fruit cap won't go down!!

[ErinRae]

I'm working on a cherry cyser right now and used 1118 and had reached around 17.5-18% or more with a left over sweetness of 1.005 or so. For secondary I racked onto 6lbs of tart cherries using a carboy. Now it seems my fermentation is active somewhat again which is fine...but the cherries/froth bubbles keep coming up the neck of the carboy. Everyday I have to hit the cherries back down and a few times clean the bung because the bubbles have gone up in it.

I had wanted to keep the mead racked on the cherries for a couple months...so far its only been 2 weeks. My dilemma is that I'm going away this weekend for 3-4 days and I'm worried that there will be mead everywhere when i get back.

Does anyone have any suggestions for getting the mead to calm down and cherries to stop pushing up the neck? I have a couple days to work on it!!

Thanks Erin

 

[huesmann]

Best bet is to put it back in a bucket, use a mesh bag, like you get bulk oranges or onions in at the grocery store. Put fruit in, add sterilized weight (marbles, whatever). Put in bucket. Put airlock on bucket.

Either that or send someone over while you're gone to give it a shake.

Last idea: use a blowoff tube into a bottle of vodka.

 

[Yooper]

A "couple of months" on the cherries? Are you sure? Normally the fruit is a white pulpy mess in just about 5-7 days or so.

 

[Arpolis]

I am with Yooper in that the fruit does not need to be left that long. You should be able to rack and top up before the weekend. If you really want to leave the fruit then I would just take a 2 liter plastic bottle, siphon out about a liter or a bit less to give you some head room. You can squeez most of the air out of the 2 liter and put that in the fridge. When fermentation dies down then add the 2 liter back to the carboy.

 

[fatbloke]

And Yooper is right, but if it was grapes instead of cherries, then to attain maximum colour and flavour extraction, the couple of months period wouldn't be excessive.

The damn skins can take forever to sink and the bottom of tbe fermenter is still full of flesh pulp and grape seeds.......

Personally I'd go with huesmanns suggestion.

If your numbers are right it may indeed still be fermenting a bit but it could also be just off gassing due to the cherry pulp or other particulates creating nucleation points....

If its in a bucket with airlock, blow off tube and/or some airspace, both fermentation or off gassing would blanket it and remove the issue of oxidation then you can either keep it in the bucket with some occasional stirring until the fruit sinks or move it back to a carboy once you get back.......

 

[ErinRae]

Thanks for the feedback!

I think because my yeast was pretty done before I racked on the cherries they haven't destroyed the fruit. I got the "couple months" idea from the 2 cherry recipes in the compleat meadmaker. In one recipe Ken leaves the cherries in for 3 months and the other recipe for 6. I don't necessary really want to leave the fruit in...guess I just figured I should to get the most flavor out of them? But if 2 weeks is plenty for flavor then I'd be fine to rack again.

Do you think it's possible to get the max flavor from the cherries in 2 weeks?

 

[fatbloke]

Thanks for the feedback!

I think because my yeast was pretty done before I racked on the cherries they haven't destroyed the fruit. I got the "couple months" idea from the 2 cherry recipes in the compleat meadmaker. In one recipe Ken leaves the cherries in for 3 months and the other recipe for 6. I don't necessary really want to leave the fruit in...guess I just figured I should to get the most flavor out of them? But if 2 weeks is plenty for flavor then I'd be fine to rack again.

Do you think it's possible to get the max flavor from the cherries in 2 weeks?

Personally ? No but YMMV.....

 

[bob1852]

Personally ? No but YMMV.....

I agree.

For cherries, I find ~4 weeks to be perfect.

For raspberries, much less time - a couple weeks would be fine.