Help! Primary eruption...

[Blackhat007]

So i'm working on a merlot kit to which I added 24oz of fresh squeezed blackberry juice. On Day 1 starting temp was 77deg with a SG of 1.080. Came home on Day 3 to find the portable AC unit malfunctioned and the room was up to 85deg and the must had bubbled out/erupted from the primary fermentor. Was able to maintain temps to the 80deg range and by Day 6 had a SG 1.015 so racked to secondary fermenter. NE temps cooled this past week to upper 60's/low 70's and just checked SG at Day 13 to be below 0.999. Is this cause for concern or should I just let the secondary fermentation progress and hope for the best? Thanks all, first post!

 

[NorCal]

I wouldn't be concerned with an 85 degree ferment, heck that would be my target on a grape ferment. If it were mine, I'd press/rack it now and if there is anything left to do, it will be done in a nice clean environment.

 

[Blackhat007]

Thanks NorCal, so glad it's not ruined. Any idea what would have caused it to erupt and bubble out of the fermentor? Should i be concerned that all the yeast didn't have time to work?

 

[Johny99]

Sounds like you got a nice active fermentation going that simply was too much for the fermenter volume. Nothing to worry about except for cleaning it up. The eruption was due to the yeast working, so no worries about it.

 

[loopline]

I actually did something similar on my very first attempt, which was a welches grape juice wine. Except I had heard higher temp equals faster ferment. I live in Phoenix AZ, where it can be 120F in the summer....

Yes I put it out in the garage one evening, in the summer, up on top of the garage fridge.

Needless to say the next morning it had erupted out of the jug, all over the fridge, down the fridge, and a big puddle on the floor. Plus its so hot and dry it it all dried out and I had to clean up a sticky mess. This was after less then 12 hours. lol

Oh and I had run the sugar up to 15% alcohol. It did finish the bulk of the ferment in 1.5 days. After like 2 weeks I put it in the fridge. The alcohol content was way up there as it fermented all the way out and it tasted TERRIBLE. Bitter. HAHA So yours could have been way worse.

 

[wineforfun]

Thanks NorCal, so glad it's not ruined. Any idea what would have caused it to erupt and bubble out of the fermentor? Should i be concerned that all the yeast didn't have time to work?

Did you have it in an open primary bucket? or a bucket with a snapped on lid?

Was the primary near capacity when starting fermentation?

In the end, sounds like everything fermented just fine and went dry for you so on to the next step.