I checked th SG this morning of my first batch of wine.
I started the whole process with 5 gal of squeezed strained juice from
my own Buffalo grapes (no skins no seeds). I used the Campden tabs,
yeast food and pectin stuff as directed.
This morning I got a SG of 1.030 at a temp of 77 degrees. (Strange to
me as the air temp in the room was 73 degrees ??)
Anyhow based on the book directions for actions at 1.030 SG I siphoned
(racked ??) the liquid into a 5 gallon glass jug and put in the
airlock. I posted earlier to this group about a slow start up on the
yeast innocualtion. I way over did the yeast and got a boiling ferment
started real early Sunday morning.
I guess that makes it 3 full days to go from 1.112 to 1.030.
The darn thing is literally fizzing out gas and foam from the airlock
jar. Sort of like a shook bottle of pop.
Leaving the airlock in place, I took the carboy outside and put it in a
20 gal tub and sprayed it with the hose from my well (water usually
around 57 degrees) and it sitting out there right now about half
submerged in the water. (still spewing away).
Can someone advise me in what I should do now ??
I don't see any information in the books or "how to's" about foaming
airlocks.
Would really appreciate some guidance here.

I would get a clean bung and airlock ready to go - pull the dirty one out,
put the clean one in, and clean the other one. If you don't have a spare,
just pull it out and clean it, refill it and put it back. If you're
concerned about bugs, lay a clean cloth over the top of the carboy, while
you're cleaning the bung and airlock out.
Darlene

"Kentucky" wrote in message
oups.com...
I checked th SG this morning of my first batch of wine.
I started the whole process with 5 gal of squeezed strained juice from
my own Buffalo grapes (no skins no seeds). I used the Campden tabs,
yeast food and pectin stuff as directed.
This morning I got a SG of 1.030 at a temp of 77 degrees. (Strange to
me as the air temp in the room was 73 degrees ??)
Anyhow based on the book directions for actions at 1.030 SG I siphoned
(racked ??) the liquid into a 5 gallon glass jug and put in the
airlock. I posted earlier to this group about a slow start up on the
yeast innocualtion. I way over did the yeast and got a boiling ferment
started real early Sunday morning.
I guess that makes it 3 full days to go from 1.112 to 1.030.
The darn thing is literally fizzing out gas and foam from the airlock
jar. Sort of like a shook bottle of pop.
Leaving the airlock in place, I took the carboy outside and put it in a
20 gal tub and sprayed it with the hose from my well (water usually
around 57 degrees) and it sitting out there right now about half
submerged in the water. (still spewing away).
Can someone advise me in what I should do now ??
I don't see any information in the books or "how to's" about foaming
airlocks.
Would really appreciate some guidance here.

Take the airlock off and just cover it with a tupperware container
until it settles down. Or a clean cloth like Dar said. You do not
want the airlock getting plugged up.

The reason the must is a higher temp than the roomis that the yeast
generate heat as part of thier metabolism.

I will go with the cloth and tupperware bowl until things settle down a
bit (belt and suspenders if you would)
Thank you all for the quick help.

Another option is a blow-off tube... works if you have a 3-piece style
airlock on your carboy. Just remove the inner piece of the airlock and
fit a sanitized section of tubing over the inner tube section. Run the
other end into some sanitizer solution in a container. (2 L pop bottle
works well.) Then just return the airlock to the original configuration
when the fermentation is less violent. Only problem is that you'll lose
a little wine this way, but that's hard to avoid at this point.

I once came home to a ceiling-high beer geyser shooting out of the tiny
air vent holes in the airlock. Luckily it didn't blow the whole bung.

Travis

Kentucky wrote:
I will go with the cloth and tupperware bowl until things settle down a
bit (belt and suspenders if you would)
Thank you all for the quick help.

Another option is a blow-off tube... works if you have a 3-piece style
airlock on your carboy. Just remove the inner piece of the airlock and
fit a sanitized section of tubing over the inner tube section. Run the
other end into some sanitizer solution in a container. (2 L pop bottle
works well.) Then just return the airlock to the original configuration
when the fermentation is less violent. Only problem is that you'll lose
a little wine this way, but that's hard to avoid at this point.

