Another question - potentially bottled to early?

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mwestin

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I have a wild blueberry wine (it's absolutely delicious! must raid homeland for bigger quantities next year)

It bubbled like fury and stopped bubbling fairly early on. I bottled it after a few weeks of no bubbles and level airlock. However last night i had a little of a small bottle left as a side kick to the other 6. It went slightly fizz as i opened it (very small) and also felt slightly tingly on toungue.

I don't want to lose this wine to explosions - do i need to uncork it again or do you reckon i'd be ok? the taster bottle had a sediment as it was the last drudge.
 
A malolactic fermentation has probably taken place, in which case, no need to worry. It tends to produce a slight fizz, but not enough to burst the bottle!
 
Most likely cause is if you haven't degassed it perfectly. As Tony says another cause might be MLF. Should be fine either way. Did you check the final gravity before bottling?
 
Brewtrog said:
Most likely cause is if you haven't degassed it perfectly. As Tony says another cause might be MLF. Should be fine either way. Did you check the final gravity before bottling?

I'd go for this. I don't de-gas my Rosé's so they get a little tingle on the tongue. You need to shake all the co2 out when it's stabilized to get rid of all fizz.

I wouldn't say you had bottled too early, but if you're worried about that, put them in a cool place and it should abate any fermentation...a cool place that you don't mind getting covered in blueberry juice.
 
ah - what's degassing? literally just shake it all about before putting corks on? Hmmm will stick them in shed, at least temperatures are cooling down.
 
Degassing is getting the naturally produced CO2 out of the wine. The easiest way to do it is to either buy or make an attachment for an electric drill and use that on the wine over a length of time (I don't know how long, I don't use this method, never got round to making the paddle). The other method is to get the dj, put in a solid bung and shake it for about 30 seconds, remove the bung to release pressure then refit the bung, repeat a few times every few hours over a couple of days. Another option is, if you don't mind the slight sparkle, don't degass.
 
I made an attachment for my drill out of a plastic coat hanger, there is a video on youtube about this, I will post a link later.
I degass my DJ's for about one minute switching from forward to backward every ten seconds and that is all it takes, it also helps clearing as there are no bubbles to hold the sediment.
 
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