Friday, June 10, 2011

Mango wine status update

The mango wine started to smell of sulfur.  There are 3 possible explanations:

1.  Contamination.  I did not disinfect the airlock tubing, and the batch was possibly contaminated this way.
2.  The heat.  It has been hot and the high heat may have thrown off the fermentation.
3.  The yeast.  The wine yeast I bought, Red Star Montrachet, reputedly releases a sulfur smell.

Thus far I have tried to keep the brew cool with those freezer packs you put on your head.  The smell diminished.  I have also racked the wine into a new vessel, recharged it with more sugar, and sealed the cap so that it will naturally carbonate.  Now I really regret not going with champaigne yeast.

Additionally I recharged the old vessel with more sugar, frozen orange juice and orange juice pineapple concentrate, and more water.  It is again fermenting.  Because I was able to reuse the yeast, the costs are much lower than I previously thought.  I can either calculate that this batch costs a dollar less or that both batches cost fifty cents less.  Someone call my accountant.

2 comments:

  1. And now the moniker makes sense...

    Not a wine person, but my experience with beer brewing tells me contamination.

    I have a Black IPA that is going into secondary today. Yeast died out a little sooner than I planned, and I had a blow out TWICE the day after I made it. Not too excited to taste this...

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  2. I'm still hoping it's not contamination. I took a sample before racking and it was dry but not that sour. Good luck with your IPA. I used to like that stuff but too much hops gives me a wicked headache very quickly.

    Isn't brewing like alchemy?

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