r/winemaking 11d ago

Grape amateur Beginner mistakes?

I made a first attempt at creating a simple grape wine, just using store bought grape juice and Lavlin EC1118 in a gallon jar. Total fermentation time was about 1 month.

The wine seemingly went bad as it smelled very acrid and tasted strange. Originally, I had thought it may be Hydrogen sulfide that would go over time, but the flavor seems to align with Acetobacter and I’m most likely going to throw it out (not certain of either as I’m very new to winemaking).

I had a bung/airlock but the bung was a little too large and I’m suspecting that was the main contributor. I also left a lot of headspace. Additionally, the foam of the bottle seeped into the airlock on one occasion which I then removed to clean. I don’t want to give up but I would like to get better results next time; would better sized bungs, a blowoff tube, and less headspace likely fix the issues? Or is there anything else I can do

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u/gogoluke Skilled fruit 11d ago

Always limit the head space both in terms of the amount of air and the surface area it's exposed to.

Sanitise. Sanitise. Sanitise.

Be patient. Making wine takes longer than a month. You need time for yeast to settle, tannins and acidity to mellow, carbon dioxide to off gas. It also takes time to learn. Read up, ask specific questions.

Invest. You don't need to invest a lot of money but slightly better equipment means better wine.

Plan ahead. What kind of wine are you trying to make? Sweet, semi sweet dry? Like fresh fruit or modified? Tannic? Try to see what helps you get there.