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SBWs

Sixth year into this... and still learning!
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Can a wine ferment without any airlock activity?

I started a 1 gallon trial Apple wine with the idea of it having a low ABV of around 7% fermenting to dry using priming sugar to carbonate and bottling in beer bottles for a summer fun drink.
Recipe was:
4 1/2 quarts of steamed apple juice
1 cup light malt extract
3 tsp acid blend (pH 3.5)
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp yeast nutrient
10 Medium toast Hungarian oak cubes
A little sugar to get the S.G. to 1.052
Montrachet Yeast

Pitched the yeast on the 5th of Feb and it took off like mad.
On the 7th it was at 1.010 and I racked over to 1 gallon jug and installed airlock (temp was 72 degrees).
On the 9th it was still at 1.010, so I degassed to see if gas was pushing hyrdometer up, after degassing still 1.010.
I added 1/2 tsp Yeast Nutrient and 1/4 tsp Yeast Energizer and moved to a warmer room.
Now tonight (the 10th) I see lees shooting to the top and falling back to the bottom, but no bubbles in the airlock. There is steady pressure with all the fluid pushed to one side of the airlock but like I said no bubbles.

Also it had started to clear but is now clouding back up.

Right now I plan on doing nothing for a few days, is this a good plan?
 
yes you can have fermentation with airlock movement. you should be fine, take another reading in a day or two
 
IMO you racked it and probably left behind aal of the good yeast and now its stuck. Its the main reason I ferment to dry in primary but if you must rack to smaller vessel then stir it up good to get the yeast off the bottom right before racking.
 
It could also be some of the fermentation gas is leaking around the stopper. I've had that happen before. Gave the stopper a twist to re seat it and started bubbling through air-lock again.
 
Thanks Everyone.

Julie, I'm taking you meant without.

Wade, Everything was transferred to the secondary right down to the 10 oak cubes. I moved to the secondary because I wasn't getting any airlock activity in the primary. I figured I'd have a better seal in secondary, it didn't help.

Any idea if this could just be from the light dry malt fermenting slower than sugar?

Thanks again, I'll check the Specific Gravity later tonight and post.
 
It might be that the malt extract had unfermentables it in hence why beer doesnt ferment to dry, if it did we probably wouldnt like that beer!Its one reason I only recommend it in Ports to add body and ports are a sweeter wine. If you wanted this wine slughtly sweet you may be perfect! Be safe though and use sorbate on this.
 
Thanks Wade, Checked it tonight and it moved slightly it is now down to 1.008. Was hoping for dry might just get there. Can I use priming sugar to carbonate if I add sorbate? I haven't had time to read up on that process yet, was figuring that part was at least a few weeks away.
 

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