My First Volcano

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Grasshopper

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I am currently fermenting a MM Alljuice ME Amarone 23 liter kit. The instructions call for racking out of the primary when the gravity reaches 1.04 - 1.05 (in my case I racked at 1.038) into a clean and sanitized carboy to which the 90 grams of oak chips have been added. Prior to racking, per instructions, I had stirred the primary to re-suspend the yeast and added the supplied yeast nutrient. The 23 liter kit filled the 23 liter secondary up to the neck and I was quite pleased with myself as I wasn't going to need to add much to top the kit off when it comes time to rack into a carboy for bulk aging. (Anyone else see where this is going)? I installed an air lock and then took the primary away to be cleaned.

When I returned I was in the midst of a volcanic eruption through the air lock. Fortunately this was an Hawaiian type eruption with the wine foaming out of the air lock and not a phreatic Mount St. Helens type but I have little doubt that if I hadn't quickly discovered the problem it would have become one as the oak chips plugged the air lock.

I siphoned out a quart of wine into a Bell jar, drilled a hole and installed a grommet and air lock for the jar, and cleaned up the mess. When I got the air lock back on the carboy the CO2 wasn't so much bubbling as blowing through the lock. I have never before seen this much activity in a ferment.

Some comments and observations:

Although as I said I was quite pleased that I had filled the carboy I haven't before had this little head space in a secondary. I should have stopped and thought "OK, nice and good, but this is different from normal experience so what might go wrong here?"

Racking into the secondary at a gravity of 1.04 leaves a lot of sugar in the must. Adding nutrient and air makes for a vigorous ferment in the secondary. (It also doesn't give a lot of time to extract goodness from the raisins which get squeezed but removed prior to racking, but that is another topic).

Being prepared by having a clean canning jar, lids, grommets and spare air locks helped salvage the siphoned wine that might otherwise have been lost although this was more out of luck than any foresight on my part.

Having the secondary carboy in a crate lined with a garbage bag greatly facilitated the cleanup. See my previous post on this practice here - http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f3/cool-innovative-ideas-36832/#post407869

Probably most important, it is a good idea to check on progress frequently after starting a primary or secondary fermentation. If I had left this completely unattended, there is little doubt that the air lock would have plugged and wine would have been blown all over the room.

LFMF

Bob
 
I did this once with a strawberry that had too much in primary, piece of fruit floated up the foam and blocked the air lock. Did not know a bucket could expand so much with out busting but im sure glad it did. As it was I still had strawberry foam everywhere. I wasn't home when the problem started.
 
For a MM, I add the nutrient at least a day before I rack into a carboy, or I will do the full fermentation in the fermenter bucket, seal the lid and add an air lock at the time secondary is supposed to start.

This is a quite common problem, due to the nutrient being added. Of course the oak addition can also add to this problem.

This is just my opinion, but 1.040 to 1.050 is simply too high to be moving to secondary. You add nutiernt at that level and immediately rack, you are going to be cleaning up a mess.
 
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I had a similar experience with a port kit I tweaked by adding 2 cups of cocoa powder t the primary. I racked a little earlier than I would have liked because I needed the bucket, but everything seemed okay as I had some overflow that I put into a large salad dressing bottle for topping up later. Put an airlock on both the carboy and the smaller bottle, and left it in the bathtub (where all good wine is made). The next day I came in to find the walls and ceiling coated with a thin layer of deep red/brown cocoa powder that had sprayed as much as 8 feet from the little bottle. I couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry. The chocolate port however turned out great, and I still have a couple bottles left!
 
Just place a small plastic container upside down over the airlock. Any overflow will just drip down. Still a mess but a contained mess.

cheers
 
Explosions are messy, but kind of neat in a science-y type way. I had a berry wine literally blow out the sides of my lid after it gunked up the airlock. Run for the hills!
 
Hmm, no matter how many times we talk about it, seems like most everybody has to learn the hard way. Adding that air and maybe some nutrient and almost as good as vinegar and baking soda. Good luck with it, glad you didn't have too big a mess. Personally, I will probably have it happen again, Arne.
 
Yes Arnie, I feel both lucky and stupid. Lucky that it wasn't much worse but stupid because I should have seen this coming. I have been a bit of a slave to the instructions but in the case of the MM kits the instructions are setting us up for this problem. I agree with Robie that a gravity of 1.04 - 1.05 is too high to rack into a narrow neck carboy not only for volcanic reasons but also it doesn't give the must time to extract all of the goodness from the raisins or grape skins. For future kits of this type I think I am going to follow his advice to add the nutrient to the primary and aerate at ±1.04 then add the airlock a day later and ferment to near dry in the bucket (SpGr <1.0) before racking to the secondary and adding oak. Then rack/degas into a bulk aging carboy 2 to 3 weeks later.
 

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