# and the house smells of mangos...



## Fl_Beak (May 9, 2010)

So I blew the lid off the top of my fermentation bucket, and mango melomel is all over. 

My wife had sewn me a bag out of muslin to hang fruit in the must. What seems to have happened is the fruit pulp has clogged up the bag, the bag expanded and blocked the air lock. Then the top blew. :lookout:

*My question*: if the bag is that clogged, am I getting anything into the must from the fruit? I lifted the bag, and tried to squeeze out liquid, but it is _clogged_.

I'm thinking about dumping the fruit out of the bag, into the must, but didn't want to have to strain all the mango pulp. I don't want 5 gallon of lousy mead either...

any thoughts? It's day two on the primary fermentation and its roiling nicely.


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## kwest (May 16, 2009)

the wine that ive made i dumped the fruit strait in without a bag. when you rack the wine you leave behind most of the left over fruit etc. after racking it 3 times or so it will be free of fruit etc. just keep the suction tube off the bottom when racking.


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## Fl_Beak (May 9, 2010)

That may be the direction I go then. I made a blueberry wine this June, and it was a bugger trying to rack from the primary. I really pulverized the fruit and my racking cane kept clogging.

In search of simplification, I blew it! :doh:


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## kwest (May 16, 2009)

be carefull not to stir it up at all before you rack, have someone watch the new bottle end so you can concentrate on keeping the suction end off the bottom just above the fruit.


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## plaztikjezuz (Apr 22, 2010)

chiming in a little late here.

i am sure you noticed that mangos once fermented have these annoying fibrous strands and tons of pulp. what ever you do never "strain" always "rack" with a syphon to prevent oxygen from getting in your fermented beverage. 

you do not need to have the lid sealed while the primary is happening to prevent the fruit cap from plugging anything up and having a violent reaction. a lot of people just cover the fermenter with the lid once the main part of the fermentation is happening and then reseal the lid once it calms down.

i really do not like fine mesh bags, IMO they lead to oxidation because they trap a lot of liquid that home vintner's cannot pass up. i always just dump my fruit in unless; it is a stone fruit that will hold up like cherries, i can get 2 batches out of 16 lbs of fresh pitted cherries. a coarse mesh nylon bag makes that easy. 

but most fruit ferments down to nothing and the pulp just plugs a bag up and i have to squeeze to get the liquid out. that is just adding oxygen and spoilage compounds to the mead. 

i work more on finding filter tips for my syphon. i find the scotch guard green and blue scrubby's work very well when rubber banded on to the tip of the racking cane. i do clean and sanitize them before use with pbw and starsan.
this only works well with fluffy, fibrous lees like what you get with mangos.

i come from the school that thinks it is better to let the mead sit a little longer and settle out more before i rack out of the primary. for 1 i have access to Co2 to bleed into the transfer vessel, 2 i can keep the mead cool, 3 i am busy and this works for my schedule aka lazy (haha). the benefits i see are 1 less potential for aeration and oxidation effects, 2 more yield, 3 more free time for my many hobbies.


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## Fl_Beak (May 9, 2010)

Makes sense. Next time I'll hold off the racking.


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