Gas in wine

[hennesey1]

I degassed my wine before bottling I added some potassium meta bisulfide about 3 hours before bottling. I opened a bottle yesterday and it was pressurized is that because I did not let the potassium sulfide run its coarse. Should I open them all and let sit for a while . Will the bottles explode? Will that gas ruin my wine? HELP

 

[ACbrewer]

most likely it will blow corks if you do nothing. At a minimum, I'd put them vertical so that if the corks push out, then wine won't spill and make a mess.

was the wine clear when you bottled it?

 

[hennesey1]

most likely it will blow corks if you do nothing. At a minimum, I'd put them vertical so that if the corks push out, then wine won't spill and make a mess.

was the wine clear when you bottled it?

Yes I cleared it the day before . Could I open all the bottles and let them sit out a day. Then re cork? Of should I dump them in a bucket and stir the **** out of it with a drill to degas. I don't wanna ruin the wine it took 4 months to make

 

[hennesey1]

most likely it will blow corks if you do nothing. At a minimum, I'd put them vertical so that if the corks push out, then wine won't spill and make a mess.

was the wine clear when you bottled it?

Yes it was clear. Should I uncork them and let them breath

 

[ACbrewer]

Yes I cleared it the day before . Could I open all the bottles and let them sit out a day. Then re cork? Of should I dump them in a bucket and stir the **** out of it with a drill to degas. I don't wanna ruin the wine it took 4 months to make

I'm not sure here. have you retested the FG? did you add sugar to back sweeten? was it a kit with a Fpacket or something for back sweetening? I'm trying to figure out if there is a source for the it to start fermenting off of again.

My biggest concern about rebucketing it all and stiring is the risk of oxydation. That might be mitigated with metabisulfate, but I'm not possitive. Opening and letting sit has that same problem - oxydation

Was the bottle you opened fizzy? or just preasurized? Usually when bottling you leave the bottles vertical for a few days to alow the extra air that is forced in back out around the cork. so that could be the preasure. But I sense you detected mild carbonation when drinking.

Let me post some basics and you can pick from there.

Ferment wine to completion
Typically degas so wine is still and then stablize with metabisufate or other chemicals.
Bottle when cleared. - at this point a tasting/sampling should be still
after corking leave bottles upright for 2 or 3 days to alow extra air out around cork, then after 3 days turn on side to keep the corks dry.

If the wine finished fermentation, then it should have no sugar to ferment with even if the yeast is still alive. In this case there was no backsweetening, and there is either co2 in the win from ferment or the air pocket from the corking.
If it was backsweeten, then there would be a sugar source, and then it is up to the stablizer to slow down the yeast.
I'm doing some reading, and getting that metabisufate will help with oxydation, but only 'stuns' yeast - I question this as I read that it prevented some aspect of yeast propogation. Which put another way, if you back sweetened, you probably needed to put potasium sorbate in to kill er, "neuter" the yeast. (sorbate prevents reproduction, it doesn't actually kill the yeast, but they die of natural causes with no offspring).

So if you back sweetened, I'd put some metabisufate in the bucket uncork and gently poor all the wine back in, and also be sure to put in a potasium sorbate dose. If this is a dry wine, I'm really confused on your co2 source, which after a degasing should have been pretty well dealt with.

 

[hennesey1]

That produced the gas. I did not back sweeten. No corks are pushing up yet. I'll open another bottle tonight and see what happens. I could always put it under a airlock for a week and let all the gas out right?

 

[Vikings]

Was it cold when you bottled? If it was pretty chilly and the wine has been stored on its side since corking, and it has since warmed up, that could provide a little pressure. Not carbonation, but pressure.

 

[ACbrewer]

That produced the gas. I did not back sweeten. No corks are pushing up yet. I'll open another bottle tonight and see what happens. I could always put it under a airlock for a week and let all the gas out right?

Yes if you could. If you do this, be sure to match the volume to the wine. So if you have 5 gallons of wine, use a 5 gallon carboy - no head space, etc.

I've seen suggestions for using glass marbles or glass stones to displace the extra air.
Or using a similar bottle of wine to fill it in.

a gentle stir might help to degas. Again, they may not need degassing, I'd expect just pouring it into a glass would distrub it some, or putting it on your tongue should result in a fizz feel. Lastly, pick up some mentos, after the mentos and soda, poor a little wine (~2oz) into a cup and drop a mentos in, if it fizzes, there is co2.

Since you didn't back sweeten and bottle when finished (og between .990 and 1?) then this is all residual co2. It shouldn't be able to do much, although it could push out corks.

 

[hennesey1]

I will try the mentos thing tonight. If all else fails ill just drink it as a sparkling wine

 

[hennesey1]

I will try the mentos thing tonight. If all else fails ill just drink it as a sparkling wine

It's all good it's been a few days now. No corks pushing out and no more pressure in bottles. Wine is delicious.

 

[ACbrewer]

excellent and enjoy!