Now what?

[dwhite53]

This was bubbling along fine three hours ago. Plenty of space in the neck. An hour later it's foaming with stuff blowing into the air-lock. Any ideas?

3 cans Welch's white grape raspberry concentrate. Corn sugar. Water to a gallon. Red Star Pasteur Red yeast. 1 tbsp. bentonite slurry. Been feeding it with Fermaid-K. SG 1.094. Been fermenting one week today.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[dralarms]

Need to put that in a bigger bottle for primary, for secondary that would be fine but you will fight with that for 4 to 5days and depending on the yeast it could get very violent.

 

[Runningwolf]

Vigorous fermentation in a fermenter too small for the amount of must in it. Clean your air lock and carry on soldier!

 

[dwhite53]

It's been fermenting a week already. This just started today. Never had this happen with any variety of mead. Usually any foaming stops in the first 3 to 4 days.

Gotta find a bigger container.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[jamesngalveston]

jeez, you got your carboy sitting in the bucket, put your wine in the bucket and forget the carboy for your primary..

 

[dwhite53]

I've got a blow-off tube on it stuck in a jar of sulfite solution.

Funny how this just suddenly started foaming up.

I made a gallon of this. I took a quart and put it in the fridge to
top off with after the initial foaming. Two days after starting the
initial foaming had subsided so I put the extra quart in. Then,
five days later, this.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[Turock]

When it warms up, that can get it foaming again. Are you fermenting it in the jug or is the secondary?

Be careful with the Fermaid---don't feed the ferment past the 1/3 sugar depletion mark. Fermaid will foam like crazy, too.

 

[BernardSmith]

My experience has been (and you can take this for what it is worth) that if you add anything that is not liquid to a bucket or a carboy that has been fermenting for a few days the particles will nucleate the CO2 already in the wine and create the kinds of gusher you had. (its the original version of adding a Mentos candy to a bottle of coke. Stand back and watch the volcano. For outdoor use only) When I add nutrient at about the half way point I do my best to make sure that it is well dissolved in water or must rather than add the powder directly into the bucket...

 

[dwhite53]

I didn't add anything before it started this it just started foaming out of the blue.

I don't add anything to full carboys. A couple of carboys geysers broke me of that quick.

It's settled down today. Didn't lose much out the blow-off tube.

Thanks for the replies.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[dwhite53]

Figured this out. Any movement of the carboy causes it to start
foaming. It's not an instant thing but develops over about thirty
minutes.

Moved it last night to another room. Went back about thirty minutes
later and there's stuff in the airlock. Refit hose.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[jamesngalveston]

I have made alot of wine, and have never had any carboy start foaming after i move it...i would think that it is either a lot of co2, are something not thoroughly mixed in correctly....

 

[dwhite53]

I have made alot of wine, and have never had any carboy start foaming after i move it...i would think that it is either a lot of co2, are something not thoroughly mixed in correctly....

I've never had anything like this before. I've made a lot of beer and mead.

I'm just going to let it sit for a week or so and see what happens.

In meads I've made, after a few days, the viscosity drops enough to prevent this level of foaming. Not this thing.

All the Best,
D. White