store your wine for a month before sniffing it again and seeing if the sulfur has dissapeared.

Oh, BTW sulfur production often occurs when yeast do not have sufficient nitrogen nutrition - thats why thin musts (like white wine) often should have yeast nutrient added at the beginning of fermentation.

 

[kryolla]

The sulphur smell went away and my wife loves this wine. I was suprised by how clear the wine got. We bottled about 3 arbor mist bottles and keg the rest but then she tasted the wine in the bottle and decided she doesnt want it carbed. No more trips to the liquor store and I saved about $120 per batch.

 

[rsmith179]

Good to hear that the "sulfur" smell has disappeared. I can see from your sig that you are also a homebrewer. I have a feeling that this smell may have something to do with the wine just being a little "green" still. Just like beer, the wine does need time in the bottle to mellow out. These Island Mist kits are basically ready to be drank in 30 days. However, I have found that these kits benefit from an additional 30 days of aging in the bottles. A good two months from start to glass should result in much lower amounts of this "sulfur" smell. I smelled the same thing and was worried about the wine, but it has disappeared after about half the batch is already gone!

 

[kryolla]

well that batch went pretty quick. I think my wife needs to slow down LOL. I wasn't planning on making another batch for a couple of more weeks then it wont be ready for an additional month. It looks like I'll be making trips to the liquor store again.