should you shake car iy during primary fermentation ?

[Granrey]

Question is because Im doing pineaple with a big cake at the top. You see bubbles going up but the airlock does not move.


Then I shake the carboy and airlock moves normal like I expect it to be.



Notice with passion fruit and grapes I have not seen cakes at the top. So things go normal.

 

[dralarms]

You got a leak

 

[Rice_Guy]

A floating cake has a risk of microbial growth. We are encouraged to “punch down the cap” so that the solids are wetted growth is discouraged

 

[sour_grapes]

Most of us would prefer to start out fermenting in a bucket. Then you could stir and punch down. Why did you choose to use a carboy?

 

[Granrey]

Most of us would prefer to start out fermenting in a bucket. Then you could stir and punch down. Why did you choose to use a carboy?

I prefer the 1 gal carboy for handling convenience also since I'm new, I'm trying different fruit wines to find out what I like and what to do in bulk. I might actually go even smaller with these tests using canning fermenting bottles.

The most challenging part so far is not knowing what to expect during fermentation with fruit wines based on store juices.

-Grapes do not seem to make any cakes at all. Plus very active fermentation.

-Mango no cake at all but slow fermentation.
-Soursop and Pineaple tend to create cakes at the top. No very active fermentation.
-Passion fruit seems to create cake on both places and very active fermentation.

Btw, this is all with the same sugar density, yeast and temperature.


- I still want to try Tamarind and other things.



I do have a 3gal fast fermenter which I'm using to replicate my first batch of grape juice (1 gal) . Which I was satisfied and trying to replicate in bulk.

 

[sour_grapes]

I will say that I was envisioning a 6 gallon carboy, which is a lot harder to handle as a primary fermenting vessel.

 

[Scooter68]

Agree with sour_grapes. Use a bucket. A carboy is a mess to deal with especially with the fruit pulp and the cake issue you describe. In a bucket you can easily punch down that cake and keep things going. Also as DRAlarms says - likely you have a leak in your airlock/cap.

As to the differences in fermentation of different fruit - You don't mention the pH - that along with a variety of other varibles can affect the rate of fermentation and the behavior of the ferment.

Finally making less than a gallon - just doesn't make sense. You end up dealing with measurements far to small to get right unless you go to a digital scale for measuring grams. Just not worth the trouble to deal with in my book. I started out with 1 gallon batches and honestly I would NEVER consider anything smaller. I limit myself to 3 gallon batches to save my back but that's the only reason.

Since it sounds like you are just starting out, I would suggest you stick to less exotic fruits until you get the hang of things. There are so many elements to consider with the less common fruits that unless you know exactly the chemistry and compostion involved you can easily miss a detail that will end up totally changing the outcome or even prevent a ferment from happening.

 

[winemaker81]

I concur on using a bucket for primary fermentation. Getting fruit into a jug, even a wide mouth one, is a PITA. Cleaning it afterward is more of a PITA.

If you're in the USA, the orange buckets Home Depot sells are supposed to be food grade plastic. They are far easier to clean.

BTW, it helps if you edit your profile to add your approximate location, I use the nearest large city in mine. It appears that most of the frequent posters are in the USA and Canada, but we have a fair number in the UK and mainland Europe, more from other points around the world.

 

[BernardSmith]

I thought the white buckets in Home Depot are food grade. Never had any problem with them and they can easily hold a hefty gallon which is what you need if you want to collect a gallon after racking. Making a gallon of must means that you have less than a gallon after active fermentation has ended and you rack off the gross lees. You then have to find a way to remove the headroom with which you are left. Begin with more and you have no problem to solve.

 

[winemaker81]

I thought the white buckets in Home Depot are food grade.

One of the guys in my grape buying group uses the orange buckets, he said they were food grade. I had no reason to check, so I did not verify.

Bernard raises a critical point -- unless you are buying plastic specifically designed for wine making, verify that the material is food grade plastic.

 

[dralarms]

Orange ones are food grade, not sure about the white ones.

 

[Scooter68]

The ones I buy at Lowe's are clearly marked with a yellow or red label that says food grade.

also 2 gallon size

 

[sour_grapes]

The ones I buy at Lowe's are clearly marked with a yellow or red label that says food grade.

