Juice in Airlock; problem?

[judgerey]

Hello all,

I'm a first-time poster, and newbie in home wine making, so please excuse any ignorance I may reveal in this post.

As my initial foray into home wine making, I chose an Italian Brunello kit from Winexpert. I started the batch on Tuesday, June 11. Everything seems to be going fine. Juice and skins (in mesh bag) are in the primary fermenter, 72-74 degrees in my basement, airlock showing vigorous signs of gas escaping.

Last night I opened the fermenter to "push the grapes under the surface of the liquid once every day for the next 7 days, stirring gently" using a sterilized spoon, as per the directions from Winexpert. This morning, I noticed that the airlock has signs of juice in it. Yesterday the liquid was clear. Today it is red. Should I be concerned? Is this normal?

Also, should I really be opening up the fermenter every day to push the skins under the surface? Doesn't that allow the juice to contact a lot of oxygen?

All responses are appreciated.

 

[WVMJ]

Are you in a bucket or carboy? Why do you have an airlock on it already? Sounds like you need a bigger bucket and take the lid off and cover it with a cloth to keep bugs out, right now O2 is not an issue since you have so much CO2 being produced. Good luck, WVMJ

 

[judgerey]

Are you in a bucket or carboy? Why do you have an airlock on it already? Sounds like you need a bigger bucket and take the lid off and cover it with a cloth to keep bugs out, right now O2 is not an issue since you have so much CO2 being produced. Good luck, WVMJ

My primary fermenter is a 7+ gal. bucket. I'm using this kit from Brewhorizons -- http://www.ebay.com/itm/190824347921?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649.

The Winexpert instructions say to cover the primary fermenter and use the airlock at this stage.

 

[chrisjw]

My primary fermenter is a 7+ gal. bucket. I'm using this kit from Brewhorizons -- http://www.ebay.com/itm/190824347921?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649.

The Winexpert instructions say to cover the primary fermenter and use the airlock at this stage.

The airlock on the primary is fine. Opening the lid everyday and stirring it is not a problem during primary fermentation. Oxygen is good for the yeast. Having must go into the airlock is not a good thing since fluid from the airlock could go back into the must. Some people use vodka in the airlock since it would be less likely to hurt the wine than contaminated water.

Here is a tip. Keep your sanitized spoon in the fermenter and use it to pin the bag down. Just make sure to sanitize your hands before touching the spoon the next time (if you plan to keep it there). You can also just keep your sanitized hydrometer and floating thermometer in the primary for monitoring SG.

I bottled my 1 year old WE Brunello w/ skins last month. Very, very good.

 

[DoctorCAD]

As you are discovering, keeping the lid on the bucket is kind of a pain. Most of us here do the initial fermentation without the lid. We simply keep a clean towel over the bucket to keep out any big pieces of air-born dirt or bugs of dog hair or whatever.

After you transfer to the carboy, you will need to keep the airlock attached.

 

[ACbrewer]

Well to answer your question if there is juice in the airlock, then you are getting enough build up inside that the liquid is reaching the juice (usually through some sort of foam building). The airlock should at a minimum be rinsed at this time, so nothing grows in the airlock. It is semi common for suck back to occur after fermentation, thus you could end up spilling some of the airlock liquid into your fermentor.

Normally suckback isn't an issue, as most of the time the airlock is kept clean of sugars (ie juice). So rinse.

As to your proceedure - the experience here seems to be that the kit instructions while usable, are not the best - don't worry that is very common as some of these kit instructions were written log ago before certian experience had been had and gotten back to the manufaturers. Anyhow, I'd follow the other users advice here about going with a cheese cloth or towel over the top to keep dust and bugs out.

If your airlock gets 'fouled' again when you are using it later, just give it a clean. It helps to have more than one so you can swap while you clean. And after the inital active ferment, it is unlikely to need cleaning, although sometimes refilling. Usually while the wine is sitting there clearing, it doesn't really give out much CO2 - just the little that is disolved - as the yeast has already consumed all the sugar.

 

[DoctorCAD]

...the experience here seems to be that the kit instructions while usable, are not the best - don't worry that is very common as some of these kit instructions were written log ago before certian experience had been had and gotten back to the manufaturers....

Quite the opposite. The vast majority of problems happen when someone either mis-reads or misinterprets the kit instructions, or decides that they can do a better job than the company that has 10's of thousands of satisfied customers.

About the only thing that is a universal "tweak" to kits is the timeline. 28 days is just too short of a time to spend on a wine. Lots of us follow the extended 90 day schedule and some go 6 months to a year (I'm at 7 months on 2 kits and will bottle them soon).

Some people also decide that 12 or 13 percent alcohol isn't enough so they add lots of sugar, but I wouldn't recommend that because the alcohol simply overwhelms the kits juice flavors. Now, if all you want to do is get the freshman girls drunk... :cross:

 

[ACbrewer]

Quite the opposite. :cross:

I'm confused, in an earlier post you make comments about how difficult it is to keep the lid on - which is what the instructions state, but then when I suggest that a company that presumably has sold many kits, many more than personally made, might have a few things in the directions that could use improvement - minor things like the 90 days instead of 28 - you call that wrong?

I'm not suggesting going on the web and using what a bunch of blind(we can't see his directions) authors say is the 'better way' of doing things. I've always just bucketed and airlocked, I've also not made a kit wine with skins.

My point is that the directions can be expected to be a little off given that the test kits are not vinted in as many different situations as people eventually do them in. That doesn't make the directions wrong in the absolute sense, but in the sense that perhaps at times, they need to be modified for a particular situation.

I've also found that my kit instructions are occassionally a little to broad in application (if you are doing a wine with oak / if the wine includes an f-pack) where they put multiple sets of instructions in one kit. I mean basically you put the juice in a bucket, add water, stir, add yeast, let sit, rack, etc. But if you have varrious additions the same instructions will be used covering the basics and mentioning the additions that may or may not be in the kit depending on type.

And I'd conceed that directions could have a 'leave covered with towel for 2 weeks' line that was/is missed. Understand I also brew, as well as vint, and there isn't a long term brewer on the forum who will tell you that brewing has changed in the last 20 years, and that the kit instructions don't always reflect that. That doesn't mean that the kit instructions won't work, but perhaps include info that isn't the most up to date, or takes one approach where there are options.

I do admit that following kit instructions is a good idea, it was how it was designed to be used, but that just means the instructions should be good, not that they are the best way of doing it.

 

[DoctorCAD]

But if you do follow the directions carefully, you will have a very good and drinkable wine. Thats what I am implying. If you use a bucket and airlock, it will work perfectly, are there better methods? No doubt, but the kit instructions that I have used are very complete and correct, slightly confusing maybe, but 100% correct.

 

[ACbrewer]

But if you do follow the directions carefully, you will have a very good and drinkable wine. Thats what I am implying. If you use a bucket and airlock, it will work perfectly, are there better methods? No doubt, but the kit instructions that I have used are very complete and correct, slightly confusing maybe, but 100% correct.

Agreed, they should get you a good product every time.

 

[judgerey]

Agreed, they should get you a good product every time.

Removed airlock, cleaned and sanitized, replaced with vodka (cheapest I could find). Everything working fine. No suckback in two days.

Thanks for the advice.

Now getting together ingredients for apfelwein and Welch's grape juice wine. My OCD is kicking in big time.