Take care

[gunhaus]

I hope wine is the right forum to put this in, although it fits everywhere and is about NOT taking things for granted. Some time back I made a batch of raisin wine. This is a recipe I have done for 30 + years. Details be damned , we are talking two months of primary, then two more of secondary, then THREE PLUS tertiary. I have made it a bunch and a little age and it is great. This latest batch was NORMAL from a gravity reading stand point, but was a bit sweet. I told my wife a little carb and it would almost be an "asti" type wine. (YES I know I could have gotten a bad reading or a broken hydrometer, etc, etc, etc, THAT is the point I am making)

When this was "done" and clear, i Added sorbate and sulfite to assure things were "stable" I put it up in bottles still, stashed it and forgot it. It is about a year and a half since i started it. I grabbed a small bottle today, and cracked it and got a PRONOUNCED ppfffffttt. When I poured it was HEAVILY carbed. NOW, I had no disasters, and the carb is EXCELLLENT - But this SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED> I had let the ferment " finish" and treated with appropriate recommended chemicals and STILL, the yeasties found a way. It is a marvelous sparkling wine and a real bonus, but i could have been a disaster. KEEP TRACK OF YOUR FERMENTS and take NOTHING for granted at the home brewer/ fermenter level. NATURE rules; we are a distant second,. Rant over

 

[passedpawn]

Great post. Sounds like a lucky accident.

 

[gunhaus]

Lucky accident - YES, and unexpected. AND THAT is my point. You can do EVERYTHING right SEEMINGLY, and still it can bite you. BE CAREFUL. That is all. Thanks -John

 

[FatDragon]

When I've got bottles that may be in the danger zone, I always wrap a dishcloth around them when opening. Might want to go that route with the rest of the bottles of this batch (if there are any).

 

[bernardsmith]

I wonder... If you never degassed but tannins and other particulates dropped out of solution over the aging period is it not possible that the CO2 in the bottle is not due to further fermentation but to nucleation of the gas?
Even if the wine was at a gravity around .990 there would still be some residual sugar, and while stabilization might prevent a small colony of yeast becoming active, a larger colony may not be fully eliminated by the chemicals. What may have happened is that over time some strains of yeast - perhaps associated with the raisins rather than something you pitched may have been able to reproduce and feed off some remaining sugar.
A third possibility is that even if you successfully eliminated all the yeast there may have been enough bacteria to glom onto the remaining sugar and while they may not have produced ethanol they may have produced CO2 as they converted the sugars into lactic acid - and so this would be sensed as an unexpected tartness...

 

[madscientist451]

I've been making wine for years and I never thought about using raisins. So I looked it up on google and most recipes call for 1.75 to 2.25 lbs of raisins and 1.75-2 lbs of sugar per gallon. I know there are several different kinds of raisins, I'm wondering if one kind is any better than another.
Want to put in your recipe?

 

[gunhaus]

I've been making wine for years and I never thought about using raisins. So I looked it up on google and most recipes call for 1.75 to 2.25 lbs of raisins and 1.75-2 lbs of sugar per gallon. I know there are several different kinds of raisins, I'm wondering if one kind is any better than another.
Want to put in your recipe?

Not my recipe, but this is what i based this batch on. I have varied it slightly a couple times by adding assorted spiced during secondary to make what my son calls the Christmas wine. But this is the gist of it. We often mix this 50/50 with a sweet hard cider for an interesting drink as well.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/raisin-wine.30147/

 

[gunhaus]

I wonder... If you never degassed but tannins and other particulates dropped out of solution over the aging period is it not possible that the CO2 in the bottle is not due to further fermentation but to nucleation of the gas?
Even if the wine was at a gravity around .990 there would still be some residual sugar, and while stabilization might prevent a small colony of yeast becoming active, a larger colony may not be fully eliminated by the chemicals. What may have happened is that over time some strains of yeast - perhaps associated with the raisins rather than something you pitched may have been able to reproduce and feed off some remaining sugar.
A third possibility is that even if you successfully eliminated all the yeast there may have been enough bacteria to glom onto the remaining sugar and while they may not have produced ethanol they may have produced CO2 as they converted the sugars into lactic acid - and so this would be sensed as an unexpected tartness...

All possibilities - there are no off/unexpected flavors

 

[gunhaus]

Not my recipe, but this is what i based this batch on. I have varied it slightly a couple times by adding assorted spiced during secondary to make what my son calls the Christmas wine. But this is the gist of it. We often mix this 50/50 with a sweet hard cider for an interesting drink as well.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/raisin-wine.30147/

I would add that I started making raisin wine about 1990 or so using a method a neighbor used - that I believe he got out of an old Mother Earth News. I made several batches early on, then sort of went other directions until the above post a few years back rekindled my interest. I could not find my notes from the original stuff I made but this method seemed pretty close to what i remembered to this is what i went with. I have seen quite a few such recipes around the internet and they are all pretty similar and i imagine the results will be too. IIt is a pretty simple and cheap wine to make and darn tasty to boot!