Blackberry must stinks of H2S

[Marshall Jose]

I picked and froze blackberries from a neighbor's plants, and when I had
enough (about 3kg) I prepared my must for the primary. After crushing
the fruit I added the usual things, including 1.5 tsp of yeast nutrient
in the form of food-grade urea. I also sulfited with two Campden tablets
primary must, which by this time was nearly 2 gallons. This sat for 24
hours.

I then pitched the yeast, Lalvin RC212 (Bourgovin), per their
directions, which involved dissolving some of the yeast in warm water
and letting sit for 15 minutes before adding it to the must. I noticed
at the time that the yeast solution smelled a little off-putting.

Within 24 hours of pitching, my must acquired a thick bouquet of
hydrogen sulfide, and 5 days later it's still as bad.

This happened last year when I made wine from the same plant's berries.,
but then I'd used Red Star's Premier Cuvee. I eventually drove out the
H2S with agitation, but it made me wonder what went wrong. This time I
was very attentive to sanitation, and I'm rather disappointed that the
H2S presence has recurred with such vigor.

After doing some internet searches, I get the impression diammonium
phosphate might have been a better nutrient. Does anybody have other
suggestions? There's still plenty of berries to pick this season, and I
might be able to re-try a batch this season.

Marshall

[doub...@hotmail.com]

I don't use campden tablets but I thout each tablet was good for 5
gallons of wine. I think you added 10 gallons of sulfite into 2
gallons of must. If you added yeast nutrient, I would say that is your
source of H2S.

[doub...@hotmail.com]

Correction for clarification:

I don't use campden tablets but I thout each tablet was good for 5
gallons of wine. I think you added 10 gallons of sulfite into 2

gallons of must. If you added yeast nutrient, I would say that the
campden tablets are your source of H2S.

[Marshall Jose]

No, one campden tablet is about right for a gallon of must, contributing
150 ppm total SO2. And I wanted to be heavy-handed this time since I was
concerned about wild yeasts in last year's batch.

[Paul E. Lehmann]

Marshall Jose wrote:

> No, one campden tablet is about right for a gallon of must, contributing
> 150 ppm total SO2. And I wanted to be heavy-handed this time since I was
> concerned about wild yeasts in last year's batch.

I think the very best way to add SO2 is from a "stock solution" made by
adding fenough water to 100 grams of Potassium Metabisulfite to enough
water to make the total volume 1 liter. This will produce a 10% solution.

Here is a "C" program to calculate how much of this solution to use:

{
float gallons, liters, ppm;

printf("Enter the number of gallons
of wine\n");

scanf("%f", &gallons);

printf("Enter the desired SO2 in ppm\n");
scanf("%f", &ppm);

liters = gallons * 3.785;

ppm = ((ppm * liters) / 100) / .576;

printf("The number of ml of stock solution needes is %.2f\n", ppm);

}

You could put the same math in a spread sheet without writing a "C" program.

For the documentation on this approach see page 37 of the following link:
http://brsquared.org/wine/Articles/SO2/SO2.htm

I started using this method of adding SO2 and it is very easy and probably
more accurate than campden tablets for reasons mention by Rotter in the
link above.

Paul

[Steve Peek]

"Marshall Jose" <NotN...@nohow.com> wrote in message
news:0O2dnTy4k_UIyQTX...@giganews.com...

Give it a good stir with a copper rod. I often have a similar problem with
apple wine and the sulphur seems to bind with the copper. It could be your
yeast nutrient causing the odor, but some yeasts are known for H2S
production.
Steve

[doub...@hotmail.com]

"This happened last year when I made wine from the same plant's
berries.,
but then I'd used Red Star's Premier Cuvee"

This is why I assumed it's not the yeast nutrient. PDM has very low
nitrogen requirements.

On Aug 30, 10:08 am, "Steve Peek" <sp...@ioa.com> wrote:
> "Marshall Jose" <NotNob...@nohow.com> wrote in message

[Marshall Jose]

I made a "frond" with some 16 ga. copper wire and scoured it, then
swished it around in the must. Sadly, there was no apparent reaction.

I've since transferred it to the secondary, and I'll be periodically
oxygenating it using an aquarium pump and a bubble stone until the odor
is inoffensive.

[Marshall Jose]

A postscript:

I gave up on the blackberry wine for a couple of months, fully expecting
to destroy it eventually. But I gave it a sniff recently and found no
trace of the hydrogen sulfide odor present earlier.

I do think the oxygenation helped, but I guess I was too impatient for
results.

Marshall

[Sam]

"Marshall Jose" <NotN...@nohow.com> wrote in message

news:zJOdnf2NFYTlgGfX...@giganews.com...

>A postscript:
>
> I gave up on the blackberry wine for a couple of months, fully expecting
> to destroy it eventually. But I gave it a sniff recently and found no
> trace of the hydrogen sulfide odor present earlier.
>
> I do think the oxygenation helped, but I guess I was too impatient for
> results.

I tried to make blackberry wine, but I got sick of picking bits of LCD
screen and circuit boards out of it.
Sorry, I couldn't resist that.

[Marshall Jose]

Post-postscript: When racking the blackberry wine recently, I diverted
some for tasting, and found it delightful but extremely acid. Titration
showed to be somewhere close to 0.65-0.70% acid. I added enough
potassium bicarbonate to neutralize 0.3% of it, so we'll see what I get
in a couple of months.

Marshall