[martie]

My neighbor and I are home winemakers. I have been making wines for about 5 years, and he is in his second year. Today he asked me what could cause wine to carbonate in the bottle. He mabe a batch of blackberry wine, raked a few times in a 5 gallon carboy, then bottled when fermentation stopped. It was bottled about 2 months ago, had great flavor then already, and seemed to have turned out perfectly. Yesterday he opened a bottle, and found that it had carboantion bubbles in it, similar to what you would find in a can og lemon-lime soda. He didn't taste it as he was concerned that it may have gone bad. Any ideas on what could have happened, and how to avoid this in the future.

[Tom]

Sounds like he did not degass the wine. Only other thing is if he backsweetened the wine and did not add sorbate. You didn't say how long from start to bottle. This is important as well the temp it was fermented in.

[martie]

The wine was fermented for about 6 months, and was kept at a temperature of around 65 - 70 degrees. I do not beleive that he added sorbate though.

[martie]

and yes he did sweeten the wine, but that was about half way through the process.

[Tom]

Nest bottle take a glass out and put cork 1/2 way in and shake the bottle gently. Remove the cork and let the gass out. repeat a few times. If you have no carbonation then its probably gas in suspension.
Fruit wines need to be degassed a few times. I know I make alot of fruit wines.

[martie]

I will pass that info on. Thanks. I have never degassed a wine before. What is the best way to do this? I currently have3 five gallon carboys nearly ready to bottle. One is blackberry, on grape and the last is pear wine. I certainly want to avoid having the same problem if I can.

[Tom]

here is what alot use on a drill
http://www.finevinewines.com/ProdDetA.asp?PartNumber=15262

[martie]

Thanks, we'll give that a try. I actually have one of those, and have used it for mixing before.

[grapeman]

Another possible source of bubbles could be a malolactic fermentation. Blackberries are high in malic acid. IF he didn't have enough k-meta in the wine, a MLF could occur naturally. That causes lots of tiny bubbles until it is finished which could take months in the bottle. Be sure that either campdens's tablets or powdered k-meta was used.