bacteria- what do I do?

[Brittydagal]

So I just put the kid on my 6 gallons of wine yesterday and opened it today to stir and found small white clumps of bacteria on the surface of my red wine. When I inserted the sampler I also got about an inch of small granules from the bottom that I don't remember getting yesterday, but
I am thinking this May be the bentonite that has expanded. Does that sound right?

Either way, I have what appears to be the start of a bacterial infection and I would like to get rid of it immediately because I read that this can ruin my wine . I heard of filtering it but does this matter since it would clearly also remove the bentonite? Also my wine is only on it's third day. Please give details on what I should do because I am having issues finding solutions and since this is my first creation of wine I don't know specific products to use, etc. Thank you for your time and I hope to hear back from someone more knowledgeable than me!!

 

[mjrisenhoover]

What makes you think it's a bacterial infection? If your wine has only been fermenting for 3 days it's probably just yeast and the regular old fermentation goodies. If you could supply a little more information that might help, like what kind of wine it is, what steps have you taken so far, stuff like that. A photo would be great too.

 

[cintipam]

Hi

more details would really really help. Like the recipe you used especially. Without knowing what you put in your wine it's hard to guess what that white stuff might be. Also knowing how well you adhere to sanitation and what chemical you use might be important. White clumps in 3 days has thrown me for a loop here.

Pam in cinti

 

[cintipam]

Duh! I never even thought about regular old yeast fermentation. I focused in on the bacteria and didn't think bout brand new winemaker not knowing what normal looks like yet.

good catch

Pam in cinti

 

[Brittydagal]

Nothing in particular made me decide it was bacteria- I just saw white things floating on the top, tried to look it up, and decided i ruined everything haha.

There were only a few specs floating on the top so i removed them with a spoon and that is all I have done so far.

This is my first time making wine so I have tried to follow the directions that were given in my wine making kit but I can now see where some things could have been done better. For example, when the wine first went in the plastic bucket it said to put the lid on but not to seal it so that the yeast could get oxygen. I didn't really understand how they would get enough so I left the lid cracked instead to make sure oxygen could get in. I also have a dog who sheds and although I have placed the barrel in a side room, I have had to scoop a few of her small hairs out from floating in. Also, the first day the barrel was leaking overnight so the next morning I had to put my hand in to tighten the spicket because I couldn't do it from the outside. I have since caulked around the outside of the spicket so no more will flow out. SoOOooOOoo I could definitly envision how bacteria would have gotten in :/ so I suppose I jumped to that conclusion.

Also, my instructions didn't say much about cleaning the bucket/utensils prior to use but I did clean the bucket with "LD Carlson Company Easy Clean No Rinse Cleansor" that came with the kit. I have read the container front and back and it conveniently doesn't say what is in it at all... So there's that too haha.

I am following the instructions of the Mosti Mondiale homemade wine kit.

On day one I cleaned the plastic container with the cleaning solution that has gawd knows what in it, added the grape juice provided, soaked and added the bentonite given in a baggie, and soaked the yeast for 15 minutes and added them as well. The yeast were out of a baggie provided as well. I then placed the cover on the fermenter but off kiltered some so that air could get in the sides.

For the first two days I got a little confused on the instructions and did not stir it well but after two days I stirred it and put the lid on. The next morning (today) I came down to find small white circular floaties on top of the wine. I will attach photos in one second.

 

[Brittydagal]

It is Pinot Noir.

I have attached three photos -

the one with the cup is a photo of the stuff I found floating on the top of my wine.

the one with the white plate behind it is a close up photo of the sampler and is the stuff I found to be (what I believe is) sitting on the bottom of the plastic barrel.

and the photo with the silver background is after I poured the stuff out of my sampler and tried to wash it with water to see if color removed.

I hope that is not too confusing!

 

[Brittydagal]

Mine is also not yet bubbling out of the airlock- should it be doing that yet???

 

[cintipam]

Ok, I'll give my opinion. The only thing that really concerns me is the caulk to stop the leak. What kind of caulk did you use? In my opinion the only safe kind would have been food grade silicon aquarium caulk, but even then I think it should be dried and cured before being exposed to wine. someone with knowledge of chemicals and science will need to evaluate when you state which caulk you used. So I'm with holding opinion on that till someone brighter comes along.

