Oops

[Mr impatient]

I am here again but only because I heard a cork go 'POP'! when I looked to see what had happened, I saw one cork at the end of the hallway and the bottle fizzing like mad.

I had made a Christmas mead (I hope I still have), to rescue it should I decant it back into a demijohn (with the rest of the batch) or just use a balloon as an airlock and let it continue to firment in the bottle.

I thought it had come to the end of its firmentation before bottling, it stopped at 10.2% for a week so I thought it was all done, I was a little disapointed at the strength but it didn't move from 10.2% so I bottled it.

Only one bottle has gone pop as yet, I have 10 others that could follow so should I re ferment them? Could I add more yeast and try and revive it to make a stronger mead?

Help, please.

 

[shoengine]

You can pop another one and see if it gushes. I'm not sure what pressure you need to punch out a cork, but it sounds dangerous. I'd definitely check another one, maybe the one bottle wasn't completely sanitary and that one has a bit of bacteria working in it.

Wear eye protection! Otherwise if you lose an eye you'll have to switch from mead to rum!

 

[bernardsmith]

Looks like you may have been impatient and bottled your mead a wee bit too soon. What was the starting gravity? What was the yeast? I ask because if the OG of the must was 1.076 or thereabouts then a an ABV 10.2% means that it had more or less finished but if the SG was significantly higher then just because it stalled does not mean that it won't restart in the bottle... and if it did stall how did you stabilize it to prevent any refermentation?

 

[Mr impatient]

You can pop another one and see if it gushes. I'm not sure what pressure you need to punch out a cork, but it sounds dangerous. I'd definitely check another one, maybe the one bottle wasn't completely sanitary and that one has a bit of bacteria working in it.

Wear eye protection! Otherwise if you lose an eye you'll have to switch from mead to rum!

LOL I like rum, but it isn't worth an eye, but I can get another cork out without loosing an eye lol. I know everything was clean, my missus complains mightily when I brew because she thinks I make so much mess, which I do but I clean up after to get brownie points.

I will open another bottle tomorrow and see, I don't have the room today with the kids crafting session and the wife prepping for the weekend meals.

 

[Mr impatient]

Looks like you may have been impatient and bottled your mead a wee bit too soon. What was the starting gravity? What was the yeast? I ask because if the OG of the must was 1.076 or thereabouts then a an ABV 10.2% means that it had more or less finished but if the SG was significantly higher then just because it stalled does not mean that it won't restart in the bottle... and if it did stall how did you stabilize it to prevent any refermentation?

Hi bernardsmith This is the batch I reported in here on the 1 July, the one that frothed so much it covered the understairs and most of the hallway with foam and gunky sticky mess. I think I was a little impatient, but that's me all over. As for stableizing it I didn't, I thought it had stopped. I suppose I could empty everything in a bucket and put a Campden tablet in there to stop everything but if it isn't finished I feel tempted to re demijohn it all and add some more yeast, what would that do to it if I did?

The starting gravity was 0.88 and finished at 0.08 I think, you know me and hydrometers we just don't gell properly and reading my post from June 1st I see I have made another cock up because I had it to 10.8%.

I don't have access to the kitchen untill tomorrow so sterilizing stuff for a re-do won't be untill 10am tomorrow. I also don't have any more airlocks, I have 7 demijohns of wine on the go at the moment so I am forced to use balloons which I am not too sure of.

The yeast I use is an all encompassingwine yeast, there isn't anything written on the tub but ''dried active yeast'' so here is a link https://www.balliihoo.co.uk/#vinclasse-dried-active-wine-yeast-250g-tub-p-609.html
I do have yeast nutrient which I did use with the yeast but that does not have any specific data on it but it is from ballihoo.

 

[bernardsmith]

At this stage (beyond 9% ABV) yeast cannot use nutrients so there is no value on adding any more unless your goal is to feed bacteria (and that should not be your goal).

