HELP!!!

[NurseBetty]

Ok. I'm an idiot and probably didn't research as much as I should have, but a couple weeks ago, I bought a wine making kit. I have a lot of blackberries on my place and harvested a bunch of blackberries and 6 days ago, started my first batch of wine.......well. I didn't realize that I had to add water to the 3 piece type airlock thing that goes on top of my bucket. Today, I sterilized my carboy and syphoned my product into my carboy and while watching YouTube video on how to do it realized there was water in the airlock on the video........ It had been in that bucket 6 days...... did I mess up my wine? The bucket lid was on and the airlock was in place, it just didn't have water in it. I tasted the wine mixture and it was really sour tasting. IDK if it is ruined, needs more sugar, just needs more time or what. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[IslandLizard]

First things first: RDWAHAH! Relax! Don't Worry! And Have A Homebrew! (or Homemade wine).

When the wine is fermenting it's releasing CO2 in huge quantities, which purges the air from the headspace. As long as it ferments, CO2 is pushed out, not much else gets back in. After fermentation, CO2 production stops. But that little shuttle inside caps that center tube a bit. Some air exchange may take place during those few days, but nothing alarming. Your blackberry wine is fine!

Instead of water in the airlock, I'd use Starsan (sanitizer) or cheap vodka. Nothing can grow in those.

I don't know about the sour taste, haven't made wine yet. But once the sugars have been fermented, any tartness from the fruit remains and stands out like a sour thumb. I think winemakers back sweeten those fruit wines, after immobilizing the yeast with K-Meta or Sorbitol. I'm confident someone with that kind of experience will tell us.

Now you've posted this thread in the Beginning Beer Brewing forum.
Do you want me to move it to the Winemaking forum for better exposure and expert advice? Newbees are very welcome there too and treated nicely.

 

[NurseBetty]

First things first: RDWAHAH! Relax! Don't Worry! And Have A Homebrew! (or Homemade wine).

When the wine is fermenting it's releasing CO2 in huge quantities, which purges the air from the headspace. As long as it ferments, CO2 is pushed out, not much else gets back in. After fermentation, CO2 production stops. But that little shuttle inside caps that center tube a bit. Some air exchange may take place during those few days, but nothing alarming. Your blackberry wine is fine!

Instead of water in the airlock, I'd use Starsan (sanitizer) or cheap vodka. Nothing can grow in those.

I don't know about the sour taste, haven't made wine yet. But once the sugars have been fermented, any tartness from the fruit remains and stands out like a sour thumb. I think winemakers back sweeten those fruit wines, after immobilizing the yeast with K-Meta or Sorbitol. I'm confident someone with that kind of experience will tell us.

Now you've posted this thread in the Beginning Beer Brewing forum.
Do you want me to move it to the Winemaking forum for better exposure and expert advice? Newbees are very welcome there too and treated nicely.

That would be wonderful! Thank you!!!!

 

[FrostyJR]

We make a lot of raspberry wine. We have had to sweeten every batch at the end.

Edit... My wife says I’m an idiot . I know we use Lambrusco for something but the back sweetening is with simple syrup. Make sure to use potassium sorbate to stop fermentation though.

 

[IslandLizard]

Typically all it will take is a good size jug of Lambrusco in the end product.

How is the jug of Lambrusco used?

 

[NurseBetty]

We make a lot of raspberry wine. We have had to sweeten every batch at the end.

Edit... My wife says I’m an idiot . I know we use Lambrusco for something but the back sweetening is with simple syrup. Make sure to use potassium sorbate to stop fermentation though.

You aren't an idiot! LOL! Thank you for clarifying, I'd have been buying some Lambrusco!!!! When you say back sweetening, I'm assuming that means after fermentation is complete, put in potassium sorbate to stop/kill the yeast and then re-sweeten it with simple syrup? That makes sense to me I think. Thank you so much for your help!

 

[schematix]

It's RDWHAOHB.

(relax. don't worry. have an oxidized home brew)

 

[brewgar]

Welcome NurseBetty. Enjoy the hobby as well as the Forum. There are lots of nice folks posting here.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi NurseBetty and welcome. Just one quick thought and that is if you intend to add sugar to sweeten the wine after all the fermentation has ended and just before bottling you want to add two chemicals in tandem - one is K-meta and the other is K-sorbate. The Potassium MetaBisulfite acts as a bactericide and will prevent small colonies of yeast from refermenting the sugars. Large active colonies can overcome K-meta. The Potassium Sorbate acts to prevent yeast cells from budding (reproducing) - and so prevents a small colony from growing larger (see K-meta). Using only one or the other tends to be ineffective over the long term. Using both together after you have racked the wine a couple of times (and so removed the vast majority of the yeast cells) over several months is very effective.

