Barrel fill level

[gavinxxx]

Hi,

Just joined today. Last week I filled a 30 gallon barrel with PN. Primary fermentation was almost complete - under 0 Brix. I inoculated with Malo bacteria. I filled the barrel to the top. A few days later I saw wine leaking from the breather bung. I pulled the bung off and wine etc exploded out. I cleaned everything up. Lowered the temperature in my cellar to 58. Today the bung popped by itself. A far amount of wine poured out. I cleaned the outside of the barrel with SO2 solution. I took more wine out with a wine thief. Hopefully this will not happen again. So my question is - how far do you fill the barrel initially and what else could be going on.

Thanks

Gavin

 

[winemaker81]

Welcome to WMT!

Your wine is still fermenting, so it's generating CO2, and that can vary the volume, as you have unfortunately discovered. If the ambient temperature is not steady, a few degrees increase in temperature will cause volume expansion, making it worse.

In your situations I'd allow for at least a gallon of headspace., This is not a problem during the final stages of fermentation and the first few weeks of post-fermentation degassing as the headspace will be mostly CO2.

I leave wine in glass for 2 to 3 weeks after pressing. If I have any fermentation left, it finalizes in glass. Gross lees supposedly drops within 24-72 hours of the end of fermentation, so that has time to settle out. Anything left after that is fine lees (yeast hulls), which is not a problem.

Then I homogenize my containers and give the wine a 1 minute stir, changing directions half way. This jump starts degassing, eliminating a lot of CO2. Finally I fill barrels. There is a lot less sediment in the barrel and the heavy degassing is mostly done.

 

[gavinxxx]

Welcome to WMT!

Your wine is still fermenting, so it's generating CO2, and that can vary the volume, as you have unfortunately discovered. If the ambient temperature is not steady, a few degrees increase in temperature will cause volume expansion, making it worse.

In your situations I'd allow for at least a gallon of headspace., This is not a problem during the final stages of fermentation and the first few weeks of post-fermentation degassing as the headspace will be mostly CO2.

I leave wine in glass for 2 to 3 weeks after pressing. If I have any fermentation left, it finalizes in glass. Gross lees supposedly drops within 24-72 hours of the end of fermentation, so that has time to settle out. Anything left after that is fine lees (yeast hulls), which is not a problem.

Then I homogenize my containers and give the wine a 1 minute stir, changing directions half way. This jump starts degassing, eliminating a lot of CO2. Finally I fill barrels. There is a lot less sediment in the barrel and the heavy degassing is mostly done.

Thank you. I should have asked this question before filling the barrel!