IainM
Landlord.
OK, week before last was hectic with work and planning a combined work trip / family holiday in Spain. The last beer was barrelled, and I had a WineBuddy Sauvignon Blanc kit lying around. They're quick, so the night before we left I managed to get it on, without the missus knowing, amidst the last minute packing. I'm usually careful but in my haste I misread the instruction 'top up to 22.7 litres' as 'top up to 27 liters'. A bit much, I thought to myself, it was only suppose to be 30 bottles. The next day I checked, and there was a decent krausen on there, but still some space, so off we went to Spain. Nine days later, open the door to be greeted by a foul smell permeating the house. This was not good. I suspected that the fv had overflown into the 25C water-filled trug that I keep it in. Opening the door into the utility room, the smell just intensified by an order of magnitude. It was most invasive gut-wrenching smell imaginable, and the room was buzzing with flies. If you've ever driven past a dead kangaroo in the Australian outback, then you will have an idea of the level of how bad this was. I've got a stomach of iron, but it still made me wretch. Clearly the fermentation had taken off big time and a lot of krausen had escaped. The fv was sitting in this brown bath of rotting yeast, the surface teeming with mould and flies. I do put VWP in the solution around the fv, but clearly it wasn't enough. The aquarium heater was thickly covered with gunk. It was nasty.
I had to clean this up, and I had to do it fast. The smell in the rest of the house was enough to get me in trouble, but if the other half saw or smelt this, I would be in big trouble, possibly barred from brewing! I had the time it took for her to get the kid bathed and put in bed, and the suitcases emptied. This was cutting it fine. Like a man possessed, I quickly took the trug and fv outside, poured the foul liquid down the drain, got the sponge and started scrubbing the outside of the fv. The kettle was filled, boiled and emptied as quickly as it could be, and this repeated. I wiped up the drips that fell on the kitchen floor on the way outside. I got to the lid and, after using a knife to remove the gunk that had solidified around the rim, I pried it off. Astonishingly, the wine actually looked ok. I quickly racked it into my boiler, and got started on the trug and aquarium heater. All this while fighting off nausea. The windows were opened wide, flies shooed and star san liberally sprayed onto pretty much everything. Even after multiple rounds of scrubbing with soap, disinfectant and rinsing with boiling water, it still smelt, but nowhere near as badly. I got away with it, just. Don't get me wrong I got a bollocking, but I took it on the chin, all the while thinking 'you have no idea how bad it was' and trying not to smile. Now the fv is full of a double strength VWP solution, sitting in the trug filled with triple strength VWP. I added the finings etc..., and bottled yesterday. I got 33 out in the end, instead of the 30 that I should've made, and although it tastes a little insipid due to being overly watered down, it is quite drinkable!
I had to clean this up, and I had to do it fast. The smell in the rest of the house was enough to get me in trouble, but if the other half saw or smelt this, I would be in big trouble, possibly barred from brewing! I had the time it took for her to get the kid bathed and put in bed, and the suitcases emptied. This was cutting it fine. Like a man possessed, I quickly took the trug and fv outside, poured the foul liquid down the drain, got the sponge and started scrubbing the outside of the fv. The kettle was filled, boiled and emptied as quickly as it could be, and this repeated. I wiped up the drips that fell on the kitchen floor on the way outside. I got to the lid and, after using a knife to remove the gunk that had solidified around the rim, I pried it off. Astonishingly, the wine actually looked ok. I quickly racked it into my boiler, and got started on the trug and aquarium heater. All this while fighting off nausea. The windows were opened wide, flies shooed and star san liberally sprayed onto pretty much everything. Even after multiple rounds of scrubbing with soap, disinfectant and rinsing with boiling water, it still smelt, but nowhere near as badly. I got away with it, just. Don't get me wrong I got a bollocking, but I took it on the chin, all the while thinking 'you have no idea how bad it was' and trying not to smile. Now the fv is full of a double strength VWP solution, sitting in the trug filled with triple strength VWP. I added the finings etc..., and bottled yesterday. I got 33 out in the end, instead of the 30 that I should've made, and although it tastes a little insipid due to being overly watered down, it is quite drinkable!
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