Berry wine infected?

[Elmer]

It has been years since I made berry wine.

I have been checking the wine daily and squeezing the bag to work the berries.

Today I noticed some big bubbles on my krasuen.

If this was in my batch of beer I would be worried.

I did use a combo of home grown & store bought berries (black-blue-straw-rasp)



I also had too much juice and therefore had to keep some in a jug. I have been adding the juice to ferment bucket as space becomes available.
Now the hug had bubbles

The bucket was sanitized with San-star, the jug kmeta.

Is this an infection? Or just gas bubbles?


Can I just hit with a dose of K-meta/sorbate when he ferment is done?

I thought wine was more tolerant to infection than beer?

 

[Julie]

I really doubt that it is infected, actually I have never heard of a wine getting an infection while it was still fermenting, looks like it just fermenting just fine. What was your beginning hydrometer reading and what is it now?

 

[DoctorCAD]

Looks like wine to me...

 

[BernardSmith]

Hi Elmer, I agree with Julie. Berries have no proteins to speak of so technically there is no "krausen". What there is is the surface tension of the liquid - a combination of water and fruit sugars and other associated chemicals. All other things being equal, if the tension is sufficient you can find larger bubbles being produced. That is just the nature of the beast. Bottom line: I wouldn't worry. But taste the wine. If it is sour then something may be going on. If it is bitter (and sweet) then you will have a mixed berry wine in a few months. But my money is on the yeast and not on any bacterial infection.

 

[Elmer]

I really doubt that it is infected, actually I have never heard of a wine getting an infection while it was still fermenting, looks like it just fermenting just fine. What was your beginning hydrometer reading and what is it now?

SG 1.080
Now 1.050

I had to remove 1 gallon from the bucket prior to fermenting, to make room for krasuen.
I had been adding the gallon of juice back in slowly.
Today I took a whiff of the remaining 1/2 gallon of non-refrigerated juice and it smelled funky!
Had to dump the 1/2 gallon.
Hope none of that funk made it into the wine .

 

[winehomie]

I always freeze my extra berry juice, I have had it mold in the fridge in just a couple days, so keeping it in a jug not refrigerated is really a bad ideal IMHO if your going to add it to your fermentation. Just my 2 cents, but i only make berry or juice wines, so i do have some experience with them.

 

[Elmer]

Finished up the wine, took a sip and there is a dark, funky after taste.
I am thinking when I was adding the juice back to the must on the 3rd day I took a whiff and it was funky, so I dumped what was left in the small jug.
However I never took a whiff the day before so I think some spoiled juice was put into the must.
Can't think that blueberry or strawberry would give such a off flavor.
Guess it is a drain pour and start over

 

[Julie]

Blueberry and strawberry do give off some off smells and taste until it has aged some. You are being too quick to dump this Elmer, remember with winemaking patience is your best quality to have.

 

[Elmer]

Blueberry and strawberry do give off some off smells and taste until it has aged some. You are being too quick to dump this Elmer, remember with winemaking patience is your best quality to have.

Thanks for info,
How long would you age?
I had intended to hand this wine out for the holiday.
But I don't want to not make another batch and find out in a month that this batch is indeed undrinkable!

Should I bulk age? Or sweeten and bottle?

The last time I made triple berry wine I was drinking it almost immediately, maybe it is the strawberry???

 

[Julie]

bulk age and actually I would let it age at least 3 months.

 

[Arne]

@ Elmer, Draw a glass and let it sit for a couple of hours. Maybe pour it back and forth between two glasses. See if that doesn't help the oders go away. If it helps you can splash rack it and that should help get rid of the oders. Might try the penny or clean copper wire, stir a little and see if it gets rid of the oder. If this works get back on here and tell us. There are ways to get rid of that oder. Arne.

 

[Elmer]

bulk age and actually I would let it age at least 3 months.

I guess there goes handing this out for the holiday!

@ Elmer, Draw a glass and let it sit for a couple of hours. Maybe pour it back and forth between two glasses. See if that doesn't help the oders go away. If it helps you can splash rack it and that should help get rid of the oders. Might try the penny or clean copper wire, stir a little and see if it gets rid of the oder. If this works get back on here and tell us. There are ways to get rid of that oder. Arne.

There is not much of an odor, it is mostly a funkiness, which I guess could mean it will require some aging.
However anytime I have made berry wine before it was ready to drink really quick.
I thought maybe it was the [emoji526]that took time to age but I used less than a #.
I also used some really old blue & blackberries I had in the deep freeezer.

 

[Elmer]

Racked
Added some sugar to the left over.
Had a tingle on the back of the tongue.
Stirred and let sit out for a bit,
Smoothed out