Exploding Bottles, what did I do wrong?

[ERS]

3Ps of wine making?

 

[ibglowin]

Patience........

Patience........

Patience........

 

[ERS]

Duh, man do I feel dumb.

 

[docanddeb]

You're getting smarter by the minute, right? Then you are on the right track. Keep a 3 ring binder with all the great info and recipes you find. You'll want to find it later, and never will.

Debbie

 

[xoxxx]

I opened the bottles today so I could add them to the fermenter again, wow they tasted awful today!!

Not sure if it was because I placed them into the fridge or what, but the taste was AWFUL. A mixture of SO2 type smell + horrible sour, unflavored, unsweet taste..

going to completley ditch this batch and start over..

 

[Julie]

I opened the bottles today so I could add them to the fermenter again, wow they tasted awful today!!

Not sure if it was because I placed them into the fridge or what, but the taste was AWFUL. A mixture of SO2 type smell + horrible sour, unflavored, unsweet taste..

going to completley ditch this batch and start over..

that is because the wine was still fermenting, the yeast was still active so the yeast ate up the sugar that you added to sweeten the wine, you now have a higher alcohol.

This is one of the main reason's why I always recommend that you ferment to dry, stabilize, then backsweeten instead of trying to stop an active fermentation.

 

[robie]

Yep, I agree with Julie.

 

[Arne]

Yep, don't pitch it yet. Suprising how it mite come out using a little more of the 3p's. Remember the old saying, drink no wine before its time. Once you get thru all the fermenting, if you start tasting then, it will be a lot better. At least it should. Good luck with it, Arne.

 

[xoxxx]

that is because the wine was still fermenting, the yeast was still active so the yeast ate up the sugar that you added to sweeten the wine, you now have a higher alcohol.

This is one of the main reason's why I always recommend that you ferment to dry, stabilize, then backsweeten instead of trying to stop an active fermentation.

I aggree and will do this in the future, just want to clarify that I never backsweetened it, just bottled to early.

 

[joebrady]

Yep, Its always a good idea to wait a few weeks (or more) after back sweetening. Part of the 3P's of wine making.

This was one mistake I've just recently made. I had three batches going that I wanted to get bottled for Christmas. I thought they were all ready. Two of them I backsweetened to taste(after adding Potassium Sorbate) and then let sit for another couple of weeks. The third, a 3 gallon batch of pear, I added potassium sorbate and backsweetened just hours before I bottled.

Of those 15 bottles I got out of that batch, 4 have popped their corks....

 

[Turock]

I went back and read this thread from the beginning. Wow.

No wine should be bottled until it's been under secondary ferm for a MINIMUM of 6 months because the CO2 produced from fermentation is not entirely gone. Sure, you can degas, but why bother? The wine needs to age up in the secondary--and in the time it takes to age, the CO2 will be totally gone. We make a lot of Niagara every year. We age it for at least 9 months before bottling. White wines also need time in the carboy to completely clear,too.

It's not really necessary to backsweeten and wait before bottling. You can do it that way--but it's not necessary. We backsweeten, add some meta, sorbate, and bottle in the same day. However the wine will be "hot" tasting and you should let the bottles rest for a couple weeks before opening.

Anytime you are popping corks, it's usually due to CO2 because you bottled too early---the other reason is not using sorbate when sweetening. Allow your wines to age in the secondary 7-8 months. Then you're sure there's no CO2 left in the wine.

 

[AlFulchino]

"It's not really necessary to backsweeten and wait before bottling. You can do it that way--but it's not necessary. We backsweeten, add some meta, sorbate, and bottle in the same day. However the wine will be "hot" tasting and you should let the bottles rest for a couple weeks before opening."

do you really feel that the sorbate is integrated enough to be bottled the same day it was added? Or are you placing the sorbate in the bottles themselves? i would not feel comfortable doing this i would want a minimum of one - two weeks

"Anytime you are popping corks, it's usually due to CO2 because you bottled too early---the other reason is not using sorbate when sweetening. Allow your wines to age in the secondary 7-8 months. Then you're sure there's no CO2 left in the wine. "

with pressed grapes you should have no issue to speak of and if the wine is stored/aged too cool then i would not feel totally comfortable that a kit wine was fully degassed even w 7-8 mos

 

[ibglowin]

Kit wines for the most part do not degas on there own. If they are not degassed, they will not clear.

Many/most winemakers on this forum make wine from kits so advising them they don't need to degas is a big mistake.

Wine made from fresh grapes is a whole different ballgame. The juice has not been processed 9 different ways to Tuesday and the very act of pressing helps to rid the wine from most of the CO2. The rest will escape easily on its own in a short amount of time.

 

[Turock]

Then people should state that they're using kits. Maybe it'd be a good idea to have a section on here that's just for kits, then there's no question what they're talking about.

It's very hard to give good answers when people don't explain what they're making wine from.

 

[robie]

We always ask members to specify variety, kit/fresh/frozen, and other important details, but sometimes that info is not presented up front. When that happens, we'll generally ask them for more info before an active discussion begins.

I think this particular thread, at least didn't start out as a degassing problem. The person tried to stop fermentation at an SG of 1.010. However, seems like a large percentage of questions involve degassing; always has, probably always will.

I was a bit surprised when Turock said the wine would degas on its own in secondary. Then we all got on the same page and realized he was writing about fresh/frozen grape wine and not kits.

I would say most of the threads involve kits wines, although since last Summer, we have been having lots more discussion about fresh grape wine making and I have enjoyed this part very much. It is a lot more challenging with all the extra steps and chemicals, which for kits it is taken care of as a part of the manufacturing process of the kit.

Kit wines really don't degas well on their own; many times I have left kit wine a full year in the carboy and under an air lock, but the wine never degassed well. However, some of that is likely because the temperature where my wine is stored is 56F to 64F, which is not warm enough to degas well. Still, kits just don't degas easily on their own.

I find I have to degas at the normal time per instructions, then degas again, just to make sure..., just before I bottle. I can do this without introducing more air into the wine at bottling because I use a vacuum pump for degassing. Admittedly, I have a heck of a time getting all the gas out.

I generally leave my wine in a carboy for a year. Nowadays, the first six months of that is under an air lock, the last under a solid bung. (In the past I kept the wine under an air lock the whole time.) Either way, for kit wines, not surprising, I sometimes still get some CO2 bubbles at that last degassing. Ugh!

 

[Sammyk]

One lesson I have learned is about VH fruit kits - they lack flavor and are expensive.

So unless it is a special kit the the chocolate raspberry port, I would not do kits again

Next peach and the next white grape/peach will be from frozen Welch's white grape/peach, and grape/red raspberry. Soon I will be making Blackberry from jam.

The difference is we are into the fruit wines and not necessarily grape.

 

[Flem]

Hi Sammyk! Maybe I'm missing something, but I'm not sure how your post ties in with this thread. Sometimes I'm a little dense. No offense--just curious.