Second fermentation disaster

[newbie needs help]

Hello all! New here and new to making wine. My father and I are making our first batch with a juice kit. The primary fermentation went well and saturday we racked the wine to the carboy as directed. After 3 days in the carboy, we have mold or something growing on top of the wine. It is obvious that the batch is infected by bacteria and I was wondering what I can do to save the batch and what I may have done wrong to cause this? When racking to the carboy, we were careful not to pump any setiment in the carboy. Were we suppose to rack this over too? Also, when finished racking, the carboy had a significant amount of air in it. I did not see a very active "bubling" going on with the air lock, so I'm sure that the air is still in the carboy. Any help is appreciated.

 

[Wade E]

Did you sanitize everything with a k-meta solution of 3 tble sp. per gallon? What kit is this and what sg are you at now? We need more info before we can instruct you on the next move. What exactly does this "mold look like?

 

[Manimal]

Wade's right, more info is necessary. However, I will caution you about jumping to conclusions and panicking. I've seen some nasty looking rings of scum form around the top of the carboy which turned out to be completely innocuous. The bottom line during all winemaking procedures is that if there is a serious flaw, you should be able to taste and/or smell it in the wine. Draw off a sample of the fermenting wine into a tasting glass and assess it for any off aromas and flavours... But even this is not fool proof... if you're not familiar with the smells and flavours of fermentation you might mistake them for flaws... give us more info and maybe we can help diagnose your condition, otherwise just be patient and stay the course... there is a good possibility that nothing is wrong.

 

[Wade E]

These kits are almost impossible to screw up as long as you follow the directions.

 

[cpfan]

I would like to know which kit you are doing, and what the specific gravities were when you started and transferred to carboy.

Steve