An nominal ending gravity of 1.008 should not be viewed as an end to fermentation if the starting gravity was around 1.080 (gravity is written to 3 decimal places and it is not possible that the first digit after the point is higher than 1 when the number to the left of the point is greater than 0). No cultured yeast worthy of the name "yeast" should have any problem fermenting 80 points of sugar down to zero or lower. ie 1.000 (0.996 is possible and even 0.994), so you should be suspicious when a wine or mead with this amount of sugar stops above 1.000.
It is very unlikely that you can prevent refermentation simply by adding sorbate and k-meta in tandem. There may be too many viable yeast cells in the wine for normal doses of those chemicals to be effective. What you need to do is a) be patient and b) chill the liquid close to freezing for a few days so that all the yeast drop to the bottom of your carboy and then you rack your mead (or wine) off the soporific yeast. You may need to repeat that several times and then you can add the stabilizers. 8 points of gravity is equivalent to a scant 4 oz of unfermented sugar in every gallon... Bottom line: you can expect more corks to pop.

 

[nitack]

Bernard is right, if one bottle popped the others will either pop or gush when you try to open them. At the very least you should consider rebottling after the mead off gasses.

Try chilling the mead before opening more bottles, it will lower the pressure inside the bottle and possibly save you some mess.

 

[Mr impatient]

I have to ask this next question because I am a little worried, and I suppose the result of the popping corks shows why I need to ask it.

Can I or how can I restart a stalled wine?

As we get into Autumn here in the UK we get temperature fluxuations that can have the central heating cicking in in the morning and all the windows open by lunchtime, mix this with two energetic teenage boys a dog and the missus and the tempreture for fermentation just won't keep still. It can reach about 70 quite well but with main through house traffic to the loo and the wash/laundry room and freezer access it is giving the wine some trouble.

This next week I am making a box 60cm x 55cm x 1mt with a raised slatted platform and a thermostatic plug with a lightbulb, insulated with polystyrene and a bulkhead separating the thermostat from the bulb. That is the future this week but I am left wit 6 demijohns which were bubbling well too:- One which has just about held on, two that seem to have finished despite being younger than the one still going and three which just need a boost, but seriously so.

As my boys have grown I didn't foresee this situation but their ned to expand within the home is encroaching into mine lol which is as it should be. The box should sort it out as it will be tucked away at the back of my workshop where the wine can sit and do its thing. but I don't want to lose so much wine.

 

[Maylar]

I have to ask this next question because I am a little worried, and I suppose the result of the popping corks shows why I need to ask it.

Can I or how can I restart a stalled wine?

<snip>

I'm not sure I understand your question. If you're popping corks then the ferment is continuing in the bottles, not stalled.

 

[Mr impatient]

I'm not sure I understand your question. If you're popping corks then the ferment is continuing in the bottles, not stalled.

I think its why the corks are popping, I remember being vocal about doord being shut, but they are in bottles. There are six demijohns which contain most of the fruit from my small garden, blackcurrant blackberry apple and rosehip. There is one rosehip doing well and one not, both from the same batch.
Blackcurrant from the same week which has stopped but hadn't slowed down too much beforehand.
White apple and red apple, each have slowed right down from a very vigorous boil of gasses over one weekend a week ago when I was away.
I have made sure they are warm and at 70% but they ain't doing well so I wondered if I could give them a boost, may be with some activated yeast with a little nutrient? or do I keep them warm and let nature take its course?

 

[Maylar]

Let them finish naturally.

 

[bernardsmith]

I wondered if I could give them a boost, may be with some activated yeast with a little nutrient?

You do not want to add nutrients at this point in the game. After the ABV has reached about 9%, yeast cannot uptake any nutrients. If you add any at that stage the nutrients simply stay in solution and you get any off flavors that they might produce and you may (may) encourage unwanted bacterial and other activity by microbes that are comfortable in alcohol rich environments.