Clearing Wine Without Geysers

Last night I made two mistakes, one of which could have had tragic consequences. Last night I racked 2 wines — a Chocolate / Raspberry Port whose SG is 0.998 and appears done, and an Elderberry at SG 1.001, which is not quite done fermenting.

Mistake #1

I racked a new Elderberry wine, 7 gallons in a 32 gallon Brute. Why the Brute? Because my largest purpose-made primary fermenter is 7.9 gallons, and filling it to the 7 gallon mark is more than I like. I prefer to fill a primary no more than 75% full, to allow for heavy foaming and possible overflow. Six gallons in a 7.9 gallon fermenter is as much as I like.

I usually pump wine out of the brutes, as there’s enough in one that I’ll not pick it up. Seven gallons is reasonable for me, plus I didn’t want to get the pump out for a small batch, so I moved the Brute to the counter and started a siphon into a 25 liter demijohn.

The problem? I can’t see into the Brute when it’s on the counter, so I can’t judge how close I am to the end of the rack. Plus the racking cane is a bit short, so I have the interior part raised upon. Not ideal, but it works.

My mistake? I was down to the last gallon or so, when I managed to slosh the Brute, mixing the remaining wine into the already dropped sediment, AKA “sludge”.

This is mostly an irritant because I didn’t think far enough ahead. But the wine cleared once, and it will clear again, just needing a bit more effort.

The wine already in the demijohn is clear, and decided to pour the sludge into other containers to clear, so I’d not have to rack the clear portion again.

Note: when I say “clear”, I mean it looks like wine and not sludge. Over time it will drop fine lees, which is yeast hulls.

I filled a 4 liter jug to the top, and about 3/4 of a 12 oz beer bottle. The beer bottle got a #3 stopper and an airlock, and I put a plastic screwcap on the jug. An hour later the top 3 inches of the jug was clear, so this would be good in a few days.

Mistake #2

This one is the dangerous mistake, and experienced winemakers may have already spotted it.

The following morning I went downstairs and saw the jug had cleared VERY nicely!

I was very, very happy to see how much sediment dropped overnight! As noted, wine that clears on its own (with time, not fining agents) will clear again if the sediment is put back into suspension. For gross lees (fruit solids), this happens rather quickly, as the bulk of the sediment will drop within 24 to 72 hours.

As an experienced winemaker, I’ve seen this repeatedly, so Mistake #1 was not really a problem — it’s mostly irritating, as I know better and should have taken precautions (such as bringing a step stool into the cellar) before I did anything.

But … stuff happens. No one is perfect, and I’m not worrying about it too much. As I said, the wine cleared once, and it will clear again.

Then I noticed wine on the counter.

The jug was full, so my first thought was a carboy had cracked and was leaking!!!

Nope, no evidence of that.

I started moving things around to figure out where the wine came from. It’s red, so it’s certainly not the Sparkling Chardonnay on the counter!

Nothing. Then I looked at the jug and realized the wine filled it right to the cap AND the cap had gunk on it. I had filled it full, but it was right at the cap, and the cap had been clean.

Sheesh!!!

That was amazingly stupid.

I had wine that had a bit of sugar left, and filled the container too full. Even if the wine was just outgassing (passively emitting excess CO2), it’s a blunder as the CO2 may overflow the container.

The truly idiotic step was to put a screwcap on a wine that was fermenting, regardless of how slow. This traps the CO2 and if the pressure exceeds the weakest point in the glass of the container, it can explode. We are talking glass shards sprayed around like a grenade.

No joke — the bottle can explode.

I got lucky because the plastic caps I use have some flexibility, and the pressure pushed wine out.

When I loosened the cap, the sludge inverted with the clear wine, and started spraying out. I quickly tightened the cap.

Wow!

My solution was to sanitize a 2 gallon bucket, put the jug in it, and loosen/tighten the cap over 5 minutes to let the pressure out. Sludge overflowed the container into the bucket, so I had little mess and very little additional loss.

I poured the clear wine from the beer bottle into a sanitized wine bottle, along with the sludge from the bucket. As can be seen in the picture, a fair amount of the contents of the jug was expelled.

Both have an airlock and are in an extra fridge now. I’ll give them a few days before carefully siphoning the clear wine from the top.

Lessons

There are several lessons to be learned from this:

1. Think before you rack. Consider all issues and ensure you are ready for the situation, such as not being able to see into a tall primary fermenter on a counter.
2. Plan for wine that is fermenting or emitting CO2. Never overfill and always allow for gas to escape, e.g., an airlock or vented bung.
3. A bottle is either rated for pressure (e.g., champagne & beer bottles) or it is not. If a bottle is NOT rated for pressure, there is no amount of pressure that is safe.
4. Keep everything clean. I keep my buckets clean, inside and out, and wiped down all containers last night after filling the jug and beer bottle. For this reason, I felt fine with carefully releasing the jug pressure inside the bucket and saving the overflow.