Newbie.. So have I mucked up or ?

[brettf]

Hey all.. Ive hit the archives here a few times in the last year hunting for answers.. and now Ive got a question so hope you can help

My wife and I begun making homemade blackberry wine with a recipe from one of the local diy beer stores in Sept 09..

This wasnt from a pre-made wine kit etc.. just raw ingredients..

We racked it a few times.. the last time being Jan 23rd 10.. and then figured on letting it age in the carboy..

Now.. when I last racked it, I threw in Campden tablet and put the airlock on top.. (not the cork/plug..) since then Ive topped up the airlock a few times and have just let the carboy sit in its dark closet and do its thing...

Kinda forgot about it for the last few months.. and when I opened the closet the other day I found the water in the airlock was a bit low.. and when I look through the carboy at the wine there's a film of something floating across a fair bit of the top surface of the wine..

A friend who'd done this before mentioned that when his went bad/contaminated he knew it purely by the stench.. I dont get that at all from this.. but hey.. what the heck do I know..

Not wanting to poison myself (is that even possible?) I havent tried a taste or anything..

So.. have I screwed myself?

If not.. are there any steps I should be taking prior to bottling .. or can I just siphon it off into bottles we've cleaned and sterilized with Iodophor?

thanks..

Brett

 

[Nurmey]

Welcome to HBT!
First let me reassure you that nothing in there will hurt you unless you drink it to excess. Hangovers are your own fault and not the wine so I don't think that counts. Various things floating around is not that unusual in fermentation. Rack carefully into a bottling bucket and leave behind anything you don't want in your mouth.

Give it a taste to see how you like it.

 

[CampFireWine]

It sounds like a bacteria infection. The campden should put it back in check with a tablet per gallon. You will need to get rid of as much of the flakes as you can either by skimming it off or racking. It doesn't hurt to give it a 1/2 strength campden booster when racking in the future. If you caught it in time then it should be fine but if you didn't, then it will be permanently spoiled. You will have to taste it and see.

 

[brettf]

Thanks for the replies..

I do have prior experience with the hangover portion of this.. so Im ok there

Campfirewine -

As I havent any gear that would let me easily skim through the narrow throat of the carboy I'll rack into my spare carboy to get rid of the flakes (Im assuming thats the stuff floating on top)..

If I spike it with 5 tablets this time.. how long should I let it sit before I can bottle?

Thanks for all the help

Brett

 

[Yooper]

Thanks for the replies..

I do have prior experience with the hangover portion of this.. so Im ok there

Campfirewine -

As I havent any gear that would let me easily skim through the narrow throat of the carboy I'll rack into my spare carboy to get rid of the flakes (Im assuming thats the stuff floating on top)..

If I spike it with 5 tablets this time.. how long should I let it sit before I can bottle?

Thanks for all the help

Brett

You always siphon wine, so just siphon it out into a new carboy with the campden tablets. Let it sit a week or so to ensure no new "growths", and you can bottle it. Try to not suck up any of the stuff.

One thing to keep in mind- you might have had too much headspace in the carboy, and the wine got exposed to the air in it. Next time, make sure your wine is topped up to near the bung/airlock and it will be harder for any mold or stuff to grow. Also, I use campden tablets (one per gallon) at every other racking and at bottling. That really helps keep the wine from getting contaminiated by stray wild yeast and bacteria.

 

[brettf]

One thing to keep in mind- you might have had too much headspace in the carboy, and the wine got exposed to the air in it. Next time, make sure your wine is topped up to near the bung/airlock and it will be harder for any mold or stuff to grow.

I can almost promise you we had too much headspace.. when we started we were up into the neck of the carboy.. but after racking off the lees a few times Im down probably 2 inches from where it flares out into the full diameter of the carboy..

How do you maintain a full carboy? what do you refill it with? just water?

Going to tackle the transferring tomorrow.. so we'll see how it tastes then. (fingers crossed)

thanks,

Brett

 

[Yooper]

I can almost promise you we had too much headspace.. when we started we were up into the neck of the carboy.. but after racking off the lees a few times Im down probably 2 inches from where it flares out into the full diameter of the carboy..

How do you maintain a full carboy? what do you refill it with? just water?

Going to tackle the transferring tomorrow.. so we'll see how it tastes then. (fingers crossed)

thanks,

Brett

Water, a similar wine, extra must made at the same time as the wine, and kept in a growler with an airlock, etc. Whatever I have on hand that will work. Sometimes I design my recipes a bit "stronger" to allow for water top-up, other times I make 6.5 gallon of must instead of 6 just to have some extra for topping up. A commercial wine will also work- sauvignon blanc for dandelion wine, or a commercial cab for my homemade, for example.

 

[CampFireWine]

....I do have prior experience with the hangover portion of this.. so Im ok there ....
Brett

I really hate to bring this up since I don't have all the links to the documents handy, but why not.

