When corks pop off

[Elmer]

Last night I opened 17 out of the 31 and racked into a 3 gallon carboy.
Some of bottle popped more than others.

When all the wine was in the carboy, there were some good suds.

Now I will either do some racking back and forth tonight to get it degassed or just let it sit for 3 months (I dont drink wine that sits in a carboy) then bottle during mid summer. (I kind of need that 3 gal empty).

But I did drink what did not fit into the carboy. Not bad, but had a young, not finished taste to it.

 

[Chilled]

I didn't get my first kit degassed well enough.

Elmer,
My first kit was not degassed properly. I opened the bottles, degassed and re-bottled. It turned out pretty good.
Now, 22 kits later, I make sure each kit is properly degassed at the right time.

I do not know how much vacuum a given carboy can handle. So, use your own judgment. But, I now use one of the two methods below.
First, I warm the wine (carboy) to about 75 degrees F. Very important!

Then, vacuum rack with the pump pulling 16 to 20 inches using a hose clamp near the racking cane to reduce wine flow and maintain the vacuum. This will pull out much more CO2 than just vacuum racking at 12 inches with an unrestricted flow.

Or, with vacuum at 20 inches, use an orange cap and a sanitized fiberglass rod (fishing arrow) stirring slowly at first, then more aggressively after about 5 minutes. This second method usually takes me about 15 minutes. Sometimes a little less.
I stir,stop briefly to let the bubbles come up and stir again.

Again, this is what has worked for me. I make no claim to it's safety. Use your own judgement.

Good Luck,
Dave

 

[garymc]

I think the temperature thing is key here. I suspect the yeast woke up as the smaller volumes in the bottles got a little warmer (for instance if the carboys were on the floor and then the bottles were up off the floor on a rack or in boxes.) Or the warmer temperature just increased the pressure exerted by gas that never made it out.

 

[NoSnob]

The first thing I would check is whether the ullage of the 5bottles was less than that of the rest of the batch. One half inch of ullage,to me, seems less than desirable. Less clear to me is what caused the white mist inside one of your bottles. Since it was only one bottle, it does not seem to be systemic for the entire batch. For your next batch you may find a brew belt on your carboy will warm it up enough to make your degassing more efficient. 70F plus is needed to ensure your best degassing. But I'm still not sure degassing is your problem here.

NS

 

[Elmer]

Drank 1/2 a bottle of this batch last night.
an hour or 2 before I was to open the bottle I gave it a really good shake and watched all the bubbles in the bottle.
I opened it when I got home, there was not as great of a "POP" when uncorked.
I put a tasting cork in it and shook it again and there were some bubbles, but not a great "POP" when I took the tasting cork off.

The wine itself was not nearly as oaky as I had anticipated. Especially considering how I oaked the heck out of this.
I guess some of the oak dissipated after bottling. I wished it was smokier.
There was not a alot of fruitiness for a pinot noir, but it is still an young wine.

over all, I would easily drink this any time (in fact I have 1/2 a bottle left I am waiting to have when I get home and binge watch fringe!)

Now I just have to deal with the 3 gallon carboy of pinot sitting in the basement !!!!

 

[Elmer]

I racked what was left of my Pinot Noirs that have been sitting in a 3 gallon, into a 5 gallon carboy.
Iraq back-and-forth at least four times to attempt to degas.
There were not a lot of bubbles or suds.
What bubbles did show up were from me using the thumb throttle and putting a burst of air into the car boy.

I am thinking of bottling this stuff this weekend.

However now my question is,
Since I just did a bunch of splash racking under vacuum, should I add more k meta before bottling?




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[seth8530]

You should check the SO2 and verify if you need to add kmeta prior to adding it in.

 

[tonyt]

like you I do not have testing capabilities. Perhaps you have a nearby friend or a LHBS that can test for you. short of that I would I add 1/8 teaspoon full and bottle.

 

[Elmer]

like you I do not have testing capabilities. Perhaps you have a nearby friend or a LHBS that can test for you. short of that I would I add 1/8 teaspoon full and bottle.

Tony,
I like that idea, but the 2 LHBS that might do it, are 40 minute drive.
The closest one is has no idea what SO2 is.

