Plum Wine: Ring of white growth in carboy above wine

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etisdale

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Hi, All. I have a plum wine (my first wine) that I transferred to secondary fermenter after two weeks in the primary. It's been about 3 weeks in the secondary and a ring of white growth has formed on the inside of the carboy, just above the wine. Not sure what is going on. The wine is still slowly fermenting. Any ideas? Furthermore, any ideas on any action I should take, if any?

Here are some pics:

http://i27.tinypic.com/28hgxtk.jpg

http://i30.tinypic.com/fwkv36.jpg

Thanks!
 
looks normal to me... I think that stuff ends up there because of all the bubbling on the top surface of the wine. each popping bubble sprays a little bit and that stuff accumulates on the inside glass.

I could be way off though.

when do you plan on topping that wine off ? check the SG lately?
 
It looks ok, but you've got WAY too much headspace. You should be within an inch or two of the bung, or at least at the bottom of the 2 inch wide opening of the mouth of the carboy.
 
Thanks for the replies! I certainly feel much better.

When I transferred the wine to the secondary (about 3 weeks ago), the SG was 1.019. Bubbles are still rising to the surface of the wine, and the fermentation lock is still bubbling, albeit slowly. My plan was to wait for fermentation to stop, allow the wine to settle for 3-4 weeks, and then transfer the wine into an assortment of carboys/jugs.

This is my first attempt, and I am open to any suggestions. Thanks!
 
Just an update.

I went ahead and racked the wine to another fermenter (or four!) just a couple of weeks ago. The wine had a strong punch of fruit in the nose (nice!) and was quite hot (very distracting), but there was nothing that was particularly off. I think the "white growth" was indeed dried splatter from a more active phase of fermentation.

http://i36.tinypic.com/28vc7k6.jpg

I think I will bottle in a few weeks and let the alcoholic bite mellow for awhile.

http://i33.tinypic.com/28gyxzm.jpg
Yikes! (Is this normal?)
 
you will always aim to finish below zero for a dry wine. Be sure to have those things topped to the absolute top of the bottles and if it tastes like wine and not fermenting any longer then you will want to add sulfur/cambden tablets/pottasium metabisulfate before bottling (or at the time of bottling in the bucket) to make sure that you preserve the wine longer. Otherwise they will age rapidly and you will end up with kinda port tasting stuff.

Good job though, looks good.
 
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