New Member Wine Concerns

[hoagyph]

Hi I am new to homebrewing a total novice. I have been reading a lot on your forum some great advice an excellent community.

I started 2 batches last Tuesday from kits a beer and a wine. The beer is going well started fermentation after 24 hours it is regular and steady bubbling in the airlock and has about 1 inch of krausen, The wine, an Australian Blend Merlot 7 day kit, started fermentation (bubbling) after 4 hours that lasted 24 hours then stopped at least judging by the airlock, there was no bubbling but an inch of krausen. It remained still for about 8 hours then started again, bubbling was regular and the krausen kept rising, yesterday 4 days from the start krausen came through the airlock. I fitted a blow off tube and today 12 hours later krausen is still overflowing. Gravity yesterday had dropped from 1070 to 1046. Vessel temperature is reasonably stable from 21 to 22 deg Celsius.

My main concern is could the lid blow off, if an airlock can clog could the tubing of the blow off not also clog?
It is a 23 litre batch in a 30 litre plastic bucket. Should I loosen the lid or will I be ok with just the blow off tube?

 

[pumpkinman2012]

Obviously fermentation is going well, the big issue is that the fermentation bucket is a little small for this kit, although a blow off tube isn't normally used in wine making, I like the fact that you found a quick solution to the problem!
You could remove the lid and put cheese cloth over the top of the fermentation bucket for a day, as long as something is over the top of the bucket to keep anything from getting in it, at the rate it is fermenting, you will probably only have a day or two more of very active fermentation, then it should slow down, I'd replace the lid and airlock as soon as it does to avoid oxidation.
You say that it is a 7 day kit? What company? I'd leave it age a lot longer than 7 days, you should taste a big difference.
By the way, very beautiful area that you live in, Ireland is on our list of destinations that we plan on visiting.

 

[rickswine]

Yes, I would loosen the lid til it settles down. Next time I would use a bigger bucket.

 

[hoagyph]

Thank you for your fast replies and advice.

I have removed the lid and placed some cheese cloth over the top and tied it loosely around the rim to stop it falling in.

The local store where I got my equipment has a 33L or 60L fermenter, which of those would you advise? Or should I search elswhere for a vessel between those sizes?

The wine kit comes from a UK company Hambleton Bard the wine kit website is http://www.australianblend.co.uk I had read some good reviews about them.

I used a Mangrove Jack's Brown Ale kit. I know these are basic but my intention is to start easy and learn the basic procedures then advance and develop. I am trying to understand what is happening rather than just follow instruction.

I will allow the wine to age, I am interested to try it early and also sample it as it ages so that I can gain experience of how the taste changes as it goes along.

The equipment I have is decent quality, except for the airlocks. They are very basic cheap plastic, they were leaking around the grommet so I used a sharp knife to remove the seams on the stems then wrapped a little PTFE thread tape around the stems to slightly increase diameter and make an airtight seal.

Any advice is appreciated, I have always wanted to make homebrew and now as I have retired I would like to make it a hobby.

Hopefully you will visit Ireland one day, it is a small country but very interesting. When you do visit don't just stay in Dublin or one of the big cities. There is vast difference in different areas, I suggest of course spend a few days in Dublin (take a tour of the famous James's Gate brewery there) but travel and also see the west coast Galway, Clare, and south west to Kerry, and Killarney, also small coastal towns around Cork city like Kinsale on the south coast are well worth a visit. As you are Interested in brewing you must come to Tullamore in the midlands and visit the Tullamore Distillery, home of the famous whiskey Tullamore Dew. Do come during our summer time as winter weather can be unpredictable and even interfere with travel. I visited New York in the 80s I didn't see much of the city most of my time was spent upstate as I was there for the Hunter Mountain Celtic Festival.

 

[pumpkinman2012]

I am actually under an hour away from Hunter Mountain, I'm not a major fan of NYC, too busy for me!