over sulfiting ?

[BostonianBrewer]

Hello Everyone !

I made a Chilean Malbec (WE Kit) about 5 months ago. I added the K meta and Sorbate a little over 3 months ago and let it continue to bulk age. I bottled it a few days ago and added another 1/4 tsp of K Meta and now the wine smells like rubber. Is this a by product of "bottle shock" , over sulfiting or both ? In my research an additional 1/4 K meta shouldn't be to much if i plan on aging this wine for 6 months +.

Thanks for the advice

Wine N00B

 

[Yooper]

Hello Everyone !

I made a Chilean Malbec (WE Kit) about 5 months ago. I added the K meta and Sorbate a little over 3 months ago and let it continue to bulk age. I bottled it a few days ago and added another 1/4 tsp of K Meta and now the wine smells like rubber. Is this a by product of "bottle shock" , over sulfiting or both ? In my research an additional 1/4 K meta shouldn't be to much if i plan on aging this wine for 6 months +.

Thanks for the advice

Wine N00B

You didn't oversulfite- but the smell of 'rubber' is troublesome. That can mean a contamination of some sort.

When did that appear? If you take a sample out and let it sit for an hour, does the aroma dissipate? Does the rubber aroma translate to the flavor?

 

[BostonianBrewer]

I am usually pretty good about sanitation before, after and during fermentation. I have brewed around 25-30 different batch's of beer, wine and cider and only had about 2 or 3 get infected due to the use of pedio in a sour that spread into other vessels. so I'm hoping its not an infection, as I was very strict with the transferring and preparation of this batch. I will add that i had to search for that smell of rubber. the wine just does not have a lot in the nose and the taste is flabby and flat.

i let a bottle breath in work for several hours today and it still has that "rubber" "tar" aroma and I guess a little bit in the flavor as well. not overwhelming but definitely not normal or subtle either

 

[Yooper]

Hmmm. "Rubber" aromas and flavors are usually a sign of H2S, which isn't a good thing at all.

It could be from oversulfiting, but not in the dose you used.

With a kit, you couldn't have left it on the gross lees too long, and it shouldn't be a nutrient deficiency so I'm puzzled.

It's too late now since it's bottled, but usually the treatment for H2S is aerating by splash racking.

I guess the only thing to do is hope that it's not H2S, and that it does fade. That might be a possibility!

 

[BostonianBrewer]

it was on the fine lees for a while but not the gross lees as i didn't use any skins. Hopefully it fades! Also it didn't seem to be a lot of sediment that it was sitting on in secondary, nothing i haven't left a beer on for the same amount of time w/o issue

 

[Yooper]

it was on the fine lees for a while but not the gross lees as i didn't use any skins. Hopefully it fades! Also it didn't seem to be a lot of sediment that it was sitting on in secondary, nothing i haven't left a beer on for the same amount of time w/o issue

Well, it depends on the yeast strain but some strains produce off flavors when sitting on lees for more than 45 days or so, especially once the wine is at over 10% alcohol. In any case, not much you can do now so hopefully it will improve and it's not H2S.