Marquette wine

[Peter Laman]

My Marquette wine grapes were 23 to 25 brixs. the 10 gallons fermented very quickly. no sugar was added, just camden tablets and yeast. no sugar.
fermented and transfered to secondary. Racked yesterday and had a bad skunky smell? I check the acid and added acid blend to get to .65 . will the smell go away or what else can I do?
Thanks Pete

 

[jgmillr1]

That is H2S that is usually produced from unhappy yeast. At this point, you will want to add some copper sulfate to the wine. For a 1% copper sulfate solution, you'd add about 7.5ml to your 10 gallon batch. Stir it in gently and check the next day for the odor. Repeat until the odor is gone. This way you incrementally add 0.5ppm of copper with each dose and you won't have excess copper in your wine. I don't recommend adding pennies or metallic copper to your wine since you can't control how much copper you end up dissolving in the acid (it is toxic in high enough levels).

In the future, you will want to add more yeast nutrients during fermentation. The recommendation is to add DAP at 2/3 and 1/3 through the fermenation. This feeds the yeast continually and allows them to complete the fermentation quickly and remain happy.

 

[Peter Laman]

That is H2S that is usually produced from unhappy yeast. At this point, you will want to add some copper sulfate to the wine. For a 1% copper sulfate solution, you'd add about 7.5ml to your 10 gallon batch. Stir it in gently and check the next day for the odor. Repeat until the odor is gone. This way you incrementally add 0.5ppm of copper with each dose and you won't have excess copper in your wine. I don't recommend adding pennies or metallic copper to your wine since you can't control how much copper you end up dissolving in the acid (it is toxic in high enough levels).

In the future, you will want to add more yeast nutrients during fermentation. The recommendation is to add DAP at 2/3 and 1/3 through the fermenation. This feeds the yeast continually and allows them to complete the fermentation quickly and remain happy.

Hi, thank you so much for the tip. I have added 7.5 ML to get 5 gallon carboy twice. The smell is almost gone. Can I add one more does of 7.5 ml of copper sulfate? What is the limit on adding Copper sulfate. Thanks, Pete

 

[jgmillr1]

Go ahead and add more copper sulfate if you continue to smell the odor. Each addition adds the legal commercial limit of 0.5ppm copper but that copper will be dropped out of solution as it reacts with the H2S. You just don't want to keep adding the copper sulfate once the odor is no longer present.

 

[Peter Laman]

Ok, the smell is completely gone. (yeh) What is usually a heavier bolder red is now light like a Pinot. My wife says it just taste young?
Did the copper sulfate cause the wine to be Thinner? Or am i just to impatient?
Thanks

 

[jgmillr1]

The copper sulfate won't cause it to be thinner in body. The marquette I've made has also been somewhat lighter in body and similar to Pinot, but this is the style I'm shooting for with this grape. You could try allowing more skin contact or try a different yeast (such as BM4x4) that may give you a bolder style.