Problem: Help!

Did some research, and found something on Jack Keller's website about "Flowers of Wine". He suggests racking and filtering to remove the flowers, and then adding a crushed campden tablet. I'm not CERTAIN this is what is happening to my wine, but it looks like it might match. Thoughts?

I've seen that, hit it with camden (1 tablet /gal) and gently stir; or rack again and add camden.

Did not seem to effect the quality of the wine, it happened once to a Blueberry wine I made.

Okay, Keller's website says that Flowers of Wine (if that's what this batch is afflicted with) is an alcohol killer, converting alcohol to carbon dioxide gas. If left untreated it will turn the wine into colored water. Two questions:

- How can I measure the amount of alcohol loss I have experienced? A rise in SG?

- Is this strictly an alcohol killer, or will it affect taste as well? If it does affect the taste, is there any way to repair the damage?

Hi Matthew,

specific gravity is, (very) simply speaking, a measure of how much sugar is in the water, compared to water without any in. Alcohol is less dense than water and therefore a reduction in alcohol could be reflected by an increase in specific gravity, BUT the change would be far smaller than a hydrometer could measure (i.e. much much smaller than the uncertainty already present in the hydrometer). No, it isn't strictly an alcohol killer as biochemical reactions are never that precise - for instance yeast turns sugar to ethanol and carbon dioxide, but also produces a host of other compounds in varying amounts (e.g. methanol, glycerol etc). The bacteria could affect the taste of the wine . I think that considering you have noticed the problem quickly, and taken steps to rectify it, you won't have any trouble. Perhaps though, it would be worthwile sampling the wine more regularly - it may mean the wine doesn't last as long.

Hope this is of some use, best of luck,

Just as an aside, I have just bottled a batch of plum wine (luckily I didn't have this problem), the taste was quite extraordinary - a full bodied / pinkish/red wine which reminded me a lot of tawny port. I can hardly wait to start opening it :-).

M.Baker

Okay, I racked the wine over to a new carboy and, once in the new carboy, treated the wine with 5 crushed campden tablets. This afternoon I noticed a VERY thin skin on the top of the wine, and some small waxy-like buildup along the waterline. So it looks like it's back. I could follow the same remedy, but how much campden is safe to add to the wine before it starts affecting the taste?

Unless I hear differently, I'll plan to rack this over to a new carboy and hit it with more campden (5-tablets). Again. Is this correct?

Your problem is the airspace over the wine. You need to rack to (a) smaller container(s) to eliminate that space. Spoilage organisms need air to grow, and you're providing them with good conditions.

Tom S

The original spoilage occurred when the 5-gallon carboy was full. About an inch clearance between the wine and the bottom of the airlock. After racking it, there's more clearance, and the stuff came back. So this time I'll rack it, ad the 5 campden tables, and then top it up with water so there's very little airspace.

Sounds like the wine has high pH. It's very difficult to protect high pH wines with sulfite because it takes so much to be effective.

OTOH, are you sure those Campden tablets are still good? Exposure to air reduces their potency rather quickly. You may be shooting blanks. The only way to know for sure is to test the wine for free SO2, and you also need to know the pH of the wine.

Tom S