Trouble !!

My wine has been fermenting now for 5 months. I was using a wine thief to taste how the wine was aging. I accidentally snapped a very small piece of the glass into the 5 gallon carboy. Is this entire batch pretty much a waste? What is the best way to handle this?


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Let it be, the hlass won't hurt it and you can get it out during racking.

It's so small though worried I won't find it. Or tiny fragments will remain. Shouldn't be harmful to anyone drinking it should it?



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Relax!!!! All's not lost. Do you have a funnel with strainer? If not go to your LHBS and buy one. Rack your wine into a new carboy using the new funnel and keep the cane away from the bottom. Ensure your racking cane has the tip on it that prevents you from picking up sludge. This should keep you from picking up any glass. Filter the wine before bottling and you should be fine.

Next, your wine is into five months of fermenting? I'm assuming you meant aging.

Yes aging...thank you for the advice. Very new at this. Enjoying the process though a lot. I am just always afraid I will ruin it.


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You actually have to almost work at it to ruin it. Keep everything clean and it will mostlikely come out fine. As long as the yeast doesn't stress, most ferments finish out just fine on their own. Arne.

Or you could use a technique I picked up from someone on here, sorry I forget who it was, I do like to give credit where's it's due. Take a paint strainer bag and either a sterilized rubber band or a piece of sterilized fishing line and put that over the bottom of your racking cane the next time you rack it. The holes should be to small for a piece of glass to get through. Problem solved.


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Just to add to what everyone else has said...

I am assuming that the thief is made of glass. This being the case, the glass WILL settle to the bottom of your carboy. If you do not see any of the glass as you strain it, do not worry. It is most likely that the glass will be left behind as you do your racking.

The best strainer I've found is one of those coffee maker basket strainers designed to replace the paper filters. Very fine. Get it at Wal-Mart and put it in a funnel, you are good to go. If you add a length of hose to the funnel spout so the wine goes to the bottom of the carboy through the hose, you minimize oxygen contact.

I would do as the others have recommended. If that is still not good enough for you, this could be the perfect excuse to get a filter setup.