Need Help

[country joe]

Have just put in last post, is my wine stuck, as it was not bubbling through airlock, saw posts not to worry as buckets are difficult to seal, brewed the wine on thursday afternoon, looked yesterday, and today Saturday, and there was a froth, but no bubbling through airlock, had a look tonight and its totally went flat, not a bubble to be seen, just looks dead,
What do i do, have i lost the lot?
Its a beaverdale Barolo kit 30 bottle.

 

[Moley]

Calm down, some wines might have a slight head of foam but that's mostly if they've got a fruit pulp content and that pulp is being lifted by the carbon dioxide being produced. Many don't, and wine never froths like beer. Yours is just grape juice and sugar, no fruit pulp, it's not going to foam up.

Airlocks on buckets may give a visual indicator, but frequently don't.

Look closely at the liquid surface, is it mirror smooth? I bet it isn't.

Put your ear against the bucket, can you hear it fizzing?

Now leave it alone for a couple of weeks!


I take it that you haven't got a hydrometer? Well get one, they are around three quid and remove all the guesswork.

 

[country joe]

Thanks Moley,
It is very flat, but I can hear hissing, and there is very tiny bubbles.
took a reading at 7.30am and its 50 on the blue, on the hydrometer.
if i take another reading tomorrow, this should tell me if its okay, is this right?

 

[Moley]

The bubbles are only tiny, but there are probably far more of them than you are aware of.

If you can hear it hissing, it's working just fine :thumb:

Now LEAVE IT ALONE and don't even think of taking another hydrometer reading for at least a week. Every time you poke it with a stick is an opportunity for infection.

 

[country joe]

Racked today at 1010 as instructions into fermenter, and is now bubbling away.
Thanks Moley for all your help, and patience with a beginner.
you were right it was working away in the bin, even if no bubbling.
Will know the next time. :thumb:

 

[wino2012]

I ACTUALLY threw away a £90 Voigner kit a few years ago only to then read what I had done.

If you can try and imagine a grown man weeping, staring into the abyss that was the plughole in the bath tub, then you get the picture