Second mead, ten days in and still bubbling. Walked past the fermenter this morning and got a proper whiff of rotten eggs, or struck matches, somewhere between the two. It was not doing that at the weekend.
Two and a half kilos of honey in five litres, a wine yeast, and I added a bit of lemon juice at the start because a recipe said to. No nutrients again, because I keep forgetting they exist. Is this fixable while it is still going?
Stir and degas gently, which releases the trapped gas including the sulphide itself and tends to help the yeast along. Go carefully, fermenting mead foams up faster than you expect.
And check where the fermenter is sitting. Temperature too high or swinging about is its own stressor, so move it somewhere stable inside the range on the yeast packet while you are dealing with the rest.
Some strains just throw more sulphur than others. Worth noting which yeast this was for next time.
If a mild smell is still there once fermentation finishes, time and racking off the lees clear a lot of it on their own. Beyond that some brewers briefly expose the mead to clean sanitised copper, tubing or a copper scrubber, which reacts with sulphur compounds.
Read properly on that before trying it rather than taking a forum comment as a method. And to answer the real question: no, this is not a ruined batch. Plenty of meads that stank during fermentation come out fine once the cause is dealt with and they have had time.
@nutrient_in_stages · 2w ago · 3 replies
Hydrogen sulphide from stressed yeast, and you have named both causes yourself. No nutrients is the common one: honey is famously poor in the nitrogen yeast needs, and when it runs short this is what it produces.
The lemon juice is the second. Honey is already acidic and adding acid before fermentation pushes the pH lower, which is another stressor. Most recipes that call for acid mean afterwards, for balance, not at the start.
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@struck_match_smell · 2w ago
Can I add nutrient now, ten days in, or is that too late to help?
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@nutrient_in_stages · 2w ago
Follow the product instructions and a proper schedule rather than my guess, because adding nutrients late in fermentation is not always recommended. Ten days and still actively bubbling is the better end of late. Do the stirring regardless, that part has no downside.
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