View attachment 71141 also 2 gallon size View attachment 71142

These are what I use.

 

[Scooter68]

I took the time to label in 1/2 gallon increments up to 4 gallons which is right where the plastic flares for the hand support Felt tip marker covered with clear packing tape.

 

[Granrey]

the thing with those buckets is that you miss half of the fun. I enjoy seeing the fermentation

 

[Scooter68]

Hey, I see a lot and SMELL a LOT of the activity. When I walk into the room (Actually the house) I smell the fermentation. When I lift off the muslin cloth I get to see what surprise awaits me. Will it be an inch or two of foam, Fruit in the bag ready to be pushed back down. When I stir the bucket I may even get to hear the fizzing of the foam the stirring generates. Try that in your carboy and you'll get to see foam fountain and thank you, been there done that, don't need to watch another foam fountain.

Right now I'm waiting on my latest Blackberry batch to finish. It started at 1.108 fermented down to 1.040, I fed it some simple syrup and raised the SG to 1.058 and let it go on. Last Friday when I stirred it I heard a distinct fizzing/hissing sound as the foam came up for a minute and the bubbles cut loose. Today it's now down to .998 and closing in on the finish line. It will be at about 17.8% if it makes it down to .990 but I'm already in the window at 16.8% ABV. This will be a really nice dessert wine that will last a long time. It's from 2 cans of Vintner's Harvest Blackberry wine base ($10.00/ can) and 2lbs of Wild Black Raspberries.

 

[JakeJeckel]

I agree with the bucket as well, I have a post on here and am also a new wine maker. I started out with a large and small batch, 5 gallons of strawberry and 1 gallon of pineapple. The strawberry made an enormous cake and I actually ended up needing to dump a lot of my wine out due to over-filling and the amount of foam I was getting wine in my airlock. The pineapple didn't do as bad but I would definitely suggest a bucket and they are not bad, here is a good 6.5 gallon one on Amazon with lid and grommet for an airlock. Good luck.

 

[Granrey]

I agree with the bucket as well, I have a post on here and am also a new wine maker. I started out with a large and small batch, 5 gallons of strawberry and 1 gallon of pineapple. The strawberry made an enormous cake and I actually ended up needing to dump a lot of my wine out due to over-filling and the amount of foam I was getting wine in my airlock. The pineapple didn't do as bad but I would definitely suggest a bucket and they are not bad, here is a good 6.5 gallon one on Amazon with lid and grommet for an airlock. Good luck.

The limitation with the bucket is that the view is limited. You can only see top view but not cross section.
This almost look like dynamic art.

 

[JakeJeckel]

The limitation with the bucket is that the view is limited. You can only see top view but not cross section.
This almost look like dynamic art.

A top view from what I've learned so far is all you really need for the primary fermentation. As long as your getting signals that fermentation is occurring there is no need to see the side, u less you want to look at that in which case I can see why a carboy would appeal to you. Either way its your choice in the end, im new to this as well so I can only rely what I've learned so far, and I've found the bucket to be much better in my opinion.

 

[Granrey]

A top view from what I've learned so far is all you really need for the primary fermentation. As long as your getting signals that fermentation is occurring there is no need to see the side, u less you want to look at that in which case I can see why a carboy would appeal to you. Either way its your choice in the end, im new to this as well so I can only rely what I've learned so far, and I've found the bucket to be much better in my opinion.

This one for instance this is a 3 gal fast fermenter. Since I have done couple batches with this juice and yeast. I'm very confident it will not overflow. See how full it was plus the turbulence, it looks like boiling. It did not overflow.



However, I would never do anything like that with pineapple or soursop because these juices seems to create a big cake at the top that seem to store the CO2 and lead to an overflow. So maybe you do need more headspace and maybe shaking . I don't know for sure since I have done only one.

Notice, since I shake the carboy, the air lock has not stop bubling for 36 hours (it had stop bubbling prior the shake). I did not tight lead or the air lock more, I l l left them as they were. I just shaked the carboy.

The pic below has pineapple on the left and mango on the right. If I had known how this mango juice behave, I could have added more mix into the carboy but suspecting it could be like pineapple, I left lots of unnecessary headroom to avoid overflow.