I once came home to a ceiling-high beer geyser shooting out of the tiny
air vent holes in the airlock. Luckily it didn't blow the whole bung.

Travis

Kentucky wrote:
I will go with the cloth and tupperware bowl until things settle down a
bit (belt and suspenders if you would)
Thank you all for the quick help.

Thanks to you all. This is the most helpful and responsive group I have
ever joined.
As of this morning the drama continues.
I loosed the string that secured the cloth over the neck of the carboy.
It popped like a champange cork. Foam had collected and hardened under
the cloth and sealed the jug. I changed out a clean cloth and retied
it. I also placed a tupperware bowl loosely over the cloth. Next time I
think I will go with the blow off tube idea.
The bubbling is quieting down a little and I feel pretty good about my
chances of actually getting something that a person would want to
drink.
Should I just go with trial and error to get back to the airlock
installation on this ferment ?
Is there a SG that I should be shooting for before the changeover ?
I think the alcohol level is up around 10% based on the starting SG
1.114 and the present 1.030 SG. Will this help protect the must from
"bad bugs" ?
Thanks again.

I once had a nice porter fizzing wildly out of an airlock. I knew I
had to release the pressure. I basically touched the stopper with my
thumb when they whole airlock blew out of the top of the carboy.

After the thought "CRAP!!!" went throught my head, the geyser started.
Beer shooting 6 fct in the air out of the top of the carboy. It blew 3
gallons of beer out before it stopped.

It is nothign I would ever want happen again.....but looking back it
was pretty funny.

Travis,
just tried your blow-off tube idea on the one gallon jugs I just
racked.
The fresh pomace from the crush for the 5 gal batch (only used the
juice) was hung overnight over a bucket yielding 1.5 gallons of
drippings. I fermented this batch (again juice only) separately from
the big batch.
Sure enough when I racked to the 1 gal jugs they misbehaved just like
the big batch.
I used your idea and it worked great !!!!
I had a bit of a time getting the tubing I had on hand to stretch over
the airlock inner tube.
I did get it on good and tight and rigged it up per your suggestion.
The foam is just bubbling up in the 2 liter pop bottle through the
sterile solution I put in the pop bottle.
Thanks again for your great suggestion.

Kentucky;

Personally I would have waited till the sg was down closer to 1.000
(at least under 1.010). Thus had I seen this message earlier I would
have suggested putting the wine back into the primary with a larger
headspace to accomodate the activity.

Looks to me that you are around 11% already headed towards 16% (if the
yeast doesn't keel over first).

As long as the strong yeast activity continues you should be OK, but
get the wine protected as soon as the activity dies off.

Steve

Pour the must into a food quality pail, cover with a clean towel and let it
settle down in that. Stir twice a day. When the foaming calms down rack it
into your carboy.

"Kentucky" wrote in message
oups.com...
I checked th SG this morning of my first batch of wine.
I started the whole process with 5 gal of squeezed strained juice from
my own Buffalo grapes (no skins no seeds). I used the Campden tabs,
yeast food and pectin stuff as directed.
This morning I got a SG of 1.030 at a temp of 77 degrees. (Strange to
me as the air temp in the room was 73 degrees ??)
Anyhow based on the book directions for actions at 1.030 SG I siphoned
(racked ??) the liquid into a 5 gallon glass jug and put in the
airlock. I posted earlier to this group about a slow start up on the
yeast innocualtion. I way over did the yeast and got a boiling ferment
started real early Sunday morning.
I guess that makes it 3 full days to go from 1.112 to 1.030.
The darn thing is literally fizzing out gas and foam from the airlock
jar. Sort of like a shook bottle of pop.
Leaving the airlock in place, I took the carboy outside and put it in a
20 gal tub and sprayed it with the hose from my well (water usually
around 57 degrees) and it sitting out there right now about half
submerged in the water. (still spewing away).
Can someone advise me in what I should do now ??
I don't see any information in the books or "how to's" about foaming
airlocks.
Would really appreciate some guidance here.