Ticking Time Bomb - Too little head space in Primary

[jkuzo55]

Hi All,

New to the forum and wine making. Over the weekend I started my first batch of raspberry wine. I’ve already failed in that I’ve overfilled my primary container with too much water. My SG came in at about 1.06 so I’m not too concerned there. What I am concerned about is that my bucket is now overflowing and my airlock keeps filling up due to the fermentation. I feel like it could blow its top off at any moment.

What are my options here?

1. Should I skim off some of the liquid to increase head space?
a. If yes, should I stir it first?

2. Do I just leave it alone and manually open the lid every few hours to allow some COs to escape?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

thanks,
Joe

 

[jburtner]

You could take some out.... Say a gallon... That might give some headspace.. Pu that in the fridge and airlock. The cold will slow down fermentation.... Once the main part of the active ferment is passed add it back into the main vessel and it should still finish out but without as much activity....

Hope that helps and I have found that the typical 7.9gallon fermenting vessel is too small (for a six gallon batch) once you start adding things like additional fruit, grapes, etc....

The 20gallon brutes are a nice size for one or two 6 gallon batches with additives....

Cheers!
-johann

 

[jkuzo55]

Thank you for the info. I considered taking some out but wasn't sure if removing it would screw up the fermentation process. I hadn't considered saving it in another container though. i have a few 1g carboys i could transfer a gallon or two to.

Hopefully I can get home from work early enough to not walk in to a huge mess.

 

[Scooter68]

Always good to have one or more additional containers like a 2 gallon fermentation bucket when you wind up with too much must for the planned primary bucket.

ALSO - I'd ditch the airlock. I find the must/foam causes a lot less trouble if the bucket/primary container is covered with a cloth just tied down around the rim. Any foam that does touch the cloth tends to breakdown instead of pushing up into an airlock. ANYTHING that restricts the escape of the gases from fermentation will agitate the overflow issues. I don't even use the plastic lids anymore. They don't provide a reliable air-tight seal and as mentioned they make the overflow of foam worse than just a cloth tied on the top of the bucket.

EVEN in a secondary container (Carboy) - I have used a cloth "cap" on the top for the first few hours after racking from the primary. It lets the activity settle back down instead of ending up with foam in my airlock.

Go to the local Hobby Lobby, Walmart etc and buy 1 yard of unbleached Muslin cloth. Cut it into 2 or 3 - 18" squares and cut the rest up into smaller pieces to cover carboys and clean containers. (Their Muslin cloth us usually 36" wide so a 36" square piece with give you at least 2 larger covers and a bunch of smaller pieces. ) Give them a quick wash with dishwashing liquid, rinse, sanitize with sanitizer and you are ready to go.

 

[BernardSmith]

Hi Joe- and welcome. I basically agree with Scooter68. With wine, mead or cider, your primary does not need a bung and airlock. In fact, in my opinion, sealing a primary will inhibit you from stirring during active fermentation and perhaps adding nutrients from time to time. During active fermentation the yeast will be producing so much CO2 that there really should be no fear of any airborne nasties getting a toehold to compete with the colony of yeast you have in the must. Indeed, I would suggest that you leave carboys for use as secondaries and you use food grade buckets as your primary. That way, any fruit you are fermenting (as opposed to the juice from the fruit - and fruit will add complexity, I think) which will tend to float to the surface (because of the CO2) you can punch down and stir back into the must so that the fruit does not begin to spoil or rot on the surface exposed to air.