Bodenski
Junior Member
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2016
- Messages
- 244
- Reaction score
- 106
Today I learned a valuable lesson. I've had 3 gallons of cider sitting in a carboy for about a month. I've been a little impatient and really wanted to bottle it. (Well, I wanted to bottle 2/3rds of it, some sweetened, some not, and the rest in a 1 gallon jug to continue to bulk age.)
So I washed all the bottles and other supplies (which took a while to do, since I bought them off someone and wanted to make sure they were clean), racked the first gallon off into the 1 gallon jug, and was ready to measure out the priming sugar for the 2 gallons I had left.
Here's where the mistake occurred. I thought to myself "if I don't degas the liquid before I bottle it, then the CO2 might be too much and I'll get bottle bombs." So I get my little degassing wand and start to degas my remaining 2 gallons. That were still in my carboy, you guessed it, sitting on top of some lees!
10 seconds later I realized my mistake, but it was too late. My nice clear cider was now cloudy as all get out as I stirred up everything that had fallen out over the last month!
After some choice words (at no one in particular, since it was clearly my own fault), I poured the 1 gallon back into the carboy, degassed it a little more (since at this point I'm hopping it will help it clear faster) and put it back down in my basement to clear for another 3-4 weeks.
So for all the washing I did I got exactly zero done. The only good thing is that I tasted a bit of the cider before I racked off the first gallon, and found that it's 10X better than what it was last month. My hope now is that I didn't oxygenate it too much as I poured the 1 gallon back into the carboy ( I was pissed at that point and didn't care, but looking back I should have siphoned it instead of pouring it angrily) but hopefully the degassing helped to take some of that back out as well.
So the lesson is don't degas your beverage when it's sitting on top of lees that you've waited so patiently to fall out!
The one thing that might make me feel better is to hear that even you more experienced wine makers have made dumb mistakes as well. Anyone care to share a story so I don't feel alone?
So I washed all the bottles and other supplies (which took a while to do, since I bought them off someone and wanted to make sure they were clean), racked the first gallon off into the 1 gallon jug, and was ready to measure out the priming sugar for the 2 gallons I had left.
Here's where the mistake occurred. I thought to myself "if I don't degas the liquid before I bottle it, then the CO2 might be too much and I'll get bottle bombs." So I get my little degassing wand and start to degas my remaining 2 gallons. That were still in my carboy, you guessed it, sitting on top of some lees!
10 seconds later I realized my mistake, but it was too late. My nice clear cider was now cloudy as all get out as I stirred up everything that had fallen out over the last month!After some choice words (at no one in particular, since it was clearly my own fault), I poured the 1 gallon back into the carboy, degassed it a little more (since at this point I'm hopping it will help it clear faster) and put it back down in my basement to clear for another 3-4 weeks.
So for all the washing I did I got exactly zero done. The only good thing is that I tasted a bit of the cider before I racked off the first gallon, and found that it's 10X better than what it was last month. My hope now is that I didn't oxygenate it too much as I poured the 1 gallon back into the carboy ( I was pissed at that point and didn't care, but looking back I should have siphoned it instead of pouring it angrily) but hopefully the degassing helped to take some of that back out as well.
So the lesson is don't degas your beverage when it's sitting on top of lees that you've waited so patiently to fall out!
The one thing that might make me feel better is to hear that even you more experienced wine makers have made dumb mistakes as well. Anyone care to share a story so I don't feel alone?
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