visible film on top of wine..

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brettf

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All the pre-details are here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/newbie-so-have-i-mucked-up-207094/index2.html

but as we went off into Hangovers I thought Id retitle and follow up here..

Per the advice of folks in that thread above, I re-racked into a new carboy, put 5 campden tablets in and have let it sit for about 3 weeks now..

The film I noticed before is back almost immediately.. while it doesnt have a 'sheen' .. it looks like oil across a water puddle in your driveway..

In tasting and smelling it during the re-rack .. my non-wine-knowing self didnt notice anything odd.. other than its very, very, very dry..

Am I overthinking this? If it tastes and smells ok.. can I just bottle it up and give it away at christmas?

.. and, on that note:

if I can.. do I need to do anything else to the wine before bottling.. or just take it from the carboy, throw it into cleaned and sanitized (iodophor ok?) bottles, cork and forget?

thanks again for any help folks :)

Brett
 
btw.. will you always get more lees every time you re-rack? I didnt notice much at all in the bottom of the carboy I just racked out of .. just a thin film on the bottom..

the carboy I racked -into- has horizontal ridges around it and Ive noticed some fines collecting on those ridges over the last couple weeks..

this will be the 4th .. or 5th time at least its been racked off the lees since we started over a year ago..

thanks,

Brett
 
Back when you said
brettf said:
a film of something floating across a fair bit of the top surface of the wine..
Click to expand...
I didn't realize you was refering to just an oily sheen. That may be a little different and a whole lot harder to get rid of.

Oiliness or Ropiness: The wine develops an oily look with rope- like treads or strings appearing within it. It pours slowly and thickly with a consistency similar to egg whites, but neither its smell nor taste are effected. The culprit is a lactic acid bacterium and is only fatal to the wine if left untreated. Pour the wine into an open container with greater volume than required. Use an egg whip to beat the wine into a frothiness. Add two crushed Campden tablets per gallon of wine and stir these in with the egg whip. Cover with a sterile cloth and stir the wine every hour or so for about four hours. Return it to a sterile secondary and fit the airlock. After two days, run the wine through a wine filter and return it to another sterile secondary. Again, this problem, like most, can be prevented by pre- treating the must with Campden and sterilizing your equipment scrupulously.

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/problems.asp

Now that I think about it, there have been several reports of this infection since then and I haven't heard of anybody recovering a drinkable wine from it. If it hasn't cleaned up by now, it probably wont. As much as I hate to say it, I would just throw it away, completely sterilize all equipment and practice a more stringent campden use from here on out. There are only 7 bacteria out of millions that can spoil an alcoholic beverage and this happens to be one.
 
Well, like I say, I dont see a 'sheen' .. aka a glistening, rainbow effect.. its just that design . and I didnt note any thickening or ropiness of the wine when I racked it into this carboy .. it siphoned very nicely..

hell, i dunno..

Id try to get a photo of the effect but theres a fair bit of moisture in the top of the carboy.. so it wouldnt show i think..

just generally frustrated and not wanting to throw all the work out the window at this point .. but kinda dont know what else to do heh..

thanks for your response.. it is appreciated..

Brett
 
reading through that page you linked.. and I think it may be this.. as I did see a couple little flecks today as well..

Flowers of Wine: Small flecks or blooms of white powder or film may appear on the surface of the wine. If left unchecked, they grow to cover the entire surface and can grow quite thick. They are caused by spoilage yeasts and/or mycoderma bacteria, and if not caught at first appearance will certainly spoil the wine. If caused by yeast, they consume alcohol and give off carbon dioxide gas. They eventually turn the wine into colored water. The wine must be filtered at once to remove the flecks of bloom and then treated with one crushed Campden tablet per gallon of wine. The saved wine will have suffered some loss of alcohol and may need to be fortified with added alcohol (brandy works well) or consumed quickly. If caused by the mycoderma bacteria, treat the same as for a yeast infection. The Campden will probably check it, but the taste may have been ruined. Taste the wine and then decide if you want to keep it. Bacterial infections usually spoil the wine permanently, but early treatment may save it.
Click to expand...

which again, tells me that Im hosed..

hah, crap.

Hours n hours and lotsa thorns from blackberry bushes later.. ah well.. better luck next time.

Brett
 
I feel for ya Brett, it's like having to put down a family pet, but sometimes you just have to end the suffering.

Reoccurring infection after campden is pretty serious.
 

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