HELP! Sulphur smell durring second racking

[bregiz]

Hi everyone,

hoping for some help here:

I have just racked my kiwifruit wine ready for bulk ageing, but have encountered a rather strong sulphur smell.

The taste is not effected so much, but it is definitely present in the smell.

I previously had some kind of infection in this batch which I bombed with the maximum recommended amount of campdon tablets for the volume (7 tablets on the 30th of June), so I am guessing that might be the culprit?

Are there any fixes for this specific problem? It is a 19L batch of wine so I would really love to be able to fix this!

Cheers in advance for your help!

 

[jensmith]

If its just smelly due to the camptom I would just let it bulk age as is. Consider it extra protection against nasties
If you were botteling it I would dump it from pail to pail a couple times to air out the sulfer smell, or leave the airlock off, or stir it real good. The sulfa smell will escape if you give it a chance.

 

[bregiz]

So should I bulk age without an airlock for a while, or just leave them for 3 -6 months and then just see how it smells before bottling?

Also, should I add potassium sorbate? Or should they be all good as is? (960 sg)

 

[jensmith]

Bulk age with airlock just as it is. Then if the sulfa smell is still present try the other methods. No sorbate is needed unless you have backsweetened it.

 

[bregiz]

No back sweetening yet. I will probably use unfermentable sugars if I sweeten anyway.

I was cleaning out teh carboy this morning and the smell was really really strong. Got me wondering it is really was the campdon?

what other things can cause a strong sulphur smell?

 

[jensmith]

Sulfa smell from the campton. Other strong smells can be from yeast farts, usually when activaly fermenting. The sulfa smell will burn your nose if it is strong. If you dump the wine in a bucket and stir the smell will go away. It may take some stirring if you have lots of sulfa smells. If you have something that will fit down the neck of the carboy you can just stir it in there. It may take several days. Again, if you are going to bulk age be sure to leave some sulfa in to help prevent oxidations ect during storage. Not a lot, just a little.

 

[jamesngalveston]

it may be h2s...which can be cured as said above if it is not to severe.
i would rack to a bucket, stir like crazy , rack to another bucket stir like craze, and then rack to my secondary.

 

[Honda88]

if it smells like rotten eggs it is not the tablets. like stated above it is probably h2s is suspension and if you don't get rid of it quickly it will stay in the wine forever....good luck