Stuff gathering at top of carboy?

[Noflow315]

Is it mold?

 

[Rice_Guy]

We need to ask where in the recipe are you?

*mold needs oxygen for growth, ,, if you are early in the process, if you haven’t added the air lock, if the air lock dried out, it could be mold
* some yeast are bad at making foam/ gunk, that was my first impression

 

[joeswine]

Have you added anything else like Chems?

 

[Noflow315]

Yes. Pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient, and the metabisulfite. Waiting on the acid blend.

 

[Noflow315]

The 26th will be 30days in secondary ferm. Pure watermelon juice I squeezed myself, sugar and the red star Cote des Blancs

 

[Noflow315]

All I have used thus far.

 

[Noflow315]

I also have in floor heating I didnt think about until a few days ago. I've been sitting right at this temp the whole time.

 

[Rice_Guy]

Given watermelon juice and no acid it is probably spoiled. I could not produce this in a food plant.

Yes. Pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient, and the metabisulfite. ! ! ! Waiting on the acid blend. ! !

Acid is essential for good wine! pH of less than 4.0 (acidity) acts as a filter which keeps spoilage organisms at bay. In general more creates a tighter wall reducing risk. In comparison we find shelf stable foods like sour kraut at pH 3.3 or dill pickle at 3.9.
Watermellon was pH 6.6 (2018) and pH 6.86 (2019). It will be hard to produce stable product with pH in the 6’s without a canning treatment or adding ever clear alcohol.
Acids are readily available, example 2019 watermelon wine was formulated with red sumach berries to provide acid (and a pink color). Other parts of WMT are about dragon blood and skeeter pee,,, lemon is a natural acidifier.
Other- watermelon is low pectin so that isn’t needed. Watermelon needs yeast nutrient. Meta is your only active filter to keep spoilage down. ,,, The best watermelon wine I have had is a 55F fermentation, watermelon loses volatile flavor notes.

 

[Noflow315]

Strange. The recipe called for none. I'm going to be heart broken! Lol, it was absolutely perfect 90% of the way through. Good to know! Here goes round 2 I guess! Thank you for the help. So in 7 days when I pop it it will probably smell awful?

 

[Noflow315]

I have it too. Lol everything I read never mentioned any of that. And said better of adding it as you desire later. Sheesh!

 

[sour_grapes]

If you google "watermelon wine" here at WMT, you will find a trail of tears...

LMGTFY (I used "let me google that for you, but that was just to get a link I could share.)

Do it again without the "spoil" and you can get some good advice.

 

[Noflow315]

Moment of truth. Fingers crossed.

 

[KCCam]

Meta is your only active filter to keep spoilage down.

Alcohol helps keeps spillage down too, yes? After 30 days in secondary it should be done fermenting. What are the starting & ending SG? (ie. what’s the ABV?) Do you have a pH meter?
Edit: oops, just noticed I quoted a reply from JUNE 19, not July.
So how is it?

 

[Noflow315]

I will let you know soon. I hope good, but I'm terrified its spoiled.

 

[KCCam]

I will let you know soon. I hope good, but I'm terrified its spoiled.

I have my fingers crossed for you. It looked like some floating stuff I had in my first Dragon Blood. Yours is crystal clear now. I’m betting it will be fine.

 

[Noflow315]

So its not bad, I feel like I can still smell yeast? I'm new so I'm not sure. The sediment is still in the carboy, but its not bad. No must or wet cardboard smell. I can still smell the yeast I feel though. Maybe even taste it. Idk, still needs to be degassed

 

[RichardC]

Noflow, if my watermelon wine had a prominent smell of yeast, and looked like yours, I'd be bloody happy.

I added pectic enzymes, Amylase , acid Blend, and probably due to fermentation temperature, it tastes horrid and is still cloudy after sitting 40ish days untouched. It was racked twice and the 'rotten melon' dominant flavor has definitely reduced. All of what I've read, suggests aging at least a year so my optimism remains..

Don't stress man.

 

[Noflow315]

Im a happy man! Let's hope de-gas and a bit of time will make it even better! Thank you everyone for the help! And im officially hooked on this process!

 

[Rice_Guy]

Yes 18% plus alcohol will keep most microbes from growing, and 60% is used for corona virus

Alcohol helps keeps spillage down too, yes?

@Noflow315 this summer’s watermelon is in the plan for this week. It will be a 10C 50F primary fermentation with gooseberry (TA 3.1%) as an acid/ pink color source. Melon is in the freezer (pH 6.8, TA 0.03%). This is an exercise in “natural food” rules.
Last year used red sumach as the acid source,,,, but should have been run with a cool fermentation.
Good luck at bottle time.

 

[sour_grapes]

Alcohol helps keeps spillage down too, yes?

No, not in my experience. IME, alcohol promotes spillage.