# corks blowing



## cknfrmr (Sep 27, 2012)

I bottled some blackberry wine and I have had 4 corks blow in a 24 hour time frame. It has been bottled 4 about a month now. I dont know if they are to full some of them are way fuller than others but all levels of fullnes are blowing. Was in carboy for about 2 1/2 months b4 I bottled it. Didnt have layin flat till this afternoon when I finished my wine rack. 3 blew b4 and now 1 after being put flat. They have all kinds of air bubbles comming to top after they blow. Can they be uncorked and some drained out then recorked? What can i do to stop this. Wife is blowing her cork. Room temp is about 70 degrees. Dont have a cooler place to store them. Thanks for any sugestions.


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## bg7mm (Sep 27, 2012)

did you degas the wine before bottling?


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## TonyP (Sep 28, 2012)

I don't know how much you made, but if you had four corks pop, you should to something fast. There's a few possibilities, but here's three that will cover 90%+. As suggested above, if you didn't degas fully - that is no CO2 left - you need to do that. Empty the wine back into your primary bucket and stir for 5+ minutes, wait an hour and do it again, wait an hour and do it a third time. Preferably, if you have a stirring attachment for your drill use that.

My bigger concern, though is that you have yeast in the bottle converting residual sugar to alcohol and CO2. If you didn't stabilize (add k-meta and potassium sorbate), you need to do that.

If you've done all that properly already, put the bottles in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours to cold stabilize. If you have space issues, just put as many as possible at a time.

Tony P.


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## DoctorCAD (Sep 28, 2012)

Degassing wouldn't make the corks blow out, it would only render the wine fizzy and acidic.

You must still have some sugars and yeast leftover in your wine.

Did you take final SG readings and stabilize?


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## cknfrmr (Sep 28, 2012)

I did not degas or do any of the above things metioned. This is my first time making wine. I guess I did not read the right ways to do this. Do not remember seeing any of the above suggestions in the process that I read. So I need to degas it and stabilize it. The corks that blew out of the bottles when it was standing were VERY fizzy. 

So I just need to dump it back into bucket and stir it every hour til no air comes out of it and stabilize it with the K-meta and potassium sorbate. Then I can rebottle it and will be fine. Is there anything else? Thanks for the help!


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## BobF (Sep 28, 2012)

I would go back to a carboy, degas, stabilize, airlock and WAIT.

Stabilizing won't stop an active ferment, which it sounds like you have. You didn't mention whether or not you sweetened before you bottled. If you did, there could be a pretty good ferment going.

It's possible that you will want to sweeten when this is done.

Either way, give it plenty of time to settled down in the carboy before you rebottle.


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## Arne (Sep 28, 2012)

If it is refermenting and it sounds like it is, the best thing to do is put it back in a carboy with an airlock til it finishes fermenting. Then you can stabalize it (dose with k-meta and sorbate). Then you let it clear, and you can sweeten it if you like and bottle. This is all going to take some time. Not a day or two, but weeks. Everybody wants things to get done quickly, especially with your first wines. I did the same thing,but you have to let the wine do its thing then go on to the next steps. Good luck with it, Arne.

And be careful with those bottles. They have a lot of pressure in them. Probably the best way to handle them is put them in the refrigerator til they get cold. THen you can take the corks out. This shouldn't need saying, but I'll add use new corks. Arne.


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## TonyP (Sep 28, 2012)

My suggestion is is to proceed mostly as you're doing, but take your time. You may have significant yeast so give the stabilizers a chance to work. The best approach would be to degas, stabilize, ending with the wine in a carboy with 1 1/2" head space and airlock. If you have not added clarifiers and fining agents, do that as well. Give the wine a chance to settle then bottle.

By the way, don't reuse the corks.

Tony


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## Turock (Sep 28, 2012)

Bottling a fruit or grape wine agter 2 1/2 months is too soon. Non-kit wines need to stay in the carboy for clearing,aging,and so the CO2 has come out of the wine. Most blackberry should be aged for at least 9 months in the carboy. We age ours for 1 year. 

Also, a wine that hasn't cleared can't be stabilized because there are too many yeast cells for sorbate to work. Never sorbate a young, unclear wine--it never works.


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## g8keeper (Sep 28, 2012)

one thing that i am noticing that noone else has seemed to mention is whether or not he had been checking gravity readings prior to bottling....it really sounds to me like the s.g. might have been still well above .999 prior to bottling, let alone the fact that it couldn't have been stable for 3 days prior to doing anything else....was the wine even clear???....with that much fermentation still going on, i can't see how it could have been...


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## cknfrmr (Sep 28, 2012)

It is not clear at all. Sounds like I made way to many mistakes. And read all the wrong information. I will put in carboy ASAP with airlock and leave it for a long time. 

I bought the book "the joy of winemaking" Did not see any of these steps in it or maybe i just red it too fast and needed to read it a couple of times. Well this is my first batch and I have learned alot about what i did wrong.

Is there a post on the proper steps for doing blackberry wine the right way. 

Thanks again for all the input and suggestions.


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## robie (Sep 28, 2012)

Just a thought - when you bottle, make sure you have sufficient air space between the bottom of the cork and the top of the wine. Wine won't compress, but air will. If there is not enough air, the pressure can pop the cork, even if there is not CO2 present.

Put two fingers together side-by-side. That width is the approx. amount of space needed between the bottom of the cork and the top of the wine.


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## Turock (Sep 28, 2012)

There are a couple secrets to making blackberry wine. First, they can be quite acidic. Our wild ones start at a 2.9 PH. Now there are many white papers and threads about not using too much calcium carbonate to raise PH, but we take the 2.9 PH must all the way to 3.4 PH with no problems or chalky tastes.

