Oxidation/Spoiled Wine Advice

[lari]

Hi all,

making wine from blackberries. been fermenting for about two weeks, the SG is around 1.020, so i decided to take it of the fruit and transfer to a secondary. problem is i didnt use a straining cloth.
I managed to get most of the fruit out with a simple kitchen strainer, but there are so many tiny bits in there i gave up and just decided to siphon to a secondary. now because there were so many bits of fruit it kept blocking the siphon hose. i cant tell you how many times i had to clean it and restart the siphoning process again, its no fun. then i kinda lost my mind a bit and decide to just pour it into a secondary leaving just the yeast cake behind. obviously immediately after doing that i realized that it was a very stupid thing to do.

now i need advice on what should i do now. should i leave it and see what happens?
or maybe theres a chemical i should be adding now?
or maybe even stopping the fermentation? at 1.020 its about 15% abv and i dont mind my wine sweet.

thanks

[robwrx]

Hi Lari

Welcome to the forum!

If the Blackberry wine is still fermenting, you should not have oxidised or spoilt it.

Pouring into your secondary fermentation container is not good winemaking practice but I wouldn't label it as a very stupid thing to do. Attempting to stop a ferment is also not good practice. The best option to get a sweet wine is to leave the ferment to finish, rack, add sulphite and sorbate and then back sweeten.

It doesn't matter if you still have bits of fruit and pips in the must if it is still fermenting. They will drop to the bottom of the container and providing you don't move it prior to racking, they will stay in the bottom.

What was the starting SG? You say it is currently at SG 1.020 and about 15% ABV. That would suggest you started at about SG 1.130 which is massive for a fruit wine and could possibly mean that you have a stuck ferment.

What yeast did you use? Is it capable of greater than 15%?

My advice is to make sure your fermenter has as little head space as possible, check to see if there are still signs of fermenting and then check the SG again in 3 days or so and see if it has dropped.

Rob

[kmoorman]

As this is a thread about the risk of Oxidisation / Spoiling wine, I'll ask my question here.

My elderberry wine caught me out this weekend.

When I previously measured the gravity it as 1030 on Friday (the wine is 3 gallons in a 5 gallon bucket with a tea towel covering the top, held in place with a tight elastic band).

The aim was to add the remaining sugar on Sunday (about 400g) to give me the desired starting equivalent of 1095, and when it reaches 1010 put it into demijohns.

However, when I came to it on Sunday it had already reached about 1000, so I was way behind.

At this stage it had sat with the tea-towel covering it for the past 36 hours un-disturbed.

From here, I quickly added the extra sugar, stirred in, and took the SG (1010 now), so I also quickly put it into 3 demijohns.

So, my question is, would the period in the primary fermenter (under the tea-towel) have allowed the wine to oxidise at all? Logically, I don't think it can have, as the CO2 would have stayed as a layer over the wine whilst un-disturbed. Once I added the sugar ferementation started to pick up, so CO2 would have filled the demijohns quicky enough after transfer also

I guess I just need some reassurance.

[NorthernWiner]

OK, I'll reassure you. It will be fine. As long as it's producing a little CO2, the wine will be protected.

It's good to be vigilant about it. Oxidation is a wine fault that's practically 100% preventable.

[kmoorman]

OK, I'll reassure you. It will be fine. As long as it's producing a little CO2, the wine will be protected.

It's good to be vigilant about it. Oxidation is a wine fault that's practically 100% preventable.

The wine was still fermenting and producing little bubbles, and it has been left un-disturbed, so as CO2 is heavir than air I thought it would be ok

It's bubbling away behind me as a type. Very theraputic.

Thanks