Bubbles and film

I transferred my Vino Italiano Chardonnay to secondary and everything looked good. I let it finish then decided to transfer again to degas and add my stabilizers. The carboy secondary looked fine. When it went into the tertiary I noticed really big bubbles. I sanitized with StarSan but it don't think it was from that. I let it sit a couple of days and then added in my back sweetening sugar. After drill stirring this in I now have a strange film on top.

I had a problem with fruit flies around and it is possible that one got in. The film looks similar to a contamination that I got with a 1 gallon batch of Welch's red caused by fruit flies.

The Chardonnay doesn't taste off. If anything the sample I had before sweetening was a little tart but I don't think I would call it sour or vinegar tasting.

Well, I let the wife sample it. She says it's sour. It may be a dumper. I'll let it sit a while and see.

Does it sound like an infection to anyone else? I'll try to get a good picture posted.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/23/img22921n.jpg/

It was hard to get a decent picture.

I really can't see, but it doesn't look good.

Hard to really see well but looks like flowers of wine--which can be saved if you act quickly, rack, consider filtering(if wine clear) and dose with k-meta versus rack and dose with k-meta. Flowers of wine will stir into the wine and then float back to the top, they tend to start as white flecks, then bubbly foam, lace like in appearance.

If it is a mother of vinegar(MOV) forming, they sink if you add liquid to the top of them and typically have a grey cast to them as they first start to form, almost looks like a gray oil slick. Then they start to form a solid disc, but always at the top, floating unless you sink them by adding liquid on top of them. MOV is bad and needs to get out of your winery as it can contaminate other wines.

I don't think it is MOV. It may be "flowers of wine." I don't have the equipment to filter. Do you think it would be okay to rack the wine off from under the floaters, dose with K-meta and bottle?

Clifton said:

I don't think it is MOV. It may be "flowers of wine." I don't have the equipment to filter. Do you think it would be okay to rack the wine off from under the floaters, dose with K-meta and bottle?

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"ok" how? I mean, maybe the bottles won't blow up if you're lucky- but even that isn't worth the risk.

I'd definitely rack from under the floaters, and it it with k-meta, but I wouldn't bottle. I'd put it into a different carboy and top up and see if the infection slows or stops. If it slows or stops, the worst that can happen is the wine will just taste not-too-good. If it doesn't stop, at least you won't have bottle bombs if it's still in an airlocked carboy.

I've already given it one dose of sorbate and K-meta (about a week ago, I don't have my notes with me). I've back sweetened and there has been no airlock activity. I'll have to check the gravity again to confirm that it has remained steady.

you have flowers of wine with a demon eyed monster thing at the bottom lol, it wont turn it into vinegar so dont worry about that. you need to add k meta and deprive it of oxygen as much as you can. oxygen is what keeps it going, it doesnt look like you topped off your carboy when you transfered so that probably why you have the infection. good luck act quickly and save the wine!

I transferred and added another 1/4 tsp of Kmeta. My gravity has remained constant. I left most of the floaters behind but did transfer some. Any way to filter this w/o buying a filter setup?




http://imageshack.us/gal.php?id=sZWuktHi3dzo1-nX3dTU39_J55SZ3dbTqA

Would gelatin help drop the rest out, or should I just transfer again and leave more behind?