Use calcium carbonate to raise the PH and not water. Also, use a culture like 71B which metabolizes some of the malic acid---makes the wine nice and smooth and you won't end up with the harshness you can get with other cultures that aren't so good at metabolizing the malic.

Don't add water. Makes the wine too thin and reduces flavor. Freeze your fruit first to produce a lot of juices.

As I said earlier----let it age in carboy for at least 9 months. By the way---when you ferment it, you can add some bentonite to the primary to be sure it comes out nice and clear. Sometimes ours has been cloudy, so we now bentonite the primary and the wine is much more clear.


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## cknfrmr (Sep 29, 2012)

let me make sure of what i need to do. Put full wine bottles in fridge so I can pull the corks so I can stabilize it. Pull the corks n put in carboy and get ph up to 3.4 with calicum carbonate and also add some bentonite to clear it up and let it set in carboy with airlock on for about another 9 months? Also do I need to stir it every now and then to get the co2 out or will it just come out on its own over the next several months? 

Want to make sure I understand all this b4 I start this process of correcting it.


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## non-grapenut (Sep 29, 2012)

Turock said:


> There are a couple secrets to making blackberry wine. First, they can be quite acidic. Our wild ones start at a 2.9 PH. Now there are many white papers and threads about not using too much calcium carbonate to raise PH, but we take the 2.9 PH must all the way to 3.4 PH with no problems or chalky tastes.
> 
> Use calcium carbonate to raise the PH and not water. Also, use a culture like 71B which metabolizes some of the malic acid---makes the wine nice and smooth and you won't end up with the harshness you can get with other cultures that aren't so good at metabolizing the malic.
> 
> ...



You are right about the malic acid content of blackberries. It can sometimes cause bubbling after bottling regardless of the correct steps taken


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## tonyt (Sep 29, 2012)

One more thing, do NOT try to reuse the old corks and rewash the bottles well.


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## andy123 (Sep 29, 2012)

You were probably stable until you introduced more O2 and maybe back sweetening that blackberry in the bottling process. Everyone is right, backtrack to carboy add K-meta and sorbate let clear again repackage.


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## cknfrmr (Oct 3, 2012)

Got blackberry wine in carboy finally. Was under the weather for awhile. Wow chillin the wine did not help with the fizz factor had to get cork almost out then hold it in and slowly release pressure til it stopped fizzing to the top. Gonna let it sit for about 6 more months. Will it degas on its own fromm sitting? PH is 3.2. Never back sweetened only orignal when it was first made in June. At what point do I add the Bentonite? Is there anything else I should do? Thanks again.

P.S. Corks have been trashed.


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## BeerAlchemist (Oct 3, 2012)

One thing I didn't see...did you take gravity readings? Probably your best diagnostic tool to know what's going on for just such a situation.


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## seth8530 (Oct 4, 2012)

Yep, what they said is correct. You need to give this one some time and stabilize it. In the mean time do some reading. This forum as well as many others has a wealth of information of winemaking.


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## Fabiola (Oct 5, 2012)

cknfrmr said:


> I bottled some blackberry wine and I have had 4 corks blow in a 24 hour time frame. It has been bottled 4 about a month now. I dont know if they are to full some of them are way fuller than others but all levels of fullnes are blowing. Was in carboy for about 2 1/2 months b4 I bottled it. Didnt have layin flat till this afternoon when I finished my wine rack. 3 blew b4 and now 1 after being put flat. They have all kinds of air bubbles comming to top after they blow. Can they be uncorked and some drained out then recorked? What can i do to stop this. Wife is blowing her cork. Room temp is about 70 degrees. Dont have a cooler place to store them. Thanks for any sugestions.



Hurry up and drink it all before all corks blow::


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## supplex (Oct 5, 2012)

DoctorCAD said:


> Degassing wouldn't make the corks blow out, it would only render the wine fizzy and acidic.
> 
> You must still have some sugars and yeast leftover in your wine.
> 
> Did you take final SG readings and stabilize?



Dissolved carbon dioxide will almost never cause corks to blow unless you were able to bottle under pressure with champagne levels of co2... Highly unlikely.

You prob have refermentation in the bottle.


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## non-grapenut (Oct 6, 2012)

Fabiola said:


> Hurry up and drink it all before all corks blow::



I'm with fabiola. Invite your besties over and turn lemons into hard lemonade.


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## benson56 (Feb 2, 2022)

Isn't this sparkling wine? I just had the cork blow out of a bottle of skeeter pee a half hour ago and found this thread by searching for solutions. I like the fizzy bite so I just put what was left in the fridge for tonight. I'm thinking of putting wires on the bottles to keep the corks in like champagne.


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## stickman (Feb 2, 2022)

Did you use champagne bottles? If not, and you wire down the cork, the bottles may explode.


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## hounddawg (Feb 2, 2022)

a lot of good advice, i do blackberry every year, i bulk age blackberry usually for 2 years, i got a few carboys of blackberry that will be 3 years the first week of march,,,, patience above all,, 
Dawg


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## Ohio Bob (Feb 2, 2022)

Safest bet might be to uncork all the bottles back into a carboy for some aging.


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## winemaker81 (Feb 3, 2022)

benson56 said:


> Isn't this sparkling wine? I just had the cork blow out of a bottle of skeeter pee a half hour ago and found this thread by searching for solutions. I like the fizzy bite so I just put what was left in the fridge for tonight. I'm thinking of putting wires on the bottles to keep the corks in like champagne.


@stickman is correct -- if the pressure exceeds the strength of the wine bottle, it can explode. This is not a fairy tale or a myth, it is plain 'ole physics.

If you want a sparkling wine, make it on purpose so you know how much priming sugar is used, and use champagne or cappable beer bottles, which are designed to handle the pressure.


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