Save my mead - bottle bombs

[b0rt1980]

So I'm relatively new to the home brewing and I need help saving my first batch of mead. Basic 1 gal of mead but when I originally made it I wasn't as disciplined and could have been. So I don't have meadurements or amounts, just a few notes.

Anyhow... I racked it many times over the period of 6 months and there was no more sediment or any type of tiny bubbles at the 6 month mark so I decided to bottle. Well I've noticed sediment in the 4 bottles, and a sticky honey like material seeping through the cork yesterday. I also have a "taster" in a grolsch flip top bottle. Last night I opened up the grolsch and the lid just about launched off...

My immediate fear is the wine bottles exoloding while I try to handle them. But then is it saveable?

1. I've read I can freeze it to reduce co2 pressure. Is this right? And if so, will it be safer to handle and try to save?

2. Is it saveable if I can safely open them? And if so, how? I was thinking of doing a very quick boil to kill what yeast is left and then mixing in a few Camden tablets before letting it sit another while before re-bottling.

Anyway, I need rest thoughts and opinions so I can start fixing it today before they do explode. I just don't want my first experiment to go to waste if I don't have too.

Thanks in advance!

 

[stz]

If you freeze them the expanding liquid will pop the bottles or closures. If you chill them in a fridge the rate of any further fermentation or progressing infection will be greatly slowed. co2 will dissolve back into the liquid and they'll become a little safer to handle. You could be able to get away with drinking them, but once they are cold I'd crack a few to test how pressurised they are. If you can open them and venting them a little isn't enough then I'd not boil or repackage. Why not try camden tablet or stabiliser straight into the bottle?

 

[bernardsmith]

b0rt1980, Hi and welcome. If you have corked the bottles then the risk of bombs is tiny. The corks will pop long before the glass would explode - unless you have tied the corks down.. Here's what I would do...
I would try to remove the corks - slowly and before they fully leave the bottle I would invert the bottle into a fermenting bucket lined with a painter's straining bag (to catch the corks). The expanding gas should pop the corks and the wine should flow though the straining mesh. The corks will be trapped. You can then allow the wine to out-gas for a few minutes and even measure the gravity to determine whether it may still be fermenting... and then rebottle.

 

[b0rt1980]

Hmm. Ok. I'm not sure what to do then. If I put a Camden tablet in each bottle and then re-cork it, will it just leave sediment? Or should I put it all back into a carboy a with a few tablets and let it settle out another few weeks before re-bottling?

 

[voltron]

So I'm relatively new to the home brewing and I need help saving my first batch of mead. Basic 1 gal of mead but when I originally made it I wasn't as disciplined and could have been. So I don't have meadurements or amounts, just a few notes.

Anyhow... I racked it many times over the period of 6 months and there was no more sediment or any type of tiny bubbles at the 6 month mark so I decided to bottle. Well I've noticed sediment in the 4 bottles, and a sticky honey like material seeping through the cork yesterday. I also have a "taster" in a grolsch flip top bottle. Last night I opened up the grolsch and the lid just about launched off...

My immediate fear is the wine bottles exoloding while I try to handle them. But then is it saveable?

1. I've read I can freeze it to reduce co2 pressure. Is this right? And if so, will it be safer to handle and try to save?

2. Is it saveable if I can safely open them? And if so, how? I was thinking of doing a very quick boil to kill what yeast is left and then mixing in a few Camden tablets before letting it sit another while before re-bottling.

Anyway, I need rest thoughts and opinions so I can start fixing it today before they do explode. I just don't want my first experiment to go to waste if I don't have too.

Thanks in advance!

I had a similar experience, i made an horchata wine and bottled in traditional wine bottles with cork. one day i hearded a popped and noticed the the corked popped out of one. it was only a gallon batch. so what I did was just refrigirate them and drank them with in the month. My horchata wine was suppose to be flat but it was fizzy and but delicious.

So since you did only one gallon, I personally would just refrigirate at this point and drink and enjoy your mead. one gallon is about 3 750ml bottles and change.
im sure you can drink 3 bottles in one month. sediment is going to haplen to everyone at one point. I bottle plenty that where cleared and somehow developed bottle sediment as it aged. did not affect taste at all, remember you may be able to decant. .but to be safe when you do open your bottle just make sure you arent aiming at anyone. I opened my horchata wine with a regular wine bottle opener had a pop sound and pours basically horchata champagne, not what i was expecting but great none the less.

Ps. My gut tells me that what ever co2 you have in the bottle is probably from not degassing earlier so i dont think you mead is refermenting, just left over co2.

 

[b0rt1980]

Thanks for replies everyone. The mead is still quite hot after a taste test, and quite dry. So I sort of took parts of your advise and improvised bit too

I ended up putting it all back into carboy, topped up with a bit of water, back sweeted with a bit more honey and then put some crushed Camden tablets in. Will let it settle for a few weeks, rack and bottle then. Hopefully it bottles better.

And I guess from my original post, it didn't even occur to me in the slightest that the cork would just shoot out... makes sense and I should have known. But when I did open them, they were definitely sparkeling with fantastic bubbles.

So thanks again and will post update in a few weeks!

 

[bernardsmith]

The campden is not going to halt any fermentation. You need to add K-sorbate too and if you have a large colony of healthy yeast these two together are not going to stop any fermentation. You need to first remove almost all the yeast cells either by repeated racking or repeated racking while cold crashing...

 

[b0rt1980]

Hmmm ok, will look into that. I thought campden tablets stoped yeast fermenting... Now I'm a bit confused about why I had the problem in the first place.

Do you have to degass mead like you do wine before bottling? If so, I didn't do this.

 

[b0rt1980]

Ah I see. Ok. So if the back sweetening kicks up fermentation then I'll let it finish, rack it, add the k-sorbate and may need to sweeten again. Just play it by ear

 

[bernardsmith]

And that is certainly a plan... but you really want to decide on the ABV you want and work towards that rather than let your processes tell you what your final ABV is. The problem is that mead and wine (and I would say beer too) is all about balance - alcohol with acidity, sweetness, flavor and tannin.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

This might be helpful: http://blog.eckraus.com/is-my-wine-ready-to-bottle

 

[b0rt1980]

All went well. Removed all mead from bottles, they were all getting pressurized. Topped up with a bit of water, back sweetened as we wanted it a bit sweeter and then used the suggested potassium sorbate. Worked great! Needed a bit of help re-clearing but it's nice now and ready to drink as it had previously sat for about 5 months.

 

[b0rt1980]

3 JAOM, 4 regular mead and 4 bottles of pear wine.

View attachment 1510414022012.jpg

 

[bernardsmith]

These bottles look good, but I would say that good practice is always to check that the wine or mead has finished fermenting (take 3 readings of the gravity using your hydrometer each 2 or 3 days apart- the gravity should be rock steady) THEN add the stabilizing chemicals - K-sorbate and K-meta. Mix thoroughly. Wait a day or so and THEN add sugars to back sweeten. Enjoy your mead.

 

[koniowsky717]

so reading through this thread, made we wonder if this is something i should worry about with my first mead (traditional) that is currently in primary.. Is there anything that needs to be done to avoid this? i never heard of K-sorbate and K-meta so this isnt common is it? im aerating/degassing first 3 days while i add nutrients, then degassing till day 7. after that im told to not touch it till secondary, then not touch it till its ready for bottle