# Wine rack full of time bombs



## etownmickey (Mar 20, 2014)

Sorry if this has been asked 1000 times, terribly embarrassed at my incompetence if I'm the first. I've spent a couple of hours searching this site and google and can't seem to find a solid answer. Maybe I just need better search terms but I'm in desperate need of help so thanks in advance if you can help me.

My first batch of Dragon Blood and I can see that I have some fermenting in my bottles 

Everything went according to plan I degassed (with a vacuum), stablized with sorbate and kmeta, allowed it to clear, back sweetened it then filtered it. It seemed solid but when I went to bottle I realized I'd like a little more sweet. This is where I believe I made my mistake... I chose to back sweeten a little more using some frozen (supermarket) berry juice concentrate right before bottling. I didn't add any more k-meta or sorbate at this time. I assumed the concentrate was sterile and/or preserved and was good to go.

It's now about a week later and if I shake a bottle I can see small bubbles form in my DB. Uncorking and pouring confirms the dissolved gas as it's released.

I'm new to this so I'm not 100% certain of anything except that I messed up and I'd like to salvage this if possible.

Is it best to pour the bottles back into a carboy, monitor SG then attempt to stabilize it and re-clear at the higher SG value? Can I filter through polishing pads again and then run sterile pads to remove nasties? Should I be looking at adding more sorbate and/or k-meta? Should I spread out towels under my wine racks, contact a divorce lawyer, wait and cry?


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## seth8530 (Mar 20, 2014)

How did you originally confirm that your wine was stable? Also, what happens when you open a bottle?


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## dangerdave (Mar 20, 2014)

Both time this happened to me, it was due to old sorbate. How old is yours?

Yes, I had to do it twice to learn my lesson. Now, every year, around the same time, I toss my remaining sorbate and buy new. Since then, it has not recurred.


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## BernardSmith (Mar 20, 2014)

How confident are you that you had virtually no viable yeast in the wine when you stabilized it? Stabilization does not really work if you have a large colony of virile yeast. Stabilization will prevent the yeast from budding and so prevent them reproducing, but any viable yeast in your wine can still ferment sugar. What I would do is measure the specific gravity of the dragon blood in your bottle. Wait a few days and measure it again. If it is dropping then the problem you have is with the yeast and you might want to check out how to safely pasteurize the db enough to kill the yeast but not destroy the flavors (or you could pour the wine back into a carboy and allow the yeast to die off after all the sugars have been fermented and after you have racked a couple or three times over some months. 

If the gravity is not dropping over time then the problem may not be due to refermentation in the bottle. You may not have adequately degassed the wine and changes in temperature and air pressure may be causing the gas still trapped in the wine to be expelled.


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## cintipam (Mar 20, 2014)

The good news is that it doesn't matter if it was too much gas left, or yeast not dead yet. Both are solved by returning to carboy for additional aging. Yes, you will need to do homework to decide which it was in order to prevent it from happening again, but that can come after you debottle it. Best to not delay, and personally I wouldn't heat it.

Pam in cinti


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## etownmickey (Mar 20, 2014)

Honestly, when I first did it I was quite confident that fermentation was complete but now my rookie mind is questioning everything. SG was stable at .9x (my notes are at home) for almost a week before I added sorbate and k-meta.

The sorbate has only been in my posession for 2 weeks but I can't say how long it was on the shelf at my local wine supplies shop. It's a clean shop that does a reasonable amount of business but anything is possible imo.

When I open a bottle, the cork is obviously containing a (very) small amount of pressure and I can see some bubbles forming in the wine once opened. It's not a lot right now but I fear it will get worse.

There's no doubt in my mind that the wine was degassed, I vacuum degassed it as a test before bottling and it went through a polishing filter right before bottling.

If I pour back into a carboy and allow the ferment to continue and consume my back sweeting sugar would it make sense to add a little more yeast to get the process going quickly? Or is the idea to allow the remaining yeast to live out its remaining, non-procreating days assuming the wine was appropriately sorbated. Would it make sense to add more? What is the risk of adding too much? Will I need more k-meta if I splash bottles back into a carboy? 

