Trouble with Cherry Wine

I'm sure there are things (detergents ?) that you could add to cut down on the bubble production, but you probably don't want them in your wine. It seems to me that if the fermentation is that strong, the must should still be in a pail or bucket, rather than a carboy with an airlock. Failing that, I think you need to siphon some off, and give the must more headroom.

Doug

I've had tremendous bubbles early on with other wines, but they've never gone through the airlock before because the bubbles pop. The problem is that the bubbles don't pop. Giving it room doesn't exactly help, because the room will fill up with, you guessed it, unpopped bubbles.

Someone in the brewing group recommended Fermcap. What is the opinion of it here?

Jason

You doubt my advice, Jason? ;-)

I don't think a lot of amateur winemakers use Fermcap. It is primarily a product for the commercial brewing industry, although a few homebrew retailers sell it (or just a generic product called anti-foam). Foaming is a much bigger problem in the brew world because of the properties of beer and wort. I mean, when was the last time you saw Champagne hold a head?

Still, I have had the odd batch of fermenting wine exhibit the behaviour you describe, although before I got into brewing, so I never had a chance to try Fermcap on any of those. Where I find it especially useful these days (in winemaking) is to break the surface tension while vacuum degassing a newly fermented wine in carboy. Otherwise, the limited headspace just fills up with foam as the vacuum causes the CO2 to come out of solution.

Brian

I agree with Doug. I would not add anything. Just split the batch or at least rack some off into anther container. Some batches do foam more than others. we just adjust the head space accordingly. I have made a number of batches of cherries, both from juice and fruit and have not noticed this problem.

Ray

No, but I wanted as round a commentary as possible. :-)

I'll have to see what the nearest supply store has (1 hour away w/out traffic, but it is in L.A.).

Jason

I would break it down into another carboy, my meads behave exactly like your wine is behaving. If the bubbles have a longer way to crawl to the top of the carboy they do seem to break. I did Cherry with no issues a few years back and am doing strawberry now. Mine are about

2/3rd full with no issues. (And now that I said that i will go home to another blown airlock with must on the ceiling...) I never used antifoam but it's available up here in Pgh.

Joe

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote:

Ray and Doug are right. I don't have anything to add, because I've made cherry and I didn't have that problem either. You know, it could be your yeast. Montrachet yeast always seems to foam a lot, but there are other yeasts out there which are low foaming. I didn't realize there was a difference until I went to using different yeasts. Darlene

Best to call, it isn't a commonly stocked item among most homebrew retailers. Since you are in California, your best bet is Beer, Beer and More Beer. They just call it foam control, don't know if it is Fermcap, but it should do the trick. I figure they all work about the same. They have lots of winemaking stuff, too.

464

Brian

Hi, I'm just starting making wine with Cherries (first time wine making at all). I didn't have the chance to follow the topic from beginning cos my provider erases after a couple of days. But what I found about fermentation on the internet is the right temperature (they say the best choice is between 19 deg C and 23 deg C), too warm temperature makes the fermantation very strong, sometimes even with quality loss. I'm having worries about that too, cos even in the basement it's warmer than that. I'll see how it goes on anyway.

Werner

Bigger fermentation vessel, or break it down to 2.

You are so lucky to be able to get hold of cherries to make wine from. Here in Florida it never gets down past $2.50/lb

SG Brix