Slow fermentation?

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agdodge4x4

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I started a pomagranate wine on 2/4 using jack keller's recipe. After the second day I was concerned about H2S smell and added 1/2tsp super ferment to counteract that AND closed the door to the guest bathroom, which essentially brought the temperature in the room up to about 80 degrees. The smell went away and it was fermenting like crazy.

I pulled the straining bag of pulp/seeds out tonight as per the directions. I started at SG 1095, but judging by the variance across two separate hydrometers that number could have been closer to 1100. NOW, 7 days later, the SG is 1032, or 1035 depending on which hydrometer I use. Either way, the must is extremely sweet. My question is, all of my previous wines are at 1.000 by this stage in the game. I cannot see that it is fermenting like it was before, its significantly slower. This is a Cotes des Blancs yeast.

Is all OK still? I was going to check it tomorow arounnd noon and hope the SG went down, indicating that it is still fermenting.

Does this sound like a problem yet? I guess what I am worried about is that I put too much sugar in and that it won't ferment out even though I have never had problems with this yeast and starting SG's of 1095-1100 before. Even though I crushed the juice seed sacs, maybe there was a lot more sugar that was not released and accounted for when I read 1095 at the start of fermentation....but it was this after the 24 hour period after campden and pectic enzyme was added so it should have been ok.
 
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Cotes des Blanc is a slower fermenter which is better for fruit to help retain its fruity ester. faster hotter fermentations will burn this off. I like a cooler fermentation for fruit, 80* is too high, bring it downto a max of 75*
 
Some wines talk longer. Did you do a TA test? I know from experience that "fruit" wines run on a different schedule depending on the fruit. Did you add nutrient? This may help and if the lid off or under airlock. some wines ? yeast are O2 deprived
 
I dont know what TA is...either total alcohol or total acid...i have no test for either though.

I have very little control over the temperature where it is. It was very likely at or around 75 for MOST of its fermentation, the temperature swings were from 80 down to 70 I am sure. That was the only place I could put it to keep it warm enough to keep it from getting stressed. If it had sat with the rest of the wine it wouldnt have made it higher than about 68*....not much I can do about that where I am this time of year. I did take another look and it is in fact still fermenting, although not nearly as vigorously as this morning. I have no idea if its a bad idea, but I did take a little sampling of the wine to see if it told me anything. Aside from being sweet, it was very much still fruity, so that is a good thing. I will watch it and transfer to secondary at 1010 or so.

Either way, its drastically different than my strawberry or either grape. This is far more fun than I ever imagined it would be. I know its not a good thing, but I kind of enjoy watching it and troubleshooting when necessary and figuring out why something went wrong if it happens. Not that that is a problem here for now.

This is in a primary, with 1/4 tsp more yeast nutrient than called for and while it is under a lid, the lid is just setting on top of a towel that is over the primary, nothing is on tight...no air lock. I did it this way last time and it worked pretty well.
 
Ther is certain things you MUST HAVE to make wine
Hydrometer
k=meta
Sorbate
TA test kit
carboys
corker
etc
If you dont have these you cant make good wine OR can we answer any questions withought info
 
TA is titratable acidity by the way. Which is pretty much a measure of the total acid as you guessed.
 
I wouldnt sa you cant make good wine but it does leave te dorr open to many batches that wont be as good as they could have been.
 
I have everything, even a floor corker, but no acid test kit. Im still very much a beginner, this is only my 4th batch of wine. I seriously never really considered that to be a 'must have' item, now I know. However, oddly enough, it is on my list of things to get when I make my next order online as I plan to make wild grape wine over the summer....which of course will need to keep the TA in check.

It never really occurred to me that pomegranate TA would be anything I needed to check.

With that in mind...what does the TA affect in regards to slow fermentation or yeast in general? (my wine is still fermenting by the way, a fair amount, but not nearly as heavily).
 
I have very little control over the temperature where it is.

What I did to control my fermentation temp in the summer is to place the primary fermentater in an old tin wash tub, filled it with water a couple of inches from the top. I added a couple of frozen water bottles to control the temp. I used a cheap aquarium floating thermometer to moniter the water's temp.
 
Thanks for the info everyone. I have checked the SG again, it is now at 1024. Just to be clear, I transfer or rack to my secondary based on SG, NOT based on the fact that its been more than 7 days in the primary, correct?
 
I would pull the pulp and put under airlock. Rack @ 1.015
 
The pulp was removed a few days ago. It was in a straining bag for easy removal. I will put the must in the secondary tomorrow I guess.
 

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