How many days to bottle bombs?

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jensmith

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Finnely did it. I made accidental sparkling wine. How long before they go boom?
I started a cranberry second wine last December. With Lavin 212. It was dry and clear by April. I added sorbate and sulfa in May, but did not backsweeten untill June. Five weeks later. Bottled two and a half weeks after that, but forgot to retake the sg. The sg had remained steady the two months previously. Placed down celler where temps stay cool. A month later, Took one bottle to my weekly spinning group, in a hot truck where it managed to roll around just a tad. I was late and the laddies were desperate for their weekly wine fix and imediatly opened the bottle. Volcano time!!
When I got home I took out another bottle and gently handeled it. It also fizzed up and was lightly sparkley. I tried to retake the sg, but got a reading that was .020 higher then after Sweetening. I let it go flat and it is still .0005 higher then originally. After sweetening the sg was 1.0005. Just a half a hair over 1.000 even. With that level of shuger if it does keep fermenting in the bottle how soon befor they all pop? It is supper yummy as it is, I will happily drink as much as I can as soon as I can!!! There are only a dozen bottles.
I am kinda planning on setting all the bottles on ice, and gently reopening them. Dump them in a carboy to finish their fizzing. They are all sealed with a normal cork. None of which are comming out as of yet.
Should I drink or ice and dump in a carboy? I really don't want them to get wasted.... But if the suger level is low enough not to make them go pop I am willing to leave a few bottled as is. Did I mention how yummy it is right now???
 
It is hard to say it they will pop their corks or not. Bottled in June; if they haven't started doing so by now, they might not pop them as long as you handle them carefully and keep them cool..

You can either open, degas, and rebottle; or you can open one when you are ready to drink it and decant it for 4 to 6 hours to let the CO2 bleed off. The choice is yours. Decanting will help you remove the sediment that likely has formed in the bottle. Just don't let anyone get hit by a flying cork!
 
Never gave gassy a thought. It did bulk age for six months after it cleared. I will try degassing a bottle and see what happens. The half bottle I placed in the fridge last night is still bubbly, so cold is not slowing it down much. No sedament in the bottels. Not even a dusting. Maybe it just started to bubble and has yet to drop any. I may have time to drink it all afterall!!
 
Never gave gassy a thought. It did bulk age for six months after it cleared. I will try degassing a bottle and see what happens. The half bottle I placed in the fridge last night is still bubbly, so cold is not slowing it down much. No sedament in the bottels. Not even a dusting. Maybe it just started to bubble and has yet to drop any. I may have time to drink it all afterall!!

If there is no sediment in the bottles, it may just be that the wine was not degassed and no bottle fermentation has taken place.

Actually, the cold will make it harder for the CO2 to come out. Think about what happens when one sets a coke in the back of a car window in the sun, then opens it. Compare that to a cold can of coke being opened.

In the decanter, swish it around a couple times each hour. That helps the gas come out. Lots of times, when the gas has come out completely, the aroma of the wine will get drastically better. Sometimes it takes 4 hours; sometimes 24 hours.
 
It was indead gassy. Bottels have now all been opened and dumped in a big jug with an airlock after being swirled, sloshed, and swished good. Lot less bubbels now! However I think I will just drink it as is insead of botteling it again.
Like my big pourable wine jug? It holds one glass shy of seven bottels!

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