First ever wine brew and its exploded!

[James beckford]

I have just made my first homebrew using a kit and on day 2 loads of mashy stuff has almost exploded out of the top.
Have I done something wrong and it will it ruin my wine?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

We all see this at some point and its usually down to overfilling the demijohn when starting if you only fill to the begging of the shoulder next time you should be fine, make a blow off tube just to be on the safe side especially if you are considering making 23 litre batches (see mine below)

How to make one - https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/how-to-make-a-blow-off-tube.48970/

 

[James beckford]

Thanks chippy tea. This was actually in a plastic barrel for a 30 bottle brew. It was after the topping up so the barrel was about 3/4 full. Since the explosion the amount gas bubbling off has dropped right off. Is this normal ?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Yes the early fermentation can be vigarous then it drops off as the yeast runs out of sugar and starts to die if you are going to use your FV regularly I would make a blow off tube as the extra heat in the summer months means you will see this again regularly.

 

[MagnusTS]

I have just spent the best part of the afternoon cleaning up after the exact same thing happened to me. I thought I'd left enough headroom, but this morning the airing cupboard looked like a slaughterhouse. Red foamy matter splattered all over (Sainsbury's Tropical plus Red Grape Juice). I cleaned it all up and swapped the bubbler airlock for a blow off tube as @Chippy_Tea describes above. It's all looking a lot calmer now.

 

[James beckford]

Thanks for the answers. Will the wine still be drinkable or have I ruined it? Secondly, I actually have 2 barrels, in future would I be better off splitting the brew so that each brew is less than half a barrel and then can't overfill ?

 

[MagnusTS]

Don't worry, your wine will be fine.

I wouldn't go to the trouble of splitting the brew into 2 batches. Just leave more headroom when you start the brew off.

When you start it off, add a few litres less water, so the total volume in the fermentor is a few litres less than you had for this brew. That should leave plenty of space so the foamy mess doesn't reach the lid.

Then once the vigorous fermentation dies down after a few days, and the foam subsides, you can add water to make the brew up to the proper volume without risk of overflow.

 

[James beckford]

Magnus t thanks for that. Will try that on the next batch.