 

[NurseBetty]

Welcome NurseBetty. Enjoy the hobby as well as the Forum. There are lots of nice folks posting here.

Thank you! So far, everyone has been very kind. I appreciate it very much!

 

[NurseBetty]

Hi NurseBetty and welcome. Just one quick thought and that is if you intend to add sugar to sweeten the wine after all the fermentation has ended and just before bottling you want to add two chemicals in tandem - one is K-meta and the other is K-sorbate. The Potassium MetaBisulfite acts as a bactericide and will prevent small colonies of yeast from refermenting the sugars. Large active colonies can overcome K-meta. The Potassium Sorbate acts to prevent yeast cells from budding (reproducing) - and so prevents a small colony from growing larger (see K-meta). Using only one or the other tends to be ineffective over the long term. Using both together after you have racked the wine a couple of times (and so removed the vast majority of the yeast cells) over several months is very effective.

Thank you so very much for the welcome and for the advice. I had purchased the K-sorbate, but not the K-meta. I will go to Amazon and do that now. When you say "racking" the wine a couple of times........does that mean just putting it on the shelf or does that mean putting it in a carboy and letting it settle, syphoning if off and putting it in another and letting it settle again? I'm sorry that my terminology is not so great. I literally just got this hair-brained idea to start my own brewing a couple weeks ago and am struggling with understanding terminology and directions at times.......but am SOOOOOO excited to be doing it!

 

[bernardsmith]

Racking is the jargon wine makers and brewers use for transferring wines and beers from one container to the next - typically by siphoning (to reduce the amount of oxygen that can come into contact with the liquid). The idea is that after the gravity drops in the primary (or first ) fermenter to about 1.005 you rack the wine into a second vessel. This secondary container is typically a carboy (a vessel with a narrow neck that you fill right up into the neck - and thus reducing the amount of surface area that can be exposed to air). Primary fermenters (in wine making) are often buckets loosely covered with a cloth or a lid but there is no need /desire to "seal" the primary a) because the amount of carbon dioxide being produced prevents any problems with oxidation and b) many wine makers stir their wine two or three times a day to remove CO2 (carbon dioxide) because CO2 can lower the pH and so stress the yeast; stir fruit into solution to prevent the CO2 from forcing the fruit to the surface where it can become moist rather than wet and so become susceptible to mold; and having an unsealed container such as a food grade bucket allows you to add nutrients and other additives as needed without any fear of creating volcanoes as the CO2 saturating the liquid nucleates around powders and particles you add.
Wine makers tend to rack next when the lees (sediment ) that form at the bottom of the carboy increase to about 1/2 inch or after 2 -3 months (whichever comes first) and they may rack again after another 2-3 months. Racking removes the wine from the yeast cells that tend to drop out of solution over time. Allowing the wine to sit on lees for a length of time CAN (can - but not always) produce off flavors. (contrariwise - some lees are felt to produce desirable flavors and allowing the wine to sit on such lees is called sur lie

 

[NurseBetty]

Racking is the jargon wine makers and brewers use for transferring wines and beers from one container to the next - typically by siphoning (to reduce the amount of oxygen that can come into contact with the liquid). The idea is that after the gravity drops in the primary (or first ) fermenter to about 1.005 you rack the wine into a second vessel. This secondary container is typically a carboy (a vessel with a narrow neck that you fill right up into the neck - and thus reducing the amount of surface area that can be exposed to air). Primary fermenters (in wine making) are often buckets loosely covered with a cloth or a lid but there is no need /desire to "seal" the primary a) because the amount of carbon dioxide being produced prevents any problems with oxidation and b) many wine makers stir their wine two or three times a day to remove CO2 (carbon dioxide) because CO2 can lower the pH and so stress the yeast; stir fruit into solution to prevent the CO2 from forcing the fruit to the surface where it can become moist rather than wet and so become susceptible to mold; and having an unsealed container such as a food grade bucket allows you to add nutrients and other additives as needed without any fear of creating volcanoes as the CO2 saturating the liquid nucleates around powders and particles you add.
Wine makers tend to rack next when the lees (sediment ) that form at the bottom of the carboy increase to about 1/2 inch or after 2 -3 months (whichever comes first) and they may rack again after another 2-3 months. Racking removes the wine from the yeast cells that tend to drop out of solution over time. Allowing the wine to sit on lees for a length of time CAN (can - but not always) produce off flavors. (contrariwise - some lees are felt to produce desirable flavors and allowing the wine to sit on such lees is called sur lie