I will add 1/8 tsp and bottle.
These bottles will most likely sit and bottle age for the next 6 months.

 

[tonyt]

When I went thru this same procedure a couple years ago the wine was pretty funkey for the first 9 months or so. Unfortunately I assumed it was just due to the extra manipulation and wouldn't improve. So I proceeded to drink it early then realized it was aging well. At that point I only had a couple bottles. Always the case.

 

[Elmer]

After racking 4 times early last week , I added 1/8 tap meta and manually degassed by stiring.
Today I bottled the rest of it into 16 bottles.

3 out of the 16 had corks start to rise.

I know this batch is not gassey, so I am starting to wonder if I either
A) added air/gas to the mix when bottling, in little bursts from the AI1 throttle
B) did not leave enough room between cork and bottle- in the 3 bottle in question all of them had 1/2 inch or less of air space between wine and cork.

I did purposely avoid any bottle which looked like it had a wider opening.

I have never had an issue like I did with this one!


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[tonyt]

I think air space is your issue. I use a filling wand that always leaves the wine exactly where the neck meets the shoulder of the bottle. With a #9 1.75 corks it leaves 1.25 inches of air.

 

[seth8530]

Could be your corks are not sealing well. Either way I would advice bulk aging. Why not wait? What is the rush to degas? Perhaps your wine is not stable for whatever reason.

 

[Elmer]

I think air space is your issue. I use a filling wand that always leaves the wine exactly where the neck meets the shoulder of the bottle. With a #9 1.75 corks it leaves 1.25 inches of air.

I am starting to think it was airspace.
I popped a bottle last night and it was not the least bit gassy.
I would call it excellent if it wasnt so young ( I know it will get better).

from now on I will try to keep a little more airspace in my bottles

 

[vacuumpumpman]

I am just now reading this post -
I will let my wine warm up a bit prior to bottling - and I always use #9 corks x 1.75 and then they get put in the cellar at a lower temperature when bottled. This causes even more vacuum in the bottle - due to the liquid will cool off and lower a bit.

As for bottling with the Allinonewinepump - I know you cannot add CO2 to your wine as you bottle with it. You can if you don't release the vacuum a bit while bottling - you will see some agitation of the wine - mainly only at the top of the bottle.

 

[GeoS]

A vacuum pump will not reintroduce CO2 into your wine. Did you add any sugars without adding sorbate? There should be about 1.25 inches from the bottom of the cork to the wine. Wine is a liquid and is considered an incompressible fluid at these temps and pressures so when you insert the cork you compress the air between the cork and the fluid. The less volume of air the greater the pressure. Sounds to me like you do not have enough air space in the bottle. I use a bottling want as well and if I fill the bottle to the top the wand takes up just the right amount of volume to give me the 1.25 inches

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Elmer you mentioned you were using #8 corks - are you still doing so ?

If you want PM me with your phone # and I will call you back as soon as I am able

 

[GaDawg]

The cork size will not cause the corks to pop off. The release of gasses causes the cork to pop.


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[Elmer]

A vacuum pump will not reintroduce CO2 into your wine. Did you add any sugars without adding sorbate? There should be about 1.25 inches from the bottom of the cork to the wine. Wine is a liquid and is considered an incompressible fluid at these temps and pressures so when you insert the cork you compress the air between the cork and the fluid. The less volume of air the greater the pressure. Sounds to me like you do not have enough air space in the bottle. I use a bottling want as well and if I fill the bottle to the top the wand takes up just the right amount of volume to give me the 1.25 inches

This sounds like a solid explination to my issue.

I try to maximize my wine to bottle ratio and fill up each bottle as much as possible.
I tend to fill up anywhere from a 1/2 inch of airspace if not less.

so the fact that I am not leaving alot of space between wine and cork.

and yes I am using a #8 cork.

Thanks for the help!

 

[GeoS]

Yup, it's like pushing a cork into an empty bottle. The change in volume caused by the cork is insignificant next to the volume in the bottle. However, when you fill the bottle with wine the change in volume becomes much greater.

P1*V1 = P2*V2

When V2 is cut in half the pressure at P2 must double to balance the equation.