Is there a way to stop (what I perceive to be) the ferment either with additives or through mechanical filtering or pasteurizing (I know nothing about pasteurizing...yet... what temp does yeast die at)?


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## dangerdave (Mar 20, 2014)

Like advised above, Mickey, if you dump it back into a carboy, just let it sit and finish on it's own. I wouldn't add anything else. Put it under airlock and see if it keeps producing gas. Check the SG periodically to see if it's dropping. It sounds to me like you did everything right. Dry, stable, wine; degassed under vacuum; sorbate; etc. Unfortunately, even when we do everything right, something can still go wrong.

Just regroup and be patient. This one will take a little longer than normal. The problem you might have is that it could turn out _really_ good in the end, and you won't be able to reproduce this convoluted process.


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## etownmickey (Mar 20, 2014)

dangerdave said:


> This one will take a little longer than normal. The problem you might have is that it could turn out _really_ good in the end, and you won't be able to reproduce this convoluted process.



Will do. I certainly hope to have that problem!

Thanks for your help all


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## etownmickey (Mar 27, 2014)

Well, I dumped all of the bottles back into the carboy and airlocked without adding anything. It's now been a week, SG is steady and I don't get any bubble action under vacuum. The flavour is good and I feel pretty good about bottling this time 

I don't really see anything when I look but I know that the fruit concentrate I added at back sweetening time had some floaties that I could see in my bottles. I'm going to test my luck with a #2 filter and see if I can get through my 6 gallons without clogging. I remember in the bottles that the floaties would sink if subjected to gravity so I'm going to improve my odds slightly by keeping my inlet just below the surface in my carboy. Commence finger crossing.


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## reefman (Mar 28, 2014)

etownmickey said:


> mistake... I chose to back sweeten a little more using some frozen (supermarket) berry juice concentrate right before bottling. I didn't add any more k-meta or sorbate at this time. I assumed the concentrate was sterile and/or preserved and was good to go.
> It's now about a week later and if I shake a bottle I can see small bubbles form in my DB. Uncorking and pouring confirms the dissolved gas as it's released.
> ?



Wow, Mickey, I want the recipe for what you did.
Carbonated Dragons Blood sounds GREAT!
I'm not kidding. Sort of like adding sugar to your beer when you bottle, to get the carbonation.


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## jojabri (Mar 28, 2014)

reefman said:


> Wow, Mickey, I want the recipe for what you did.
> Carbonated Dragons Blood sounds GREAT!
> I'm not kidding. Sort of like adding sugar to your beer when you bottle, to get the carbonation.



HOLY BALONEY! I just carbed some Quad-Berry DB up in my Sodastream it's EPICNESS INCARNATE!


As a note tho, be very careful as it bubbles A LOT, it takes a bit to slowly let off the gas before you unscrew to remove the bottle. Also as a warning: USE AT YOUR OWN RISK: As per Sodastream instructions using anything but water will void warranty. Worth it to me as the units themselves can be bought very inexpensively


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## reefman (Mar 29, 2014)

There are a couple of wines I buy that have a touch of bubbly. Lambrusco is one.
I enjoy them every so often. I'll have to try the soda stream.


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## ckvchestnut (Mar 29, 2014)

I'd like to try both the Lambrusco and the soda stream as well, sounds great for summer DB!


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## etownmickey (Mar 29, 2014)

I was thinking of getting a kegging system to force carbonate some prosecco I have coming and apple cider this fall. Gassing up this DB on purpose could be fun 

Sent from my Q10 using Wine Making mobile app


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## Paradoxnightmare (Mar 30, 2014)

You can also bottle in beer bottles like I do and pasteurize at 190°F. You place your carbed bottles in the 190°F water and REMOVE FROM HEAT...let sit for ten minutes and you basically have a wine cooler that won't make you look like a sissy.


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