Forgot to sterilise my bucket

[wiresgirl]

Hello everyone. This is my first post on here and I am a very new beginner!

Yesterday I began making some Nettle wine. But I think I have already made some mistakes and wondered if you thought I should start again or wait to see what happens.

Basically, I sterilised my bucket. Then I stupidly put my nettles in to rinse them before I boiled them.
Mistake #1 I put the grape concentrate, sugar, nettle liquid etc back into the same buck to ferment without sterilising it again.

Secondly, my recipe said to boil the nettles with the peel of 1 lemon and 1 orange. I did this, but didn't realise that it shouldn't contain any of the white pith at all, just the outside zest. I've read this will make the wine very bitter.
Mistake #2 not peeling the orange and lemon skin fine enough.

The mixture is currently fermenting away in the bucket. I am due to move it to the demi john in 4 more days. Do you think it is worth keeping, or should I start again?

Many thanks for any thoughts you have

 

[djrockinsteve]

You are underway already hopefully it will be okay. Lesson learned.

Great to have you here. Glad you joined. Ask questions if you need to. Searching this forum helps. There is also helpful info. on the home page under tutorials you may enjoy. Plus recipes, the map and alot more.

 

[RedNeckWino]

If you left the skins with the pith in the must, I would try to pull those out with a sterile spoon or strainer and either leave them out or scrape the pith off today. A little bit of bitterness can come out with time. Allot of bitterness can be a problem IMO.

 

[Wade E]

I agree to get the skins out ASAP to try and prevent any further bittering. I would bet your wine will be alright from not sanitizing but may be bitter from the pith but only time can tell that. What size batch is this as less wine = more bitterness due to dilution ratio.

 

[wiresgirl]

Thank you all. I boiled the rinds with the nettles for 45 mins, then strained all the solids, so the liquor that is fermenting doesn't actually contain any of the rinds or nettles. I'm really hoping I can get away with it. I'll be pretty upset if my first ever wine turns completely nasty!

We've had some fluctuations in temperature, despite the bucket being wrapped in bubble wrap. It's still bubbling a lot, so I am hoping for the best.

Sophy

 

[Luc]

I hope you used some sulphite.

That will keep the nasties at bay.

Besides that I think you will be ok.

Luc

 

[wiresgirl]

Yes, I did add 1 crushed campden before putting yeast in.

That leads me to another question actually. Should I put another campden in when I rack it into the jar in 3 days? Or will that kill of the yeast?

Thanks
Sophy

 

[Julie]

No more sulfites until fermentation is complete.

 

[wiresgirl]

Ahh, see this is where I'm confused. All the books I've read said add 1/2 or 1 campden tablet every time you rack. But all the people I talk to say no. Or am I confused between the initial rack from the bucket into the demijohn, and subsequent racking?

As an aside, I had an awful incident this morning where my red wine from a kit fermented a lot overnight, overflowing onto the carpet. Thank goodness I got the stain out before my husband comes home ;-)

 

[Wade E]

Never add any sulfites while the fermentation is in progress or it can cause fermentation problems. When they say add when racking they are not meaning when racking from primary to carboy unless you ferment to dry in primary like I do. I wouldnt add it ecery time either, about every 4 months while aging your wine and even then you really should test your wine for sulfites to determine how much you need as every time you add it more and more becomes bound in your wine meaning it will actually need less and less each time or you will start over sulfiting your wine. If you dont have the money to buy a digital S02 meter then I advise you to at least get the Accuvin S02 test.
http://www.finevinewines.com/p-358-301-10.aspx

 

[wiresgirl]

Thanks, that's clarified things nicely. I don't really want to spend any more money at this stage, so will stick to your 4 month rule and see how things go.

You really are so helpful here, thank you all very much!