Mead bottle bomb possibilty

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larrybrewer

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I bottled my mead into wine bottles yesterday. I thought it was completely fermented out. When I open my first test bottle today (yes, I was impatient), I hear a 'pop' when I uncork. I don't see fizzing when I pour, but I do see a few small bubbles stuck to the wall of the wine glass I poured it into.

I'm using the synthetic corking material.

Do I have two dozen bottle bombs on my hand?

What to do next?

THANKS!
 
Check the SG and see if it's fermented or not. It might be just "gassy", if you put it in the bottle fairly quickly, it might not have had time to naturally degas. Or it could still be fermenting. I can't say without knowing the hydrometer reading.
 
If you use corks, in my experience (before I learned to degas), the corks will pop out before the bottle will explode.
 
All right, how is that done?

Giving it a really good stir. They also make some simple drill attachments that make the process much easier.

If your wine is dry (About 0.998 FG) then most likely you just residual CO2 from fermentation. If the FG is not dry and you did not stabilize then bottle bombs are very possible. Actually as mentioned, corked wine bottles will tend to push the cork out before blowing the bottle.

Craig
 
I made the mistake of bottling my first mead at around 1.005 IIRC with a couple carb tabs, thinking it was stable. yeah, it was stuck from excessive racking, no bombs but insanely funny (think champagne with a good shake) :D
 
Thanks a lot. Yeah the gravity did hit .998, hopefully I'm safe. Worst case scenario I'm out a few bottles and have a bit of a mess to clean up.
 
If you search degasing, there are 2 techniques described on the forums, and there are videos. One uses a food saver vacuum pump, and the other uses a wine saver stopper and hand vacuum pump. Both appeared to work and i am currently testing it on a show mead that has been bulk aging a few months.
 
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