Sulfur smell/Flavor!!

[CRaymond36]

Hello,
I just brewed the 3 week sweet mead recipe from the site.

address is here: http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?option=com_rapidrecipe&page=viewrecipe&recipe_id=119&Itemid=459

summary:
I made a 5 gallon batch
-Buckwheat and clover honey
-K1V-1116 yeast
-used energizer and nutrients
-oxygenated each day after pitching for 3 days
-starting gravity 1.11

The recipe says to ferment for about 2 weeks and stop the fermentation when the gravity reaches 1.02 by racking it onto potassium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate, then waiting a week for it to clear.

My batch didn't reach 1.02 until after week 3. Tasted good at that point, no off flavors or anything. In the morning, I racked it into an idophor sanitized bucket containing the sulfite and sorbate, minus the lees from the previous bucket.

That afternoon, The mead was still fermenting, and I noticed a rotten egg smell when smelling the airlock. I opened the lid, and was hit with a mass of sulfur, which in turn encompassed the entire living room and kitchen nearby. In a panic, I hit google and the results said that the sulfur smell was probably from the yeast being stressed, and temporary. They also said that I should aerate the must again, and add nutrients, in an attempt to stop the yeast from making more sulfur.

I did just that, and after 2 days the sulfur smell died down a little, but the mead was still fermenting at full blast. I stuck the entire bucket in the fridge to try and cold crash the mead, which worked. But when I bring it back to room temperature, it starts fermenting again. And, the mead still has a slight aroma of sulfur, with a slight taste of sulfur as well. I bottled it, tried adding a clove and some cinnamon/allspice/nutmeg to one of the bottles. The next day, the spiced one tasted better, but the sulfur smell/taste still lingers.


My Questions are:

1. What exactly caused the sulfur reaction, is it a normal occurrence when using the sulfite/sorbate tactic in this recipe?
2. Is the sulfur smell/taste temporary, or is there anything I can do to get rid of it?
3. I would like to use this recipe again, is there anything that I did wrong or anything I can do to stop the sulfuric experience that I just went through?
4. Is there a better way to stop the fermentation? preferably one that doesnt require to store the mead in the fridge permanently without fear of the fermentation to start again?

 

[Medsen Fey]

Before addressing anything else, am I understanding correctly that you bottled this while the fermentation is active? If so, did you check the gravity? That yeast can produce in excess of 120 psi and can potentially explode even a Champagne bottle. You may want to unbottle it unless you used plastic bottles.

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[CRaymond36]

I put the entire 6.5 gallon plastic fermentation bucket into the fridge(we have a spare) for about 3 days, which stopped the fermentation. I then racked it into another bucket, minus the lees. It was pretty clear in the new bucket, but it seemed like it was still fermenting in the new bucket.

After I bottled it, I put all the bottles back into the fridge, and they have been sitting there for a couple days now with no issues. I will be one of the bottles out tonight and sticking it outside under my deck for a couple days to safely see if it turns into a bottle bomb or not, lol. I'm willing to sacrifice a bottle to do this. However, i'm going to keep the rest of the bottles in the fridge just to be safe.

 

[Medsen Fey]

The performance of one bottle will not predict the behavior of the others. All you need is to have one start up again to have an injury, and the chances of the yeast waking up if this warms up into the 80's is high.

You would be wise to pour all these bottles back into the carboy with a good splashing to get rid of some of the sulfur. Then treat it with some yeast hulls and let it warm up and finish fermenting. At higher temp more of the H2S will blow off along with the CO2. When the fermentation is finished as evidenced by a stable gravity, splash rack it again. If it still smells like sulfur, you can treat by stirring with a copper tube or scrub pad (don't do that with actively fermenting yeast or you'll get more H2S). After you clear the odor, you can restabilize and sweeten it back up to taste.

If you bottle with sulfur odors, over time the H2S will form mercaptans and disulfides and though these compounds may not be quite as stinky they are much more difficult to eliminate. Bottling a stinky mead that isn't completely clear will give a lot of yeast sediment in the bottles that will likely create more H2S.

