Cork shot out of the bottle - what gives?

Hey all. I bottled my first wine saturday. 28 bottles from a Pinot Noir Kit. I had added the stabilizer and degassed the wine in the couple weeks prior. I bottled and corked and then placed the bottles on their sides in the storage area I keep my bottled beer in to age.

Sunday AM, I was greeted with a Pinot puddle on the floor. One of the corks had shot out of the bottle (it was 2 feet away) and left a huge mess on the floor. One of the other corks had worked its way about half way out, but I was able to push it back in.

What happened?

Usually popped corks is a sign the wine wasn't finished fermenting. Did you take a gravity reading before you stabilized? Was that reading .998 or lower?

Yes, It was .998 when I stabilized.

You need to check SG 3 days in a row min. .998is high end of finishing fermentation. My guess is is wasn't done and adding stabilizers wont stop active fermentation but prevent new fermentation. we have all had a batch of bombs, after that making sure fermentation is really done is far more important.

It was 0.998 when I stabilized. It was 0.998 two weeks later when I bottled. It wasn't additional fermentation.

Those corks go in wet with sanitizer. Are they just slippery with stuff? I found the hand corker to be very tempermental compared to a beer bottle capper. Practically every cork was in a different depth. Could a cork just work its way out if it weren't in far enough?

kinnasst said:

Could a cork just work its way out if it weren't in far enough?

Click to expand...

Not without help. There would have to be pressure within the bottle to force a cork to pop. Suspended gas shouldn't be enough and, besides, you said you degassed. The only blown corks I've ever had were the result of incomplete fermentation.

Bottling two weeks after stabilization is pretty quick. You might want to wait a month or two next time, just to be sure.

When I cork, I leave the bottles upright for 3 days (minimum - 5 max) , then lay them on their sides. This allows the corks to take the shape of the neck (almost wedgelike). This also lets the residual slipperiness of your sanitizer get soaked up. My results are with #9 corks and a floor corker.

Could be going through a malolactic, or slippery corks.

If degassing was done under cool condition, it might not have been completely degassed then you bottled and the summer heat got to CO2 that was left, that could do it

Another explanation is residual sugar. hydrometers aren't accurate enough to measure small amounts of sugar that may be left unfermented when the yeast gives up. A disturbance like bottling can set off a new fermentation of any residual sugar. Urine sticks are more accurate for detecting residual sugar.

I'm trying to keep my mind out of the gutter, but what is a urine stick?

They are for testing urine to see if there is sugar or other chemicals there, used in medecine but quite good for wine making. residual sugar can be a problem.

What about that trick with the string while corking to let gas escape? Wet the string, drape it over the lip, cork and then draw the string out. I read this was a great way to relieve the pressure of the compressed air behind the cork. Still bulk aging my first real wine; others were Rieslings that I kegged. Maybe the air pressure + slippery corks were the problem?

-OCD

good ideas, both. I'll try them with my next wine.