Grapefest 2008

[goldseal]

The Plan is coming together now:

Magnum red kit will be here tomorrow for 2nd run from Grenache. The rest of the skins will be frozen.

Red grape concentrate arriving a couple of days time for 2nd run on Sangiovese and Ciliegiolo. Excess skins will be frozen too.

Perhaps I'll be able to concentrate of work now. Probably not though

[Richard S]

The Grenache has really taken off now despite the coolish temp in the winery (shed). The colour is amazing, Bob told us what to expect colour wise but I am still knocked out by it.

[goldseal]

Mrs. G has just measred the SG of her Ciliegiolo.

1.002

Panic! Rack! Press!

At least we get to practice on a 1 gallon batch.

I CANNOT believe how quickly the fermentation has gone.

[goldseal]

Done, in record time

The good news is that we seem to have got about 5.2l from one box, without squeezing too hard on the skins. We have a 5l Tesco bottle filled right to the top, and a little 150ml bottle + airlock for topping up.

Fingers crossed that the fermentation fires up again.

[goldseal]

Good news, bad news.

Goog News - the fermentation was up and running again within the hour

Bad News - I'm getting a definite H2S pong. Apart from throwing some Tronozymol at it (and narrowly avoiding a wine volcano ) is there anything else I should be doing?

[rjb222]

Good news, bad news.

Goog News - the fermentation was up and running again within the hour

Bad News - I'm getting a definite H2S pong. Apart from throwing some Tronozymol at it (and narrowly avoiding a wine volcano ) is there anything else I should be doing?

Depending on how bad you might get away with a splash raking or if you have a piece of copper pipe then you could sanitize it and give the stuff a stir with the pipe getting on H2S early is important.

[goldseal]

Splash racking done (as you were posting!).

Off to find a bit of copper pipe (at half past midnight )

[goldseal]

I'm back

Comedy moment: I found 2 pieces of copper pipe, one 4ft long, the other about 2 1/4 inches!

The former was lying outside, the latter was in a drawer, and nice and shiny, so off I went, stirring a gallon of red with a 2 inch pipe. It reminded my of the bit in Spinal Tap where the 11 inch model of Stonehenge is lowered from the ceiling.

Anyway, a couple of minutes of stirring and the smell had gone. Back into the fermenter - there is a faint whiff still, but I'm going to get some sleep now and see how things are in the morning.

Thanks rjb222 for your help

[rjb222]

That is what we are here for to help each other good one

[Rich]

My Sangiovese measured 1.005 last night so it got pressed. We only had one tray of it, I had planned to throw it in a bucket and leave it. Richard_S talked me out of it, so it had some enymne for colour and juice extraction, and some D47 yeast. I only got about 4 litres or so out of the grapes after pressing and racking off the gross lees. I had hoped the gross lees would settle a bit more over night, but they haven't.

The Treb is at about 1.030 ish, so a day or so before that goes in secondary. Will measure the other reds later today.

[goldseal]

Still having problems. The H2S smell is still there (not overpowering, but definitely there). No visible signs of fermentation from the airlock, but there is a bit of audible fizzing. SG 0.998.

Any suggestions folks?

[lockwood1956]

Add some nutrient, are you sure its H2So4 and not just fermentation stink?

when you stirred it before.....did the copper pipe go shiny?

[goldseal]

It was already shiny.

I thought H2SO4 was sulphuric acid

H2S - I'm sure it is. Rotten eggs. It was fine in primary, but developed in a couple of hours in secondary.

The pipe was already shiny (i.e. as new). I cut a 1 foot length from the older (darker) bit this morning, boiled it, sulphited it, rinsed it and used that. I only stirred for about a minute. It hasn't gone shiny (or if it has, it's VERY subtle), but the smell diminishes greatly after use.

The strange thing is, my Sangiovese rose has started to develop a similar smell - different yeast (D47), different grape.

Yours
Confused of Hereford

(P.S. I should be on Yahoo Messenger & FlashChat in a mo)

[Duffbeer]

don't panic Pete, it's likely to be going through many smelly stages at the moment, too much tampering could lead to problems, let it do it's thing. I came home yesterday to a ghastly smell, yeasty and eggy and co2.....fantastic!!!

Just as an overall question here, have any of you guy's added nutrient of any sort ? I haven't and ferment in all four is going well.

[goldseal]

OK Duff. Panicking stopped!

If it is rotten I'll make you drink it next year

I've added Tronozymol (about 2tsp/gal) to everything red.