Wine expansion in carboy ?

[tdawg]

Just put my wine in a couple secondary fermentation vessels. They are 6 gallon containers. I left about an inch of air space between the wine and the stopper. Left it for two days and went down and there is no space left, the wine was meeting the stopper?? and When I took the stopper out the wine was still higher in the carboy than when i poured it? what gives?

 

[BobF]

temp and atmospheric pressure

 

[Minnesotamaker]

Extreme temp changes are even more noticeable. If you have wine in cold stabilization and then bring it back to room temp, it can easily overflow if you don't have enough head space in the carboy.

 

[ibglowin]

Due to its alcoholic content, a wine's coefficient of volume expansion is about double that of water; in comparison, the thermal expansion of the glass carboy can be pretty much neglected.

I can give you a math problem to work it all out but it ain't pretty!

 

[tdawg]

Tts pretty crazy i took about an inch out day before and last night i checked again and wine was meeting the stopper on one carboy and had pressed its way into the airlock on another. I drew out a bit more this time, hopefully its not the movie 'the blob' and my wine keeps expanding until it takes over the world.

The funny thing is the temperature of the wine hasn't changed that much since i checked it before pressed, its still about 68 degrees

 

[Arne]

Tts pretty crazy i took about an inch out day before and last night i checked again and wine was meeting the stopper on one carboy and had pressed its way into the airlock on another. I drew out a bit more this time, hopefully its not the movie 'the blob' and my wine keeps expanding until it takes over the world.

The funny thing is the temperature of the wine hasn't changed that much since i checked it before pressed, its still about 68 degrees

Look on the bright side, draw off one glass every day, your carboy will stay full and you will never have to worry about running out of wine again. Arne.

 

[LCTitan]

Do you guys save the wine you take out and place it in a sanitized wine bottle or other container to save it and complete the process or just dump it?

 

[SpoiledRotten]

Look on the bright side, draw off one glass every day, your carboy will stay full and you will never have to worry about running out of wine again. Arne.

I like that idea! One carboy for me and one for the little wife. Never make another batch! Thanks for the idea, Arne. Got to go get the new wine started now.

 

[ibglowin]

Usually its not enough to save so...... taste test time!

Do you guys save the wine you take out and place it in a sanitized wine bottle or other container to save it and complete the process or just dump it?

 

[Lurker]

Do you guys save the wine you take out and place it in a sanitized wine bottle or other container to save it and complete the process or just dump it?

Never dump it. Now is a good time to taste it.

 

[tdawg]

Happened again last night, i have happened upon the everlasting wine carboy.

 

[electropoet]

This just happened to me today as well...except I have I have 3 other carboys which are good to go...so the temp and pressure thing is not it. I hand pressed of Brehms frozen grapes yesterday...there was a ton a sediment right off the bat...but it was settling nicely...12 hrs later...everything was good...then this afternoon my wine had overflowed through the airlock. Its like it grew. I had it about 1-2 inches below the bung...quite a bit of expansion...any ideas??

Does wine expand if its pressed of the grapes...but is not totally fermented...i measured S.G. at 1.000 2 days straight. Thanks.

 

[richmke]

If you are still fermenting, the CO2 being produced can increase the volume of the must.

Primary fermentation in a bucket with a lot of head space. Secondary fermentation in a carboy with some head space, and an airlock. After 2 weeks, and fermentation is done, then into a carboy filled up to the neck.

 

[berrycrush]

Just put my wine in a couple secondary fermentation vessels. They are 6 gallon containers. I left about an inch of air space between the wine and the stopper. Left it for two days and went down and there is no space left, the wine was meeting the stopper?? and When I took the stopper out the wine was still higher in the carboy than when i poured it? what gives?

glass or plastic containers?

 

[Arne]

This just happened to me today as well...except I have I have 3 other carboys which are good to go...so the temp and pressure thing is not it. I hand pressed of Brehms frozen grapes yesterday...there was a ton a sediment right off the bat...but it was settling nicely...12 hrs later...everything was good...then this afternoon my wine had overflowed through the airlock. Its like it grew. I had it about 1-2 inches below the bung...quite a bit of expansion...any ideas??

Does wine expand if its pressed of the grapes...but is not totally fermented...i measured S.G. at 1.000 2 days straight. Thanks.

My guess and only a guess, when you pressed it you introduced a bunch of oxygen to it. After a bit, the sugars that were not fermented got ate by some yeast that got stirred up by the pressing and additional oxygen. Maybe the temp. raised a bit also. The other carboys were finished fermenting and so didn't get going again. Arne.

 

[MrKevin]

My thought is it is more atmospheric pressure that temp. Yes there is expansion and contraction due to temp but not much. Follow the expansion and contraction in your carboy with the weather.

 

[electropoet]

Thanks gents. Glass Carboys. Its my first batch using fruit...albeit frozen must. Great learning experience...and a lot of fun...punching and pressing and smelling! But I hand pressed...ended up with about a gallon less than I expected...I was probably too concerned about pressing too hard...and ended up not pressing hard enough. Within an hour there was a crazy amount of sediment forming at the bottom...more than I expected...again I thought I'd lost even more! Fortunately...most of the lees had compacted down pretty decently in 2 days...but as I mentioned...after day 1 my wine had expanded by probably 500-750 ml...which seemed like a lot to me!!!

I retested S.G. and it did in fact go down a bit more indicating fermentation had continued on...but I also think taking S.G. readings from must are not all that accurate...as I wasn't able to blend it...so I can't be sure...all I saw was that the Brix had not dropped in 2 days so i wanted to go ahead, press and rack for MLF.

I don't think temp or pressure was it...there was way too much wine expansion...it came from 2-2 1/2 inches below the airlock and filled it straight up purple...I was quite shocked...but then had a bit of a laugh. I'm guessing (like was mentioned in the responses)...A) I filled the carboy up a bit too high and B) the mixture/pressing, etc. got the yeast all happy again and they started firing off a bit causing the CO2 expand the volume.

Nothing in the books really told me this would happen...but this is you learn...so its all good stuff.

Thanks.