Wine+sugar=foam?

[kyral]

So today i grabbed my bottle orange wine ive been making and its fermentation process has slowed to a stop

this has been more of an experiement for me than anything but anyways on to my point

since I have no method of removing the yeast from my wine i decided id just raise the alcohol level to a point where the yeast would just die off and fall to the bottom where i could remove it

so since the fermentation process had stopped i decided id add some more sugar to get the yeast activae again and start pushing the alcohol level up.

well... the moment i added a little sugar to the mix it started foaming uncontrollably to the point where i just decided to bdump it out.

anyone know why this happened?


and I have a few other questions about wine making

is using bakers yeast to make wine dangerous in anyway that if consumed might damage your health?

I would think the answer would be no but id like to make sure

 

[edmanster]

You ever see a mentos in diet coke?

 

[kyral]

You ever see a mentos in diet coke?

yeah, similar idea im guessing?

 

[yeastluvr]

I'm no expert but the foaming is probably caused because of several reasons. Your wine still had co2 trapped in the solution. Hence, this is why some people degass their wine. By adding the sugar, the sugar crystals cause the co2 to be released. There is a fancy term called "nucleation points" that referrs to this. This is the same as when you pour a beer into a glass. You can notice co2 bubbles rise from certain areas around the glass. Sometimes this is caused by the glass being etched or rough in those spots, which causes the co2 gas to release from the beer.

As for bakers yeast. I've never heard of anything that would cause you to get sick in any way. You can do several things in the future though such as adding sulphites and sorbate to stop future fermentations instead of continually adding sugar until it stops. Either way will work though. As for removing the yeast, you can tranfer it to another bottle after the initial fermentation, filling it as close to the top as possible, and let it sit so the yeast settles out, which of course takes time. Chilling the solution down in the refrigerator may speed that process up.

 

[GinKings]

Don't know why you dumped it. You could've just waited till the foaming stopped.

You can avoid the foaming by dissolving the sugar in some water first. Boil a small amount of water, turn off the heat, stir in the sugar, let it cool a bit, and then dump it in.

 

[edmanster]

Would of loved to see your face when it happened yeah, basically trapped co2 and the surface tension of the sugar when you put it in.. I've herd of people losing half their carboys from doing it...

 

[Honda88]

there is a process like this too make sparkling wine and I know beer makers do this when they bottle..it basically just adds co2 to your wine, you have to add sugar while its still active if you want to boost the alcohol levels but you better make sure your carboy isnt full..