"stuck" at 0 brix hydrometer reading

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johngg123

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I'm making my first fresh grapes batch. 108 lbs of Lodi Cabernet. About a 10 gallon must. Starting brix 23.. pitched the yeast 7 days ago. Fermentation reached max temp 85 deg. Last 3 days have read 0 brix on the hydrometer. Problem is that everything I read says that "Dry" is -1.5 or -2 brix on a hydrometer due to the alcohol. Am I not going to have a dry wine?

Additives: Optired + Lallzyme Ex
Yeast: BDX with GoFerm + 2 fermaid K additions.

Also, one potentially dumb side question. Say I end up with 7 gallons and split into a 6 gallon carboy and 1 gallon jug (for topping up.) I'll be running MLF on the 6 gallons, do I run MLF in the 1 gallon jug too??

Thanks!!

John
 
johngg123 said:
Also, one potentially dumb side question. Say I end up with 7 gallons and split into a 6 gallon carboy and 1 gallon jug (for topping up.) I'll be running MLF on the 6 gallons, do I run MLF in the 1 gallon jug too??
Click to expand...


You definitely want to run MLF on the 1 gal container..
 
What do you think is below dry? Really Really Dry:) Looks like your fermentation did well and totally finished, if you wanted a dry wine you got one now. You need to MLF all of it, or dont do the 1 gal bottle and bottle it separately from the main batch just to have something to compare after the MLF on the main part of your wine. WVMJ


johngg123 said:
I'm making my first fresh grapes batch. 108 lbs of Lodi Cabernet. About a 10 gallon must. Starting brix 23.. pitched the yeast 7 days ago. Fermentation reached max temp 85 deg. Last 3 days have read 0 brix on the hydrometer. Problem is that everything I read says that "Dry" is -1.5 or -2 brix on a hydrometer due to the alcohol. Am I not going to have a dry wine?

Additives: Optired + Lallzyme Ex
Yeast: BDX with GoFerm + 2 fermaid K additions.

Also, one potentially dumb side question. Say I end up with 7 gallons and split into a 6 gallon carboy and 1 gallon jug (for topping up.) I'll be running MLF on the 6 gallons, do I run MLF in the 1 gallon jug too??

Thanks!!

John
Click to expand...
 
Thanks everyone! I ended up with 8 gallons of wine, hand-squeezed! :D My homemade press was way too slow and messy (basket too small) so ended up just using a big nylon bag and a pair of hands.
 
Just for some information, your hydrometer reading was probably reading high because of the solids in the must, not only that but depending on your temperature of the must at the time, if it was higher that 60° then the reading will be showing 1 or 2 points lower than actual, which may be alarming but not to worry fermentation will probably complete in the carboy. MLF will continue if you add or top up with wine that has malic acid in it, so that's why it is advisable to inoculate all vessels.
 
Have you calibrated your hydrometer?

You can do this at both ends , it's not uncommon for your 5 dollar hydrometer to be out by whole degree.

Float it in water , does it read zero? Or slightly high ?

Take 250 grams of sugar , put it in a large measuring cup and top up with boiling water to a Litre stiring it in

Does it read 25 brix?
 
FWIW I just did a batch of BDX Cabernet Sauvignon and had the same issue with fermentation grinding to a halt at SG 1.000. It has been about a week since pressing and now, a few days after racking, the SG has dropped to about 0.997@20 C. Still a bit high compared to other yeasts I have used in the past. For example, using the same hydrometer I had an RC-212 and another 71B recently that both went to 0.993@20 C.

How low did yours eventually get?
 
Last edited:
It eventually dried out completely. Unfortunately, the wine didn't turn out that great. Nothing majorly wrong, just not great flavor. Either sub-par grapes (Lodi is not known for cab sav) or something i screwed up along the way (SO2 management or wild yeast contamination.)

I'll be doing 50-100 lbs of my own homegrown (San Diego, CA) cabernet this October so that should be interesting!

John
 
try doing some bench trials with sugar syrup, two cups sugar to one cup water, and see if flavor profile improves. sugar syrup will not make it sweeter but will balance other elements that might be masking flavor.
 

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