I made some wine with wild honey and fresh cherries. I let it ferment for 6 months, racking every month until May of this year. All wine was a very clear cherry color and no sign of fermentation. At bottling time I added wine conditioner and 5 campden tablets. Today I opened a bottle and it blew like Champaign. My question is what in the world happened and can I take the wine out of the bottles and put it back in a fermenter or what should I do? I am afraid that the bottles are going to blow up. The wine is in flip top bottles.
Name: Red Gordon
State: Texas
You added more sugar (conditoner) but did not add potasium sorbate. This stops any further fermentation when adding additonal sugars when bottling. Don’t bottle wines that have had additonal sugars added without adding potasium sorbate. That can be, as you saw a bit dangerous. You might try pouring you other wine back into a terile bucket, add the sorbate, let the refermented wine settle out the new sediments and rebottle.
I am in need of a clarifier that does not drag the deicate flavors of my fruit wines to to bottom of the car boy along with the dediments. Any suggestions? I have used chitisen, and before that, sparlolloyd.
B. Rickkman, If you are trying to drag out yeast more quickly, then use Bentonite, otherwise I would suggest using isinglass for adding a fine polish to a wine without compromising flavor in anyway. You might want to take a look at an article on our website titled, "Using Finings To Improve Your Wines". It will have more information on this subject.
I have 3 cans of Alexander Wine concentrate, 2 Cabernet Sauvignon, 1 can Zinfandel. @ of thw cans have gotten dented, is the concentrate still Good to make wine?
Tony, if the can has recently been dented — within the last week or two — you have absolutely nothing to worry about. The concentrate is fine. If the can has been dented longer than this or an unknown length of time, you do need to take some precautions. The cans have an enamel coating inside. This is to keep the wine concentrate from coming in contact with the metal and causing corrosion. Corrosion can cause off, unpleasant flavors in the resulting wine. This enamel is flexible so that it can stay in tact even in the case of a dent. Open the can; pour out the wine concentrate, and look to see that there has been any corrosive contact with the tin. If not, you’re good to go.