And no, H2S isn't a common occurrence with this recipe but it can happen, and stopping an active fermentation with sorbate and sulfite is prone to fail. A better way to stop the fermentation is to put it in a fridge for a couple of weeks and then racking and adding sorbate and sulfite when the yeast are dormant (and mostly gone). This is called "cold crashing."

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[CRaymond36]

I saw the tip about stirring with a copper tube. I'll save the 2 bottles that I have spiced and do as you said with the rest, pour back into the fermenter to finish off and the rest.

I'm wondering though, would this recipe normally stop around 1.02 gravity on its own, or would you have to stop it manually somehow?

The recipe says that it should be done in 3 weeks, but when my batch hit 1.02 gravity after the third week, the airlock was still burping about every 15 seconds or so. And if not, how long would you say it would take the yeast in this recipe to tap out?

I wanted to use this recipe just for what it stated. A quick 1 month recipe to play around with to get a lot of experience making mead with while I am brewing stronger stuff in other carboys that take longer to finish.

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[fatbloke]

Manually stopping a ferment is quite hard, especially if you used K1v1116 which is one of the most robust yeasts available and WILL ferment to 18% ABV.

 

[CRaymond36]

I guess ill have to try the recipe again and test the length of time it takes the yeast to tap out instead of attempting to stop early. But this time Ill stick with a 1 gallon batch. I'll post my results in the recipe's comments so others can learn from my mistakes, lol.

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[Medsen Fey]

I'm wondering though, would this recipe normally stop around 1.02 gravity on its own, or would you have to stop it manually somehow?

With K1V, this recipe won't stop at 1.020 on its own. You have to intervene to stop it. Unfortunately yeast are very unpredictable, but this batch is giving you a lot of experience.

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[CRaymond36]

You aren't kidding there. Lots of hardships, but still fun learning the ropes. Trying to muster up the courage and experience to attempt a Vikings Blod clone. Brew using hops and hibiscus, target of 22% abv to be able to backsweeten it down to 19%. From what i've been reading, sounds like one of the hardest/tedious things to make with all the steps involved.

 

[Chevette Girl]

A note about fermentation starting up again after raising the temp again after cold-crashing, check that the SG is changing, sometimes it LOOKS like bubbling has renewed but it's just trapped CO2 coming out because cold must can hold more dissolved gas than warm must. I learned that one when I moved my musts from cold basement to warm kitchen...

And it is possible that trying to stop the yeast may be stressing them out and making them stinky, I've never tried to stop a fermentation before though

Hope it turns out well!

 

[CRaymond36]

I decided to just dump the batch and start over. Since i'm still a newbee, I think it would be better for me to learn from the mistake and start from scratch on that batch, do it the normal way instead of the "quick way". I have plenty of buckwheat left over, so we'll see how it goes.

 

[ox45]

I just bottled my first batch of this exact same quick mead. I split mine off into two batches letting one go till dryness, and stopping one at 1.020. I tried the same thing by just racking it off the lees and onto the chems. I learned the same way (minus the sulfur) that K1V-1116 is a fickle little bugger. I had to cold crash mine in the fridge for a few days (didn't take weeks) to really drop most of the yeast out. I then re-racked onto a little more potassium metabisulfite and let sit for a few days taking SG readings daily and letting it clear. Once I was satisfied that fermentation was in fact done, I bottled it up.

This was my first batch as well, and I also learned quite a bit. Once common thing, which should be changed in the recipe imo, is that this recipe requires a cold crash before racking onto the chems to stop at 1.020. This strain of yeast is just too hard to stop when it's chugging full steam ahead like that.

BTW, the one I let run dry wound up stopping at 1.001. It probably would have gone a little more over a few weeks time, but I stabilized there and bottled.

 

[Chevette Girl]

I decided to just dump the batch and start over.

Dude!! Just because it didn't do exactly what you wanted doesn't mean you need to dump it! It's rare that any batch is beyond saving... the advantage is you get to learn all kinds of new things with a misbehaving batch, the worst possible scenario is you really mess something up and have to pitch it anyway, but at least you learned some tricks to avoid losing your investment (time and ingredients) the next time... but even then, a little age can really fix a lot of problems... You could have let it go as dry as it wanted to go and then have a taste... then sulphite it again and backsweeten it to 1.020 if the taste is too dry for you... that's what I'd have done, anyway.

