[bladeofthemoon]

Hey everyone... im not sure if im stuck or not so i thought i'd ask. i have put my wine in the 2ndary fermenter after taking out the pulp and squeezing it into the juice cause the SG was at 1.010( the book said to shift into the 2ndary fermenter at this point and squeeze the juice out of the pulp and remove the pulp.) . I have attached the fermentation lock and everything. it's been 5 days or so and initially there was a little foam on the surface, very little, and there was some amount of bubbles rising in the water bottle which i was using as a fermentation lock. But now, it is deathly silent and there isnt any bubbles rising at all ( i looked at it for about 30 min and still nothing.) so is the fermentation completely over? should i take off the lock and use a hydrometer to check the SG and smell to see if it hasnt gone bad( kinda the smell of rotten eggs?? )??

[Luc]

I can not recall your recipe, but do you know the original SG.
It might just be that the SG was so high that the level of alcohol tolerancy has been reached for the yeast.

Then again you stated there were some bubbles after racking.
So did you measure SG again ???
At what level is it now.

It might just have finished......

About the rule in the book:
If a guideline is to get the wine from the pulp at 1010 or 1020 and it takes 3 weeks for fermentation to get to that point it might be very bad to follow that rule.
Fermenting on the pulp for that long can leach so much tannin into the wine that the wine will be undrinkable.
Pulp fermenting should be done for 3 days to a week depending on the kind of must. Not depending on the SG.

Remember: just because it is in a book does not make it true.

Luc

[cpfan]

Originally Posted by bladeofthemoon

should i take off the lock and use a hydrometer to check the SG

YES. Visual signs of fermentation are not reliable.

Steve

[bladeofthemoon]

Originally Posted by Luc

I can not recall your recipe, but do you know the original SG.
It might just be that the SG was so high that the level of alcohol tolerancy has been reached for the yeast.

Then again you stated there were some bubbles after racking.
So did you measure SG again ???
At what level is it now.

It might just have finished......

About the rule in the book:
If a guideline is to get the wine from the pulp at 1010 or 1020 and it takes 3 weeks for fermentation to get to that point it might be very bad to follow that rule.
Fermenting on the pulp for that long can leach so much tannin into the wine that the wine will be undrinkable.
Pulp fermenting should be done for 3 days to a week depending on the kind of must. Not depending on the SG.

Remember: just because it is in a book does not make it true.

Luc

well the wine is an apple and honey wine and the SG was supposed to be 1.020 at the time of racking and i checked it to make sure it was. It took about ummmmm i think 5-6 days. after racking, there was bubbling in the fermentation lock for about 2-3 days. its now the 4th day and there is no bubbling. at this point the SG is 1.000. so now do i rack it into another container and top it up with cold water? cause according to the book, the final SG should be 0.990-0.995. At that stage i should add the finings ( which i dont have so imma use food grade gelatin which i hope will do the same thing. :P ) what do u guys suggest?? also what temp should i keep?? currently its about 30'C, room temp.

Originally Posted by cpfan

YES. Visual signs of fermentation are not reliable.

Steve

i checked. its at SG 1.000

[cpfan]

Patience. Another week or two won't hurt it.

[bladeofthemoon]

lol.... er... patience is not really my virtue, so i kinda transferred it to a new container and put a cork in it. hehe. also, the thing is, i have about 7 liters of liquid and its a 10 liter container so about er... 1/4 of it is empty. i dont think i can top it with about 2.5 liters of cold water can i??

in anycase im thinking that lets wait for a week or two and see if the sg falls to 0.990-0.995 and then add the gelatin finings (which i am still awaiting ure approval for. its the jelly making gelatin. ) and etc etc.

[cpfan]

That sounds like too much airspace.

Knox gelatin by chance? I have no experience with it, but here's a link to a thread on it.
http://www.winepress.us/forums/index.php?showtopic=33477&hl=knox

BTW, I just picked up a litre of isinglass to use as a clearing agent in some smaller batches. Even though my recently bottled Fruitopia wine is crystal clear without any clearing agents. Of course, about 2 months from start to bottling.

Steve

[bladeofthemoon]

man u guys are so lucky cause i cannot get a hold of any of these things.

[Wade E]

What was your starting sg and what yeast did you use, that will help us determine if this wine is tuck or if the abv has out done your yeast strain.

[bladeofthemoon]

My starting SG was 1.095. i used a bread yeast.i dont think you guys will know the yeast brand cause its an indian brand. er... whats tuck or abv out doing the yeast strain?? oh btw, it smells fine. winey.