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HELP! Pushed the rubber stopper into the carboy, now what?

Okay, this is the first batch ever, and we're very stupid, but learning quickly. (Please forgive us if this has been answered before.)

We must have filled the carboy too full last night (we were transferring the wine from the primary fermenter into the carboy for secondary fermenting) because the fermentation lock was full of wine this morning. So I thought I'd be able to just pop it out clean it up, resterilize it, and pop it back in. Nope--top came out of the stopper, stopper stuck in neck of carboy. Then we fooled around with it trying to unstick the stopper, and voila, the stopper went down instead of up, and is now lying motionless at the bottom of the carboy.

Help! Now what?

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?

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.

Reply to
Mememe
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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).

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.

If Nils Crane is behind the counter, time to find a new shop. This is supposed to be fun.

Andy

Reply to
JEP62

If you have another stopper, use it and leave that one down there until you rack the next time. It will do no harm. I think most of us have had this happen. Sounds like you really need to use the next size larger stopper anyway.

If you do not have an extra stopper, then you will have to rack and get it out. To get it out I turn the carboy upside down and jiggle it until I get the stopper to fall into the neck with the small end pointing out. Then I run a wire hook made from a cloths through the hole and pull it out.

Then get some extra stoppers in various sizes. They are not expensive and ultimately you can not have too many.

Ray

Reply to
Ray Calvert

It would work better if you made the hook form a cloths hanger not form cloths. My spell checker went wild.

Ray

Reply to
Ray Calvert

Hey--thanks so much for the help. I'm breathing again, and about to put in a new stopper. And, despite being slightly neurotic, I'm having fun! :)

Cheers!

Reply to
Mememe

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

Reply to
gene

Despite what others have said, I'd recommend that you get that stopper out of there pronto. Some of them will give your wine a stink nose. Empty the carboy, rinse it out, turn it upside down and use a handkerchief to catch the stopper and pull it out.

Tom S

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Reply to
Tom S

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