Volcano!

[Oyarsa]

I am currently making my first kit wine. We will see how it goes. The kit is probably about 4 or 5 years old. So far I'm 6 days in, and it is fermenting...slowly but I guess surely.

In the meantime, I decided to try something else in a smaller batch. I love tamarind, so I found this recipe from a Mead Lover's Digest:

• 6 oz. tamarind pulp
• 2 lb. sugar
• 1 tsp. pectic enzyme
• 1 tsp. yeast nutrient
• wine yeast

Procedure

Simmer the tamarind in 1/2 gallon of water for five or ten minutes, strain. Into the liquid, stir the sugar and nutrient. Cool and add the pectic enzyme and yeast. Top up with water to make one gallon.

I started with tamarind pods. I used about 8 oz of whole tamarind pods (minus shell). After simmering, I strained the pulp through a sieve. One part I was unsure of was whether to use all of the pulp, or just the liquid the pulp was simmered in. I used all of the pulp.

Added the nutrients and sugar successfully and poured that liquid into a 1 gallon glass jug.

I used a Lavlin EC-1118 yeast packet. I read on some website that despite using a 1 gallon jug, the whole packet should be used, so I did that.

I let the original liquid cool while the yeast sat for the 20 or so minutes. I added the yeast and pectic enzyme and filled up to the neck of the jug (maybe too much?). The liquid on top was basically clear, with the tamarind liquid seemingly on the bottom half. I thought maybe I should stir it, so I did (maybe I shouldn't have?). I placed a bung and airlock on top. Feeling proud of myself, I went to pick up the kids.

When I came home about 30 minutes later, the airlock and bung had apparently been forcefully pushed off the jug. A brown substance had been pushed up into the airlock and was overflowing from the jug. The substance COULD be the pulp, as the liquid beneath the brown substance is fairly clear. But, it is very "fluffy," which I wouldn't expect the pulp to be.

I cleaned up the mess and put the airlock back on. Now it is bubbling about 6 times a minute. The brown substance is still at the top of the liquid.

What did I do wrong, and should I just start over?

 

[RPh_Guy]

Yeast fermentation generates foam (called krausen).
You need to leave some space above the liquid, otherwise it will overflow as you've experienced.

It's fine. Just clean, sanitize, and reattach the airlock or blow-off tube as needed.

 

[Oyarsa]

Great! Thanks for the reply.

From your username, I take it you're a fellow pharmacist?

 

[RPh_Guy]

Yes indeed!

 

[Oyarsa]

I suppose it's the "mad chemist" side that draws us to brewing. Though I'm a retail pharmacist, so my chemistry skills are probably long...

 

[RPh_Guy]

Yeah! I love brewing beer, mead, cider, & hopefully some grape wine soon. I particularly like the microbiological aspect.

It certainly does help having some background in math, physics, chemistry, organic chemistry, & microbiology. Brewing knowledge builds on all of that (and engineering if want to build stuff).

I'm currently a stay-at-home dad but before that an emergency medicine clinical pharmacist board certified in critical care pharmacy.

Welcome to the forum by the way!
Hope your wines turn out well

 

[Oyarsa]

Wow. I tip my hat to you. I bet that was an interesting job.

So far I've found lots of pieces of incomplete information regarding the brewing process. It seems there are a million different ways of doing things, from very simple to very complex, and a lot of instructions/recipes seem to be predicated on the assumption that you already know what you are doing.

In my recipe, is there a next step besides bottling? The recipe doesn't go any further in instruction. Is it necessary to clear it and degas as I am going to do in my kit wine? Have a secondary fermentation? Add chemicals to stop the fermentation?

I would like to carbonate it and make a sparkling wine. I saw some drop-in tablets (looked like lemon drops) for carbonating. Could I just rack (if I'm learning the terminology correctly) the wine to champagne bottles (or even beer bottles), drop in a tablet, and cork/cap them to have a sparkling wine?

I apologize if I'm asking very simple questions. I try to search for answers first, but sometimes I get lazy and prefer to go directly to knowledgeable people.

Thanks for all the help!

 

[RPh_Guy]

It seems there are a million different ways of doing things, from very simple to very complex, and a lot of instructions/recipes seem to be predicated on the assumption that you already know what you are doing.

This is absolutely true, and the process can vary depending on what you're making.

As a beginner, I recommend to just wait for it to clear. Transfer when clear for bottling.
You can add priming sugar directly to bottles (e.g. the drop or domino sugar cubes) or bulk prime before bottling.
To handle carbonation you need either beer bottles or a cork & cage on sparkling wine bottles. For small batch wines I like using 6oz clear champagne bottles that I cap. Regular wine bottles can't hold pressure, plus the cork will push out.
Your wine will be very dry and probably won't taste very good young.

What I personally would do is more complicated... wait for fermentation to finish (confirm with a specific gravity reading using a hydrometer). I'd taste part of the hydrometer sample to see whether I want to adjust sweetness, acidity, tannins, or anything else. Assuming nothing needs adjusted, I'd rack (gently transfer, leaving behind all the sediment) to a secondary vessel with about 30ppm sulfite (to prevent oxidation) and stir to degas (which helps clarify). I'd add sanitized glass marbles to remove all head space (empty space above the liquid) and allow it to clear over time. Once it's clear I would transfer to another vessel which contains the calculated and measured amount of priming sugar, dissolved in boiled filtered water, and then bottle from there (capped pressure-rated bottles). ... Sparking Dry Tamarind Wine that should age well.

A sweet and carbonated wine takes some extra steps, either bottle pasteurization, adding a non-fermentable sweetener, or force carbonating with a CO2 tank (plus a few other advanced methods).

Everything that touches the wine (or whatever) should be cleaned and sanitized with a no-rinse sanitizer. Fortunately wine is not prone to contamination.
Besides at the beginning of fermentation, oxygen presence should be minimized as much as possible.

Hope this all makes sense

 

[wildmazer]

tamarind pulp does have a lot of fluff in it. sounds like you topped it off a bit too much to start with. if you could have gotten past the initial super-vigorous fermentation stage, the fluff would have settled to the bottom.