Glad to find this forum

[nithburg]

Hello from Ontario Canada!
I started making wine & beer from kits a couple months ago to save money, but the more I learn and the more batches I make its now become more of a hobby...
I do have a weird thing happening with one of my Cab Sauv kits right now though, it seems to be "breathing". I degassed 3 days ago and the next day the water in the S shaped air lock had been almost all been sucked into the carboy side of the airlock. the next day it was blown almost all back to the "atmosphere" side, then the day following back to the carboy side! I have an identical batch in a carboy beside it and its not doing that, the only difference is the "breathing" carboy is glass and the other is plastic.
What could be causing this?????

 

[bkisel]

First, welcome to the forum. Lots of folks from Canada are members here.

My plastic carboys, with 3 piece airlocks, definitely suck in k-meta solution from time to time due I believe to changes in atmospheric pressure. This does not seem to be the case with my glass carboys which seem only to be needed to have solution added to the airlock occasionally - I assume from evaporation.

 

[JohnT]

fill your carboy up. make sure the level of wine is no less then 2 inches below the stopper

 

[Runningwolf]

Welcome aboard!

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Welcome !!

This is truly a great place for a wealth of information

 

[heatherd]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[vernsgal]

Welcome to WMT!

 

[Bergmann]

Welcome. The hoot is now deeply set into your jaw>

 

[Bartman]

I have an identical batch in a carboy beside it and its not doing that, the only difference is the "breathing" carboy is glass and the other is plastic.
What could be causing this?????

Like Bill/bkisel said above, it almost certainly is atmospheric pressure changes, and as John pointed out, this is exacerbated by having too much headspace of air at the top of your plastic carboy.

I would also point out that a substantial temperature drop over weeks or months can also lead to a noticeable drop in liquid volume, but not up and down in a few days' time.