wine kit mishap..thoughts!?

Hi Everyone,

I'd really appreciate a few opinions on a bit of a disaster with a wine kit my friend and I are doing right now.

I just moved to a province that make wine kits for ppl at the LHBS. I've always taken mine home and will continue to do so. But when I've been in the shops and seen their set up I noticed quite a few of them put the wine into a plastic bag in the primary bucket for primary fermentation. The bag just fills the bucket space and you elastic the bag shut..but so there is room for CO2 to get out. So I thought I'd try this..however I still sanitized the bucket the bag was going into. The lady at the LHBS gave me a plastic bag to use. Now I'm checking the fermentation 5 days later and the gravity is 1.03 and it's still going strong. All of a sudden I notice that there is liquid on the outside of the bag but inside the bucket. Turns out the bag had a tear in it and about a liter or 2 of liquid had gurgled out.

My thoughts are that the must was exposed..a small amount...and that fermentation was still so strong that it doesn't matter that it's been exposed to oxygen...it was still producing a lot of CO2.

What do you guys think? Think the wine is ruined? This wine was not in a high traffic area.

I've moved the must into a carboy so it can finish fermentation there.

Any thoughts would be great!

Erin

Erin,
I would not worry about it. The escapee must was protected by the bag anyway, much like the lid from the bucket itself would. All will be fine.

Out of curiosity, are the liners being used 'food grade'? I wonder why the LHBS/Brew On Premise operation is even using the liners?

The wine should be fine. Have you pulled a sample to check for contamination? Old school guys used to use buckets for primary(sanitized) with no lid at all and just a mesh bag over the top to keep fruit flys out. Once vigorous fermentation was done they would rack it off. As long as the bag and bucket were sanitized, you should be ok.

Sara: I'm assuming the bags were food grade. The LHBS that I took one from was a pretty big operation and she ordered them in bulk. They did wine, beer and cider.

Stout: I haven't checked for contamination..I'm not sure I know how?? The must was still very active so I just quickly dumped it all in a carboy.
I never sanitized the bag though. I guess it didn't occur to me because it was brand new...ugg think this is another thing I might have to worry about?

Random fact: Apparently only around 5% of the ppl in Ontario take home their wine kits..the rest have the LHBS make them...I was a little shocked by that number.