JEP62 wrote:

> Mememe wrote:
>
>>Help! Now what?
>
>
> First, take a breath. It's a carboy of wine. You don't have to stress
> so much (although we all do in the beginning).
>
>
>>Do we have to syphon the wine back out into a new carboy, or do we just buy
>>a new fermentation lock and let the sterilized rubber stopper lie at the
>>bottom of the carboy until we syphon the wine out for the stabilization
>>step?
>
>
> Just buy a new one and put it on. The wine should still be producing
> plenty of CO2 which will protect the wine in the interm. You may want
> to look at a stopper that's a little bigger. They come in half sizes.
>
>
>>Any help/advice would be very much appreciated--I'm really dreading going
>>back to our local wine-making store and having to confess my sins to the
>>Nils Crane behind the till.
>
>
> If Nils Crane is behind the counter, time to find a new shop. This is
> supposed to be fun.
>
> Andy
>

If it was my wine, I'd wanna know if that rubber stopper was
sulfur-cured or peroxide-cured (you can tell by smelling a 'sister'
cork... if there's any sulfur smell, then it was sulfur-cured). Just
say no to smelly stoppers

In that case, rack immediately.
The sulfur compound used to cure rubber is not what you want in your
wine... won't help preserve the wine and gives it a bad taste.

Peroxide-cured rubber is OK for short term (under a few weeks) direct
contact with wine (hey the mineral oil in there that keeps the rubber
soft gives the wine 'mouth feel' hehe). In this case, you'll extract a
little stuff from the stopper, but probably won't taste it (fingers
crossed).

gene