As to the rest it really helps that your doing a kit. They make them hard to screw up. Now you know that you need to sanitize everything that comes in contact with your wine, meaning spoon, hydrometer, jar you put hydrometer in, everything. But as long as you added sulfite as instructed in all kits it will cover a lot of errors.

As to not stirring til day 3 to be honest that is close to how I do it anyway. I've found that if I stir too soon before the yeast has really started chugging a bit it seems to slow things down. So no real problem now except now that the yeast is chugging it really really needs to be well stirred at least one time a day, two is better.

I personally use a sanitized cloth held in place by a sanitized band of elastic over my primary to keep hair etc out. But almost everyone has found a hair or two that they pulled out. Don't sweat it, just try your best to prevent the problem.

I believe the pics you show are normal yeast actions. Lots of scummy foamy stuff will grow that you will mix up every time you stir. Look at other threads on this forum, lots of folks post pics of their primary ferment bucket. Your pics are early in the process and the lid should NOT be on tight. No airlock needs to be in place til generally your SG hits 1.010 or so. But refer to your instructions for that. Remember, if lid isn't on tight there is no way you'd be getting any action from your airlock.


Don't forget to say exactly what caulk you used and your process (meaning did you let it dry before adding wine back or just add it while bucket was full) so someone can give you a real answer about if your wine is safe to drink or if you should pitch it down the drain. I really don't know that chemical stuff. Good luck.

Pam in cinti

 

[Brittydagal]

Ok the caulk is acrylic latex caulk plus silicone by Alex Plus- it's house caulk.

I fidgeted with the spout from the inside of the container (with the wine inside) until I got the leak to look like it stopped by wiping away the stains with a paper towel. Once the leak stopped I put the caulk around the spout but only on the outside of the plastic bucket so there is no caulk inside with the wine and it would only come into contact if it was flowing out of an opening between the outer spout and the container(the part I'm pretty sure I fixed by hand). So I don't think they're contacting eachother but that's good to know for future wine making that I really shouldn't do that again.

 

[Brittydagal]

Oh and no I did not let it dry before adding the wine back. I was kinda stuck w the wine in this plastic bottle so I added the caulk fresh to the outside while the wine was still in the fermenter and after I declared it wasn't leaking any more. I let it dry right on there.

 

[DoctorCAD]

That caulk is NOT food safe. You may have made 6 gallons of poison.

No way would I drink that. Read thd caulking tube about what to do if injested.

 

[sour_grapes]

I think you need to relax. It will all be okay, I believe. People make wine in prison toilets and other unsavory places, so I don't think any of the conditions you have described are show-stoppers.

Are you from Pittsburgh? (I ask because of "spicket.") There are lots of Pittsburghers here, maybe you can get some local help.

 

[DoctorCAD]

http://www.dap.com/docs/msds/00010019002_english.pdf

Read this and then tell someone who drinks this wine to 'relax".

 

[Julie]

Paul!!!!! Are you saying Pittsburgh people are the only ones who misspell words???????????? :<

Boy you are headed to the corner and there is no wine there

 

[sour_grapes]

Dr. CAD: Note the times of our posts. I had not seen your post when I made mine. I was not really responding to the caulk, but to the other things the OP was worried about. Perhaps you have a point.

Julie: Not just any misspelling. "Spicket" is a well-known Pittsburgh use: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=spicket

Although it is more widespread than I thought: http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_41.html

 

[richmke]

I have since caulked around the outside of the spicket so no more will flow out.

If you had caulked on the inside of the bucket, that would have exposed a lot of the caulk to the wine.

Did you caulk before or after putting the spigot back on? If you caulked before, you could have a lot of caulk in contact with the wine. If you caulked after, the you have very little surface area of the caulk in contact with the wine.

FYI: I use a solid pail to ferment. The pail with spigots are intended as Bottling Buckets. You rack into the bottling bucket to minimize disturbing the lees. If you bottle directly from the carboy that has been sitting around, the starting/stopping with each bottle can disturb the lees. The spigot then makes it easy to drain directly in to the bottle. Note: the spigot does help with racking, but I find it more of a pain than it is worth (leaking, sanitizing, how do you get the remaining wine on top of the lees below the spigot, etc.)