possible fruit bomb in my house, need help

[badiggity]

okay, i realized i might have messed up my wine, this is my first batch of wine really, having made maybe 7, 1 gallon batches of mead(ruined the first one) and around 2 years with beer brewing experience.

i will lay it out from the begining just to give a clear look at my situation.

recipe:
20# black raspberries(that took awhile, lol)
3.75 gallons h20
19.5 Cup sugar(some added later to bring up S.G., all added b4 yeast)
2.5 teas. acid blend
2.5 teas. pectin enzyme
5/8 teas. grape tannin
5 teas. yeast nutrient
5 crushed campen tablets
lalvin rc-212


boiled water, added 14 cup sugar, poured over fruit (crushed, frozen, then thawed). added yeast nute, acid blend, and tannin(dry), cooled in a tub of water till 90ish degrees and added Camden tablets. adjusted the S.G. to 1.088.

i made a yeast starter out of a quart of the must, let it go for around 15 hours before it was added.

added pectin enzyme at the 12 hour mark.
added the yeast starter at the 24 hour mark.

fermenting was being done in a large plastic pail, sterilized. temps being approx 70-72 throughout, i dont have a basement, and am fighting the heat at the moment. stirred daily or twice daily. after the 5 day mark one of the bags ripped during stirring and maybe 4 pounds or so(considering berry weight before use in wine) came out of the bag. removed and strained fruit bags after one week of fermentation.

checked S.G. and had a reading of .994. and here is where i go wrong.

i added 3.75 cups of sugar, and brought my S.G. up to 1.010, i want a sweeter wine. i then transferred the must into a 5 gallon carboy with 5 crushed Camden tablets. the wine is one inch below the bottom of the stopper, and the bottom of the carboy has around 1 inch of berry chunks that made it thru siphoning. not like a solid mass, just lightly stacked up about 1 inch.

its bubbling away releasing a bubble on the beginning of a 3-one-thousand count. whats the likely-hood that there is adequate fermentation capable of rising debris, clogging my fermentor, and covering my walls with purple dye?

i had this happen with a one gallon fermenter full of raspberry mead (that mead failure i mentioned). that was so bad, i cant imagine what could happen with something larger. although the circumstances with the mead where way worse, i caused that problem probly having a s.g. of 1.060ish when it went into a secondary.


bubble speed now up to the beginning of a 2-one-thousand count, small berry pieces rising now.

 

[Julie]

Not sure if you will have an explosion, I don't think so.

When your fermentation was down to .994 you needed to add sulphites and sorbate first then added more sugar. You will not have a sweeter wine with the process that you followed but a higher abv, more than likely you are looking at rocket fuel.

 

[Dugger]

With only an inch of space below the bung, I would think your chances of plugging it are pretty good from the way you describe it - I would take some out, rack back to your bucket or sit vigilantly by it's side.

 

[Tom]

What was your Starting Gravity?

 

[Arne]

If you didn't sorbate, sulfite it, get it back into your primary for a while. If you stabalized it with the sorbate, sulfite, give it a week or three and make sure it doesn't start fermenting again. If it takes off again and your alcohol is too strong, make another batch and blend em. Make the new batch not quite so strong. You should be ok, just slow down, relax, have a glass of wine and take life easy. Ask Tom, patience is on your side. Good luck, Arne.

 

[Wade E]

I dont see any sorbate added when the fermentation was done! If you didnnot add this then you are surely going toart fermenting again which will probably go dry again resulting in you not having a sweeter wine again. Also. Did you dissolve this sugar in water cvause 3.75 cups of sugar would usually brng the sg way above 1.010 in my experience and if you didnt dissolve the suagr then your sg reading was most likely false and much higher!

 

[badiggity]

yeah, i had just spaced out the sorbate as something i would be doing on the next rack, and vice-versa with the sugar, i realized it after.

also, i did just add sugar to the must to re-up the s.g., so i mite be higher than i read, i am not sure. i took off the cap, left it in the carboy and loosely rubber-banded a ziploc bag over the top, i am going to add the sorbate tomorrow as soon as my wine shop opens up.

i realized what i did wrong as soon as i was done doing it, but i wasnt sure if i would be able to add sorbate or not, since i had added all that suger.
my original S.G. was 1.088, i'm going to try to calculate the alcohol content, I know it was a good strength before i re-upped the sugar content(had a pint left over i didnt want to waste). i'm kind of wondering if i am going to have to blend this with another wine to make it more drinkable,


I'm assuming that by having this kind of high alcohol content going on it is going to really override the taste of the berries?

and thank you for the replys, it's really nice to be able to get fast advice.

i can add the sorbate now and halt the fermentation correct? it seems as if some of the information i'm reading says otherwise, or at least that it isnt perfect.

does that mean that i have to put the must back into a primary until it runs its course again?

 

[Arne]

From my experience you might as well leave it alone and let it ferment dry. The sorbate most likely will not stop the ferment. It stops the yeast from multiplying. The yeast that are there will still keep fermenting. Sorbate now and you will probably slow it down, but not stop it. Let it finish and blend some juice in with it so it tastes good or make another wine not so strong and blend it. You should come out all right. Best of luck, Arne.

 

[Boyd]

Seems to me it would be a good idea to siphon some into a small jar or bottle, cap the jar with a baggie and tie it off with a rubber band.

Should take care of the problem and as long as there is fermentation there should be CO2 to protect the wine.

 

[Sirs]

also don't be so quick to think it won't be drinkable once you sorbate you can backsweeten it and it will probly be really good might just need to go a bit sweeter. I'd wait and see what you got first.

 

[badiggity]

i had left my wine to finish fermenting in the carboy, no problems at all, its not quite finished yet, but will be shortly.

i had started thinking about the fact that i couldnt stir it correctly thou. is it very possible that i will have forced more sulfite taste into the wine because i didnt stir it each day? or is that more important during the early fermentation period when the fruit is still being leached in the must?

thanks again to all

 

[docanddeb]

Welcome Wisconsinite!! Good to have you here!!

Have you read the tutorials here? There are "stickies" saved to guide you. Another good place to read is Jack Keller's winemaking page. He has every wine known to man. Something else to do.... start a WINE folder in favorites. I have several... one for forums, recipes, suppliers, etc. to keep everything at my fingertips. You'll want a 3 ring binder so you can PRINT anything you see online immediately for later use. It seems you never get the same Google search and that recipe you thought you saved will be gone forever. Many of the online wine supply people have great tutorials on their sites too... it pays to spend some time reading... then write down some basics so you have them in your binder. Searching for the same sugar or acid chart over and over is a pain.

Welcome to the obsession!

Debbie

 

[badiggity]

just to bring a close to this for anyone searching for answers with the same problem i had:

wine is now at .990, the fruit taste is still predominant, but its easy to notice the heightened alcohol feeling. just re-racked the must, decided against campden tablets since i had just added them 3 weeks prior, i just made sure everything was done in a still air environment and all equipment was sterilized well.

i left the must in the secondary while it went thru its second fermentation, i did remove the water trap and lightly banded a ziploc over the mouth until the heaviest fermentation action subsided, and replaced the water trap. now only 11 more months until i can enjoy it! thanks to all for your assistance.

cheers