I bottled a batch of blueberry mead back in Nov.,beautiful color and clarity,a hint of blueberry sweetness,I was really proud of it til I opened my first bottle at Christmas.I put most in flip tops and corked 4,the first bottle I opened was a flipper,what I had was a volcano,really really carbonated,well I went to check my corked bottles and one had blown,can I put all of it back in a carboy and give it a good stir and airlock for awhile or is it a lost cause?This is only my 2nd mead,been in the secondary about 7mo.,fermented out dry,I stabilized it and bottled.Any advise would be greatly appreciated!
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Can you provide the recipe details including volume, starting and final gravity, yeast strain, and amounts of stabilizer used among other things? That will give us some info to work with.
Your batch is probably not lost (if it still tastes okay). Start by taking any bottles that are un-opened and put them in a fridge to lower the pressure. Then open them up and pour them back into a container under airlock and have it topped up. You'll need to make sure the gravity is not slowly dropping over a period of weeks.
Yes, indeed, the best way to restart a stuck fermentation is to bottle it.
Medsen
Your batch is probably not lost (if it still tastes okay). Start by taking any bottles that are un-opened and put them in a fridge to lower the pressure. Then open them up and pour them back into a container under airlock and have it topped up. You'll need to make sure the gravity is not slowly dropping over a period of weeks.
Yes, indeed, the best way to restart a stuck fermentation is to bottle it.
Medsen
Hello MedsenFey,well Im at work off the top of my head:5gal batch,sg 1.50,final .996,I used 2pks of ec-1118,campden and pot sorb.Thanks for the reply,honestly it tastes pretty good just an awful lot of carbonation.Will putting the remaining corked bots stop them from blowing?
hamiltont
Well-Known Member
Been there. Mine were in beer bottles. None blew up but sure could have. GEEEZ! It was a small batch so I chilled them ASAP and lifted the crown caps gently on each bottle to let off the pressure to the point where they started foaming. Must have done it 20 times on each bottle before I could remove the cap completely without an Old Faithful event. Sanitized new caps and set them on the bottles for 2 days. Then recapped. Problem fixed and now a year later they taste really good IMO. Cheers!!!
Did you backsweeten? It seems really odd to me that with a FG of 0.996 you'd be still fermenting/carbonating in the bottle. If you backsweetened, your method of stabilizing might be suspect...often it takes both K sorbate and K metabisulfate to really stop yeast (especially a beast like EC-1118) from eating.
FrayAdjacent
Active Member
on a related question, but maybe off topic (sorry if this is frowned upon here)... if you use substances to stop the ferment, does the wine still 'age' and mature while bottled?
No I didnt backsweeten,last night I put 2 gal worth of bottles back into the primary then racked to secondary gal jugs and airlocked.Definetly alot of of o2 in there,I drank a glass and kinda reminded me of a bluberry spritzer.Should I just leave for a week or so to see what it does then stabilize again?
Yes, it will age/develop just fine if stabilizers are used.
I think giving it a good swirl to degas the remining CO2 in solution is a good idea. Did you recheck a gravity? Again, I think it's pretty weird that you refermented in the bottle with your stated FG, and no backsweetening.
No I havent taken another grav reading,tonight Ill uncork what I have left and transfer to a secondary and airlock ILL take one then,it is weird it looks beautiful in the bottle but when I pop the top it starts at the bottom like a hard boil,if my grav reading is high could I drop some potasium sorbate into the secondaries to just kill the activity?If these ? sound silly I appologize Im about as new as can be at this.
It is surprising that a batch with a gravity of 0.996 started up again, but it only takes a drop of a point or two to created plenty of CO2, and if any yeast will be able to do that, it is EC-1118. You may want to check the gravity now, and let it fully de-gas then check the gravity in a couple of weeks to make sure it is not dropping any more.
How much sorbate and sulfite did you add when you stabilized it?
How much sorbate and sulfite did you add when you stabilized it?
Campden is K metabisulfite -- that is your sulfite source. I agree w/ Medsen...keep degassing it periodically (just a good swirl a couple times a day will do), then let it sit a while longer to make sure you're not dropping any further on gravity. You could add more sorbate and sulfite just to be sure, but if you've really stabilized at a true FG, it shouldn't restart... As a general rule, I've never stabilized any of my meads unless I was planning to actively backsweeten, and I've fortunately never had any occurrences like yours. I've had one or two meads (that weren't even backsweetened) develop a very faint, petulant carb, but I have suspicion that was actually just due to previously dissolved CO2 presenting itself.