While alcohol can dehydrate a person causing the brain to shrink and pull from the skull (headache) or leach additional potassium from the body (general tiredness), most effects of a hangover is caused from impunities in the drink.

If you drink additional water and eat something high in potassium like potatoes or banana, it will minimize the alcohol part of a hangover.

 

[brettf]

While hangovers have become more of a concern since I crossed over 30 and moved towards 40.. I dont usually tuck in hard enough to worry about it..

It's primarly onlya problem when I try to keep up with the 20-somethings in the car club at the annual 'kegger-on-the-farm' (hey.. its good microbrew..)

--

On the wine note..

Sampled it today, and while I claim no knowledge of wine whatsoever.. tastes ok to me.. so we racked off into a second carboy.. threw in 5 campden tablets and will bottle when Im back off the road in a couple weeks..

I did notice a slight oily sheen to the top of the re-racked wine.. I made sure to leave the sediment (just a paper thin coating on bottom) and the top 1" or so of wine in the old carboy so as to avoid whatever was on top before..

Little concerned that the wife wants to give a bunch of these away for xmas when I dont know if its any good (taste-wise) .. but eh, it's cheap.. so why not

thanks for all the input..

Brett

 

[Justibone]

I really hate to bring this up since I don't have all the links to the documents handy, but why not.

While alcohol can dehydrate a person causing the brain to shrink and pull from the skull (headache) or leach additional potassium from the body (general tiredness), most effects of a hangover is caused from impunities in the drink.

If you drink additional water and eat something high in potassium like potatoes or banana, it will minimize the alcohol part of a hangover.

AFAIK, it's not your brain shrinking. It takes a lot for your brain to allow a change in it's fluid volume. First of all, what you think of as your brain is not attached to your skull -- there is a membranous covering attached to the skull while the brain floats in a fluid sac. If the periosteum portion of your dura mater either shrank or grew every time you had a change in fluid state, well, I know some neurologists who would be interested in taking a look at that.

Hangover headaches are more likely due to histamines secreted by the brain or a change in blood pressure due to dehydration. Changes in electrolytes may also be a problem, as might NAD+/NADH depletion... so take a multi, have some Gatorade(tm), and go back to bed. Don't take Tylenol(tm) while you're still drunk, though, in general (not good for the liver).

 

[CampFireWine]

It's listed as #2

Symptoms and Signs of Dehydration and Dehydration Headaches

•Fatigue
•Headache
•Dry mouth
•Dizziness
•Weakness
•Rapid heartbeat
•Dry, flushed skin
•Muscle cramps, and myofascial pain.

http://nutrition.about.com/od/hydrationwater/a/Water_headaches.htm


Also
A few tips on how to deal with alcohol...

A common after-effect of alcohol intoxication is the unpleasant sensation known as a hangover, but why do we get a hangover? These symptoms are partly due to the toxic products produced from alcohol digestion and partly due to general dehydration. Dehydration causes the brain to shrink away from the skull slightly. Other components of the hangover are thought to come from the various other chemicals in an alcoholic drink such as the tannins in red wine and the result of various metabolic processes of alcohol in the body. The brain is the organ most sensitive to alcohol. It also receives less oxygen when alcohol is present, which adds to the feeling of fatigue the following morning.

http://www.northshorephysio.com.au/default.asp?contentID=711

In related news

Water on the brain: Grey matter literally shrinks without hydration

Failing to drink enough water can make your grey matter shrink, making it harder to think, experts have warned.
Research shows that dehydration not only affects the size of the brain but also how it works.
Just 90 minutes of steady sweating can shrink the brain as much as a year of ageing, researchers believe

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...iterally-shrinks-hydration.html#ixzz16727pzJg

 

[Justibone]

A few tips on how to deal with alcohol...

http://www.northshorephysio.com.au/default.asp?contentID=711

We're not arguing dehydration causes headaches, we're agreeing.

That's a bad site to reference, though... one should preferentially cite peer-reviewed science when discussing physiology on the Internets. There are a lot of quacks on the Web.

Also, I stand corrected: the brain does shrink with dehydration.

Learn something every day!

 

[CampFireWine]

We're not arguing dehydration causes headaches, we're agreeing.

True, but I go a step farther and say any hangover effect can be avoided with a clean drink, snacks high in potassium, and rehydration.

 

[joey210]

I'm not sure how to post my own comment being new to the site ... could any one help me with a H.BREW qusetion on red wine?? If after secondary fermentation I decide to bottle it, place it in the freezer to kill the yeast and then warm it a little now the yeast is dead. After warming it pace it back into a demijohn and add a hell load of sugar, leave it to rest with a airlock... would I now get sweet wine?? Or would the yeast start to work again and maybe effect flavour.. H.BREW wine is a great idea but it tends to become very bitter and lack the real rich flavour I'm looking for.. could anyone tell me how to reach this flavour without added chemicals, etc