Racking killed my wine?

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Gerry Nobody

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Hi! I have had this pumpkin wine fermenting about a month. I decided to rack it into another carboy to get rid of the gunge at the bottom.
Thing is, it's stopped bubbling! Have I somehow killed it? I have heard you shouldn't leave any headspace so I topped it up with water, could that have done it? Wasn't like really cold water but I guess a bit chilly.
Have a feeling I made some classic rookie mistake (first time making wine). What can I do to bring it back to life?!?

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Now I'm no regular wine maker so take what i say with a grain of salt but racking to another fermenter without adding anything to it, yeast/sugar etc. it doesn't surprise me that it stopped bubbling.

Once you move it, you're basically just conditioning it of you dont add anything new for the yeast to chew on.

Edit: Forgot to ask, did you take a gravity reading? How long has it been fermenting? What was the OG and Gravity prior to moving?
 
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Thanks. I didn't know this. I just thought it would be better for the taste to separate it from all the yeast and stuff at the bottom. I didn't realise anything needed to be added.
After about 10 minutes of no bubbling I did actually add a little more sugar to see if I could bring it back to life, but doesn't seem to have worked...
 
Postscript: I haven't seen a bubble yet but the water in the airlock has moved, being pushed up, so maybe there's life in the old dog yet!
 
Postscript: I haven't seen a bubble yet but the water in the airlock has moved, being pushed up, so maybe there's life in the old dog yet!

Not to burst your bubble but airlock activity can be caused by a variety of things, temp change, barometric pressure (learned that from @Yooper). I wouldn't count on it from what you've said that its fermenting again.

Take a gravity reading and see if its ready to package

Edit: spelling
 
Yeah, will check the SP a few days apart. Before racking it would bubble every 4-5 seconds. What would cause it to suddenly stop fermenting do you think? Is it the water I added to top it up or something to do with the process of moving it from one container to another?
 
Yeah, will check the SP a few days apart. Before racking it would bubble every 4-5 seconds. What would cause it to suddenly stop fermenting do you think? Is it the water I added to top it up or something to do with the process of moving it from one container to another?

Moving the must leaves behind yeast, so while you still probably have some in suspension its probably not enough to continue fermentation. The top up water probably didnt do anything bad perse, but it might have shocked the remaining yeast and either killed them off or put them to sleep.

Like I said the bubbler can bubble for a bunch of reasons besides fermentation...general rule of thumb dont move anything without checking gravity first!
 
When you rack, you only leave the spent yeast (the lees) behind and not the yeast in suspension, so racking will NOT stop/slow fermentation, so don't worry about that. Adding water(?) will not stop fermentation-but adding water is an odd thing to do without checking the SG and ensuring that water is an appropriate thing to add, as normally if you're topping up a regular wine you'd top up with a similar wine or rack to a smaller container, unless the ABV was so high you wanted to dilute for some reason.
 
Yes that was my understanding that the stuff at the bottom was mostly just dead cells.
I didn't know that about adding water so thanks. I was mainly doing it just because I heard there should be very little headspace. I'll know next time!
Thanks for the info guys, much appreciated!
 
1. There was plenty of live yeast that you just racked off of. Though there still should be plenty left in suspension get things going again.
2. By racking, you just introduced a small amount of oxygen, that the yeast will use up to multiply, instead of anaerobic fermentation.
3. By racking, you drove off an amount of CO2 in suspension, and it will take a day or two to pressurize again.
4. Ten minutes is not going to cut it. It should start up again in a day or two and go through that sugar you added. Be patient this time.
 
Yes, it's started bubbling again!
Good learning experience anyway, I will be more careful next time.
 
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