Went downstairs the other morning to a scene that looked like it was straight out of CSI - winemaking unit.
The big barrels I use for 5 gallon wine kits are normally fine for the primary fermentation but this yeast must have got a bit keen - blew the airlock off and sprayed wine onto the ceiling. Good job it was only RED WINE! Argh!
I spent a long time scrubbing!
I've just started another wine kit but this time in the shed!
Anyone else have a homebrew disaster lately?
Not lately, but remember well, cleaning the ceilings ,walls ,floor and everything else, the day the Welsh mead, blue the top off the big stoewar jar it was fermenting in. To add to the mess,it lifted the medicine cabinet off the wall above it. Depositing the broken content into the delight. Took years to clean every spot.
ReplyDeleteI still like welsh Mead.
Kathy
I do love a good mead as well - I have a few gallons ready for drinking and it tastes a bit too good! Hopefully mine won't go pop though!
DeleteI meant it blue the stone jar apart, not just the bung out .
DeleteBlinking heck! I bet that would have been some explosion!
DeleteMy MinL used to make what she thought was apple juice. We regularly heard the tops blow off those. She couldn’t understand why as she hadn’t put any yeast into them for them to do that. She didn’t realise about wild yeast on the apples.
ReplyDeleteI might have once accidentally given the children apple juice for breakfast only to sit down and realise that it was cider...
DeleteOh my! I've never seen that before. Mine have all behaved themselves, fortunately!
ReplyDeleteNeither have I with an airlock still on it. Lets just say I found it surprising!
DeleteIn his younger days my dad was very fond of brewing. His claim to fame was that he once blew the front of the shed off. lol
ReplyDeleteOh my! That really did make me chuckle! I hope I never do anything so drastic!
DeleteYears ago, we made our own root beer regularly. One summer we made a batch, put it in a lower kitchen cabinet to do its thing and left on a week long canoe trip. Apparently it got too warm while we were gone and we came home to find the bottles had all blown and we had not only sticky syrup across the kitchen floor but the glass from the bottles, too. Didn't hit the ceiling but sure did make it all the way across the kitchen!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness - coming home to that must have been horrible!
DeleteTee-hee - F's ginger beer used to do that. Lively yeast....
ReplyDeleteShe had a bottle of something fermented explode in the back end of the boat she was living in years ago. She was on board at the time. The sound of an explosion followed by a trickling sound was apparently cause for much scrabbling about preparing to sink.
That would just wake you up! lol!
DeleteTry doing your primary ferment in a bucket. We 've had a couple bottles blow when the wine started working again. Had to unbottle all the rest of the batch and kill the yeast. Tell yourself that you needed to paint that ceiling anyway.
ReplyDeleteI always do with smaller batches but these have plenty of head space when they're in a gallon drum like this - although I'm the first to admit maybe not enough!
DeleteI am impressed Kev. I have lost one or two small batch through an airlock that came loose through pressure, but nothing as impressive as this.
ReplyDeleteYeah this is the worst I've had other than bottles exploding!
DeleteJust been catching up on your last few posts, gosh you've all been so busy. Wine disasters a nightmare, many years ago I went upstairs at my sisters to see red goo dripping from the airing cupboard. All the sheets, towels and numerous items had to be washed. We resorted to dying some items as the stains didn't come out.
ReplyDeleteI like that as a good option to not get the stains out! I don't think this would come out of clothing easily!
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