Soooooooo....... my carboy is only about 1/2 full........should I order a smaller carboy so that my wine isn't exposed to so much air? I'm attaching a pic. Or should I have added more water? Most of the recipes that I see are really pretty vague about how much water to add. I don't want my wine watered down, but at the same time I don't want it so concentrated that it's hard to drink.......if that makes sense.

 

[jgmillr1]

Soooooooo....... my carboy is only about 1/2 full........should I order a smaller carboy so that my wine isn't exposed to so much air? I'm attaching a pic. Or should I have added more water? Most of the recipes that I see are really pretty vague about how much water to add. I don't want my wine watered down, but at the same time I don't want it so concentrated that it's hard to drink.......if that makes sense.

Yes, you will need a smaller carboy or jug for the wine to get racked into so you don't have headspace.

Do not add water unless you have a specific reason to do so, such as to mitigate acid or flavor intensity. Water will dilute your flavors down and lower your acid. For blackberry, I do not add any water except the small amount used to dissolve sugar and ingredients. The resulting pure blackberry wine is rich and delicious.

And FYI, there is no need to cross-post your questions. Most of us are already on both forums.

 

[bernardsmith]

So two thoughts:
1. When you rack from the primary to the secondary, the wine should really fill the secondary and you really want there to be a very little surface area - so using carboys is a really good approach. You can sometimes get "free" glass carboys when you buy gallon bottles of organic apple juice but they cost about $8 at your local home brew store. Carboys come in 1, 3, 5, and 6 gallon sizes.
2. "Concentrated" juice is one thing but if you press fruit to express juice that juice is not "concentrated". It's simply juice. If you would drink the juice undiluted then (IMO) that is the perfect concentration for juice for a wine. In truth, however, some fruits when juiced produce a very light flavored juice. Strawberries, for example, or peaches. So the idea of diluting fruit juice with water before you even taste the juice is - IMO - like adding salt to a plate the moment it is set in front of you. Many folk do that automatically. But food properly cooked should not need to be salted once on the plate. So too with juice: taste it. If the fruit tastes too tart, too intense then it might need diluting.. (cranberries, for example, or orange juice but ask anyone who makes wine from quality grapes whether they dilute the grape juice with water...

 

[NurseBetty]

That

So two thoughts:
1. When you rack from the primary to the secondary, the wine should really fill the secondary and you really want there to be a very little surface area - so using carboys is a really good approach. You can sometimes get "free" glass carboys when you buy gallon bottles of organic apple juice but they cost about $8 at your local home brew store. Carboys come in 1, 3, 5, and 6 gallon sizes.
2. "Concentrated" juice is one thing but if you press fruit to express juice that juice is not "concentrated". It's simply juice. If you would drink the juice undiluted then (IMO) that is the perfect concentration for juice for a wine. In truth, however, some fruits when juiced produce a very light flavored juice. Strawberries, for example, or peaches. So the idea of diluting fruit juice with water before you even taste the juice is - IMO - like adding salt to a plate the moment it is set in front of you. Many folk do that automatically. But food properly cooked should not need to be salted once on the plate. So too with juice: taste it. If the fruit tastes too tart, too intense then it might need diluting.. (cranberries, for example, or orange juice but ask anyone who makes wine from quality grapes whether they dilute the grape juice with water...

That totally makes sense! Thank you!

 

[NurseBetty]

Th

Yes, you will need a smaller carboy or jug for the wine to get racked into so you don't have headspace.

Do not add water unless you have a specific reason to do so, such as to mitigate acid or flavor intensity. Water will dilute your flavors down and lower your acid. For blackberry, I do not add any water except the small amount used to dissolve sugar and ingredients. The resulting pure blackberry wine is rich and delicious.

And FYI, there is no need to cross-post your questions. Most of us are already on both forums.

Thank you!