WineXpert Top popped off!!

[manitobawineo]

Just went downstairs to find my rubber carboy top had popped off. I was finished and ready to bottle tomorrow. It was only exposed to air for about 8 hours...

Am I in trouble??

 

[salcoco]

no. cap popped off because of co2 degassing. how old is the wine? if not aged to long may have to much co2 for bottling. wine will be fizzy later.

 

[JohnT]

Did it fall off or pop off.

If it fell off (you did not secure it correctly), then add a little k-meta and wait a little while before you bottle.

If it POPPED off, then you are most definately not ready to bottle. You need to degass or the same thing will happen to all of your corks!

 

[BernardSmith]

But Sal and John, I think we have too little information from manitobawineo to know where that wine is in the fermentation process. You are assuming that the wine had in fact finished fermenting simply because of manitobawineo said HE was ready to bottle. So what the problem MAY be was that the wine was inadequately degassed and that MIGHT be right but we in fact have not been told how long it had been fermenting or if this carboy is the primary or the secondary. Manitobawineo simply advises us that the cap came off. We don't know if the wine was considered ready for bottling a week after the yeast was pitched, or a year after the wine had been aged, if the carboy involved was the primary or was a secondary container. We don't know whether the cap that fell or popped off was being used with an airlock (bubbler) or if it was being used to cap the carboy (so the nipples were also capped).

If the question is , Is Manitobawineo in trouble I think the answer is no, not much chance that anything terrible would have happened to the wine in 8 hours, and in fact that incident may be what is going to result in resolving what might otherwise have been BIG trouble down the road if the wine had not finished fermenting or was in need of more degassing... but if the question is what should manitobawineo do now, I think to answer that question we need much more information.

 

[manitobawineo]

Thanks everyone. The situation is as follows...this is the Diablo Rojo kit and I have completed the instructions and was supposed to bottle on Monday. I didn't have the time, so I took the airlock bung off and replaced it with a stopper. I put it on the carboy but not very hard. The wine was at 81 degrees and I unplugged the heat belt. In the morning, the top had popped, I think due to temp change. I snuck a glass from the carboy before sealing it and it tasted good..no CO2 taste. Just wondering if the oxygen that was in contact with the wine in my carboy would have been able to taint it??

 

[BernardSmith]

My guess is that oxygen is not a problem here but that CO2 probably is the culprit. The fact that the bung popped off when the temperature fell (you say you took the heat belt off) suggests to me that what happened was that the CO2 that had built up was enough to force the bung out. That you didn't tste the CO2 may be for all kinds of reasons including that there is still enough in the wine to create a bottle bomb but not enough in a glass for you to experience the wine as sparkling. I would test this idea by seeing if you can remove more CO2 (either by whipping the wine or by applying a vacuum to the carboy to pull any gas from the wine).
Now it may be that the bung had a poor fit in the mouth of the carboy and that the glass walls acted to squeegee the bung out the mouth... but you could test that hypothesis. If there is no CO2 in the wine when you try to degas then that is a possible reason for the bung popping but either way , I cannot see a few hours of very little exposure to the air being a serious problem.

 

[sour_grapes]

Now it may be that the bung had a poor fit in the mouth of the carboy and that the glass walls acted to squeegee the bung out the mouth...

I have had that happen. It was a bung with an airlock, so clearly it was not CO2 that pushed it off. Rather, the bung was wet, and I (stupidly) pushed the bung into the carboy neck "to make it more secure." Instead, the friction was too little, and allowed the bung to move upwards as it expanded. (No harm done, fortunately.)

 

[Wade E]

I agree that temp was not the culprit as cooling down would compress not expand the wine. Most likely due to bung not seating properly but depending on how you degassed and at what temp it could still be gassy.