First off - thanks to everyone for being so helpful with the other questions I've thrown up here!
Ok... so I'm working on my second batch, a CC Red Mountain Cab. As you may recall - I broke my hydrometer on the day I was supposed to rack from primary to carboy - no biggie... I let it sit in primary a few extra days and picked up a new hydrometer.
Today (day 15) I go downstairs to the basement and immediately know there is a problem. Very strong smell of wine... then I see the puddle under the primary and onto the floor and it appears to have leaked out the spigot joint. At this point I am not sure how much I have lost... I quickly sanitized all my gear needed to rack and popped open the primary and was happy to see that not *too* much seemed to have drained out... judging from the "water line" it appeared to be about a half inch or so... probably less than an inch (I'm using a 9 gal screw lid plastic primary with a spigot... more on that in a second...). At 13" high, and assuming a perfect rectangular prisim... I show that to be about 0.7 gal per inch of fluid level so I may have lost about .3-.5 gal to the floor.
So I rack most of the wine to the carboy. Probably too much because I knew I had already lost some and was trying to recover as much as I could. I'm guessing I left about half a bottle's worth of wine not counting the lees. The level on the 6 gal carboy is right about the top of the cylindrical section where it starts to bend back to the neck.
So ... it's getting late tonight and I don't have enough of the same type of wine to top it off. I'm thinking the best thing to do would be to go out tomorrow and get a 5 gal carboy for secondary. I *could* run out and get some more wine but would rather not... What would you do? I also have a liter or two worth of marbles I could sanitize and throw in there as well...
A couple of tidbits that may be relevant.
- The wine is not completely dry. I can see it barely fizzling on the surface.
- Hydrometer measurements were 1.010 (corrected) 12 hours after adding the grape pack and today it was 0.994 (day 15).
- The cause of the leak was I put the spigots o-ring on the wrong side but realized too late (after I had filled it). The guy at the LHBS said it shouldn't be a problem. It never really leaked over the first 15 days... maybe slightly oozed about a drop a day or so if that. Once I got a look inside I could see the o-ring had failed (probably and ironically because I over-tightened it to keep it from leaking)
Do i have to worry about contamination? If wine could get out I imagine air could get in. Based on the fact that my wife was in the basement only 2-3 hours before and didn't notice the smell or mess, I don't think it was leaking long.
Oddly, the airlock bubbles had slowed to barely a trickle over the last few days. As soon as I noticed the leak I tried to tighten the spigot from the outside and noticed it was bubbling again faster. I suppose it is possible I was touching the primary container and that accounted for it but I don't think so...
Because I racked too much and inevitably got some lees - should I rack again sooner or just wait until the prescribed clearing date based on hydrometer measurements?
For what it is worth - I tasted a sample and it tasted great! (well, my one data point is a 5L (?!) packlab kit which I got with my initial gear.) Still could perceive some residual sugar and of course some CO2 but I could already pick up on the oak. Interestingly, 4 days ago I tasted it and it tasted extremely bitter and chalky... almost like aspirin which I now know is from the tannins in the grape pack. I took out the grapes a couple days ago out of fear of overdoing the tannins and most of that flavor is gone already... that surprised me.
Attaching photos of the broken rubber o-ring, current level of the carboy and what I left in primary so you can critique my technique!
Thanks in advance for the help!
Ok... so I'm working on my second batch, a CC Red Mountain Cab. As you may recall - I broke my hydrometer on the day I was supposed to rack from primary to carboy - no biggie... I let it sit in primary a few extra days and picked up a new hydrometer.
Today (day 15) I go downstairs to the basement and immediately know there is a problem. Very strong smell of wine... then I see the puddle under the primary and onto the floor and it appears to have leaked out the spigot joint. At this point I am not sure how much I have lost... I quickly sanitized all my gear needed to rack and popped open the primary and was happy to see that not *too* much seemed to have drained out... judging from the "water line" it appeared to be about a half inch or so... probably less than an inch (I'm using a 9 gal screw lid plastic primary with a spigot... more on that in a second...). At 13" high, and assuming a perfect rectangular prisim... I show that to be about 0.7 gal per inch of fluid level so I may have lost about .3-.5 gal to the floor.
So I rack most of the wine to the carboy. Probably too much because I knew I had already lost some and was trying to recover as much as I could. I'm guessing I left about half a bottle's worth of wine not counting the lees. The level on the 6 gal carboy is right about the top of the cylindrical section where it starts to bend back to the neck.
So ... it's getting late tonight and I don't have enough of the same type of wine to top it off. I'm thinking the best thing to do would be to go out tomorrow and get a 5 gal carboy for secondary. I *could* run out and get some more wine but would rather not... What would you do? I also have a liter or two worth of marbles I could sanitize and throw in there as well...
A couple of tidbits that may be relevant.
- The wine is not completely dry. I can see it barely fizzling on the surface.
- Hydrometer measurements were 1.010 (corrected) 12 hours after adding the grape pack and today it was 0.994 (day 15).
- The cause of the leak was I put the spigots o-ring on the wrong side but realized too late (after I had filled it). The guy at the LHBS said it shouldn't be a problem. It never really leaked over the first 15 days... maybe slightly oozed about a drop a day or so if that. Once I got a look inside I could see the o-ring had failed (probably and ironically because I over-tightened it to keep it from leaking)
Do i have to worry about contamination? If wine could get out I imagine air could get in. Based on the fact that my wife was in the basement only 2-3 hours before and didn't notice the smell or mess, I don't think it was leaking long.
Oddly, the airlock bubbles had slowed to barely a trickle over the last few days. As soon as I noticed the leak I tried to tighten the spigot from the outside and noticed it was bubbling again faster. I suppose it is possible I was touching the primary container and that accounted for it but I don't think so...
Because I racked too much and inevitably got some lees - should I rack again sooner or just wait until the prescribed clearing date based on hydrometer measurements?
For what it is worth - I tasted a sample and it tasted great! (well, my one data point is a 5L (?!) packlab kit which I got with my initial gear.) Still could perceive some residual sugar and of course some CO2 but I could already pick up on the oak. Interestingly, 4 days ago I tasted it and it tasted extremely bitter and chalky... almost like aspirin which I now know is from the tannins in the grape pack. I took out the grapes a couple days ago out of fear of overdoing the tannins and most of that flavor is gone already... that surprised me.
Attaching photos of the broken rubber o-ring, current level of the carboy and what I left in primary so you can critique my technique!
Thanks in advance for the help!
