First wine, help me diagnose

[derekcw83]

I have brewed many many gallons of beer.

My first wine I made a month ago. All went well, I thought, until I recently tasted the wine. It has a strong ammonia odor. The taste is bearable, and actually good. It is a raspberry peach sangria kit. But the odor of ammonia burns your nose

What went wrong to cause this? Again, hundreds of gallons of beer without any infections. But my first wine has this smell. It is still very fresh, only 4 weeks since I pitched yeast, will this odor eventually fade?

 

[DoctorCAD]

How exactly did you ferment? Ive never had a wine smell of ammonia, and I made the same kit ladt summer.

 

[derekcw83]

Well I fermented it in a dark closet and I keep my house at about 76°. I let it go for 2 weeks as the instructions said. I know that fermentation can cause higher temperature but I assumed 76 would be fine per the instructions. I did add more than normal sugar along with the juice before pitching but I don't think that would have an effect.

 

[jgmillr1]

Ammonia is a very odd odor to come from wine. The only time I have ever smelled ammonia was, unsurprisingly, from the DAP yeast nutrients I've added to the fermentation which dissipates almost immediately. But I've never smelled ammonia from the wine.

So, are you sure it is ammonia... like stick your head in the cat box in a 3-cat house you haven't cleaned all week and inhale deeply? Could it be H2S (smells like rotten egg)? Could it be ethyl acetate (smells like fingernail polish)? Could it be vinegar?

Off-odors from young wine like that are often from either (1) unhappy yeast during fermentation due to insufficient nutrients, (2) wild yeast 'contributing' to the fermentation due to insufficient sulfites to kill the buggers off, or (3) bacterial spoilage/oxidation due to insufficient sulfites and exposure to oxygen.

You should take excess precaution at all times to keep air away from your wine and sulfites at sufficient levels. This means racking into carboys to minimize the headspace and even purging out carboys/headspace with CO2. These steps prevent 90% of the bad things that can happen to wine.

As a side note, the fermenting wine doesn't need to be kept in the absolute dark like beer. No hop oils here. Not that I would leave it in a sunny window though either.

 

[bernardsmith]

Ammonia.. that suggests DAP or a source of organic nitrogen which is something often added to wine (yeast need nitrogen). But I don't make wines from kits and do not know whether the manufacturer of the kit asks you to add nutrients or whether the nutrients are added to the must at packaging. I wonder if the kit contained an excessive amount of this additive or whether you might be very sensitive to this?

 

[derekcw83]

I think it's a combination of a few things. Young wine, higher alcohol, etc. I took a sample to my lhbs and they acted like it was perfectly fine, just very hot with alcohol. I suppose maybe I am pretty sensitive to it and I also need to let it mellow for a bit.