Wine building pressure

I've got three gallons of kiwi and kiwi-strawberry in individual glass bottles. The wine fermented down to 0.999 after 3 months, so I stabilized with sorbate and added f-packs. Everything cleared back up, and I racked twice to get rid of all the sediment.

Since my wine wasn't fermenting any more that I could tell, I just capped the bottles with a screw-on cap. Well, I've cracked the cap a few times since then, and every time, I get a pressure release from the bottle. I don't see any bubbles, and there's no new sediment dropping. My SG is holding constant. Where is the pressure coming from? I'm about ready to backsweeten and bottle, but I'm scared of creating bottle bombs if it's going to take off again. I'll definitely watch it for a few days after I backsweeten to make sure it doesn't start refermentation, but even if I don't bottle it, it seems to me that if it starts refermenting, the wine is pretty much wasted. I don't want rocket fuel.

So, what should I do?

I am far from being as smart as folks here, but if you had a 3 gallon and did not degas it, then your one gallon containers have co2 in them.
I didnt have to degas any of my one gallon batches, but 3 5 6 i had do.
some one will help that more knowledgeable then I, im sure.

Sounds like a wine has not been thoroughly degassed. The sealed jugs have failed the 'pfft test' that many do with a test tube, small syrup bottle, etc. I would consider degassing.
Just remember that if your stabilized, backsweetened wine starts to referment you could always pasteurize to save the batch. A classic reason that many wait 10-14 days after b/s to bottle, plus you usually drop a bit of sediment again, so a final racking before bottling may be necessary.

saramc, how to you pasteurize. have not read anything on this...
thanks

jamesngalveston said:

saramc, how to you pasteurize. have not read anything on this...
thanks

Click to expand...

This link explains, http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/
(If there is a WMT pasteurizing sticky, no idea where it is)
Note that it came about to assist those who wanted sweet, sparkling wine, cider, etc. But it works for still wines also; and you can batch pasteurize instead of bottle pasteurize. Just depends on how you want to go about it.

Too much CO2 plus please account for barometric pressure. If you bottles with a screw cap when pressure was high, and you are opening it when pressure is low (rainy/stormy), it will puff. A screw top does not allow any back and forth between the outer atmosphere like a cork does.

E-Z CO2 test. Pour some wine into a very small cup or ideally a flask. Put your sanitized hand over it and shake. If when you release your hand you get a puff of gas, it's gassy.

When did you make this wine? One of your problems is sorbating an unclear, young wine. This is the wrong use of sorbate, as it doesn't stop the ferment, just slows it way down. If this wine was mine, I would have just let it sit in the secondary for about 9 months, racking when needed. THEN sorbate and sweeten, bottle. Sorbate cannot be used in wine that doesn't have the bulk of the yeast cells removed FIRST.

The wine was clear and had been racked three times before I added sorbate and backsweetened.

3 months is not enough to allow a wine to degass---the EARLIEST you want to bottle is 6 months. This is for all non-kit wines. It's wise to not bottle your wines until the 9 month mark---wines, even fruit wines, are so much better in flavor when allowed to age the 9 months, AND you're then sure that all the CO2 has dissipated. You either have CO2 in it or the sorbate was old and did not work. Sorbate needs to be fresh---any of it that you have that is a year old should be thrown away. We always put a date on our sorbate when we get it.

A wine that has CO2 in it is not stable and you should not sorbate until the wine is stable.