Strange fermentation experience

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Jessica

New Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2016
Messages
4
Reaction score
1
Location
NULL
Hello,

I'm coming back to wine making after many years away.

I'm using plastic demijohns for the first time.

The wine is bubbling away but nothing is coming through the airlock.......

How can this be?

I've checked there are no leaks. I've even taken off the airlock and lid and put clingfim over the neck of the demijohn so there's no way any air/CO2 could get out and still nothing.... the wine continues to bubble and the clingfilm stays still.

I was expecting a balloon to form....nothing.

I can't understand how this can be happening. It CAN'T happen!

Any ideas?

Thanks!
 
Not an expert by any means but if it is bubbling then gas must be coming off and that gas needs to go somewhere. I would not trust clingfilm to be airtight and I have had airlocks that appear to be airtight but are not until jiggled a bit or even a dab of vaseline to sort it. How about a balloon stretched over the neck with a pin hole in it. That should inflate.
 
Hello,

I'm coming back to wine making after many years away.

I'm using plastic demijohns for the first time.

The wine is bubbling away but nothing is coming through the airlock.......

How can this be?

I've checked there are no leaks. I've even taken off the airlock and lid and put clingfim over the neck of the demijohn so there's no way any air/CO2 could get out and still nothing.... the wine continues to bubble and the clingfilm stays still.

I was expecting a balloon to form....nothing.

I can't understand how this can be happening. It CAN'T happen!

Any ideas?

Thanks!

welcome to the forum - i personally have never used plastic demijohns so dont know about how they react/what the leakage is like with them.

You obviously have fermentation happening but where the gas is escaping is the question - what type of bung/stopper do you have in place ? do you have a pic

when i suspected a leakage around the rubber bung with my demijohn i put some water around the edge/point of contact - if the water shows no change eg no movement or bubbles then its somewhere else.

once i see a picture of the fermenter i should be able to diagonse this some more
 
Thank you Vinotinto and Personal 91, I appreciate your help.

I have wrapped it very tightly in clingfilm (and have even tried clingfilm alone without the airlock with the same result) so every possible air gap is covered.....

And funnily, it was bubbling away through the airlock for a few days before this strange thing started.

Mysterious wine picture.jpg
 
I cannot help with your no bubble problem but if you are going to try another wine only fill half way between the top line on the bottle and the neck or it will bubble through the airlock.

The only way to know for sure what is going on is to take several readings with a hydrometer, everything else is guesswork.
 
Thanks for your help everyone.

I took the executive decision to rack off the wine to see what happened.

Having done it twice now, while the fermenting has slowed down, it has started to bubble through the lock at least!

One down one to go as the other one hasn't played ball yet.

Thanks again all!
 
Ha! Yes I confess to having been doing that every time I walk past Chippy Tea, which won't have been doing the process any good I'm sure!

I've ruled out leaks I think so am just going to accept that my wine goes against all principles of science.

I'll let you know what it turns out like!
 
Back
Top