 

[psychopomp23]

Dude!! Just because it didn't do exactly what you wanted doesn't mean you need to dump it! It's rare that any batch is beyond saving... the advantage is you get to learn all kinds of new things with a misbehaving batch, the worst possible scenario is you really mess something up and have to pitch it anyway, but at least you learned some tricks to avoid losing your investment

Yeah look at me. I have a batch that i started November 17th, put wayyyy to much potassium metabisulfite by mistake and the fermentation never started going But i was told to be patient and wait and HOPEFULY when i start to repitch next week-end everything will be allright *keep fingers cross* I learned a lot from that batch

 

[Marshmallow Blue]

Gotta go with the group, never dump... unless you have 201 gallons brewing and the beverage control guys are banging on your door. Then you can dump 1 gallon... Just one. I've told this story before and I'll tell it again. My apple cider mead was almost a gallon of apple cider vinegar and I was about to give it to vinegar lovers as such. But my friend told me to stick in the fight and see what happens. Its now some good apple cider mead, and I won't be putting it on my cabbage any time soon... Not that I eat cabbage.

 

[CRaymond36]

Hmm, ok. You guys convinced me, i'll give it another go at fixing, lol. I'll keep this thread updated on the progress.

Ox45, Thanks for the info! Great to hear the experiences of someone else who attempted this recipe. How did both versions come out in the end? I'm really wondering if this recipe turns out to be enjoyable enough to do as it says, "Drink while you wait for others to finish".

 

[smertz001]

I just drank my first bottle of this, a couple nights ago (started on 2012-11-17, bottled 2012-12-12) and it was very tasty! I didn't get a chance until now to try it, so don't know if the extra month helped it at all, but yes. When I'm in between beers and meads and need something quick and tasty, this could very well be my go to recipe. I did it as the recipe stands in the one gallon batch.

I never had a problem with off smells or anything though, it was very straight forward for me.

 

[Chevette Girl]

Yeast are finicky creatures... sometimes they won't go near their tolerance no matter what you do to them, sometimes they blow right past it, no matter what you do to them.

I have one batch (3 gallons of highbush cranberry) that turned out so bitter you'd spit it out for the first three years... but it smelled so nice (and I worked so hard picking all those little $@$#!!@ berries) that I couldn't bear to dump it... now at six or seven years old, the tannic bitterness has finally dropped out enough that I'm glad I didn't toss it, in a few more years the taste may actually match the smell! And I've had a few finished batches do weird things here and there, most notably, diesel aroma (which can be aerated out), rubber stopper (haven't figured out how to fix that one yet), and a few weird things go on during fermentation from stressed yeast, including sulphur odour and most startling, vomit flavour... but so far all of the sulphury and vomit-like musts have eventually smartened up and made me proud.

Personally though, my go-to mead for quick drinking is the 8 week Joe's Ancient Orange (and some variations), I have several 1-gal jars on the go and as soon as I bottle one, I generally start another, they're the ones that go fastest at parties and the ones I'm most likely to grab if I just feel like a glass of something tasty, since I have not found that partially-full bottles of JAO oxidize or spoil, even after being left for months....

 

[CRaymond36]

I did it as the recipe stands in the one gallon batch.

Did you do as it said, which was to simply rack it onto the 2 chems when is was at 1.02 in order to stop the fermentation? If so, that makes me wonder even more if I did something in particular to piss off the yeast to make the sulphur.

Also, did you cold crash it before racking?

 

[Chevette Girl]

It could be anything, really. Yeast = finicky. That, and adding sulphites IS sulphur... sometimes I get a bit of rotten egg smell from campden tablets but it dissippates over a few days.

Splashing as Medsen suggests usually does the trick for sulphur

I usually get airlock activity for a couple days after I stabilise anything even if it's been still for months, so always go by SG to determine whether it's really fermenting or just has gas ;D... speaking of which, what is your SG at now?