2 batches stuck...

[afewcats]

I started two batches of muscadine wine on 15 september. SG at 1.115 with home grown grapes. Primary fermentation was real active. I pushed down the caps daily and stirred as well to keep the yeast mixed into the must.

I racked into the second on 23 September and strained off and added 5 crushed campden tablets. SG at .998

24 September sees no action from either batch at all and no bubbling at all..Stuck or do I need to do something? I have one in the second that is a week earlier and is still bubbling (white).

 

[ffemt128]

Your fermentation may have finished up based on your starting SG. Give it a few more days and check the sg again. Just because you cannot see activity, fermentation can still be occurring. Check it 3 days in a row and if no change, fermentation is likely complete.

 

[Julie]

with the sg at .998, it isdone but it probably would have went a little lower but when you added the campdem tablets there is a good chance you killed off the yeast. At .998 the yeast are working very slow, they are very full and at this point starting to die off.

 

[Vinovintner]

Your primary fermentation is complete.

 

[Rocky]

I would be interested as to what yeast you used. With the info you gave, the ABV should be just over 15% and you may have used a yeast that cannot tolerate that level.

 

[afewcats]

Red star Montrachet.

It looks good, just had me a little concerned.

Thanks for the help, I will check the SG in a couple of days. It looks like the sediment is falling out and I can see some definite clearing, just no bubbles.

I stirred it pretty good each day in the primary, and it was working off great. Do you think that the stirring helped with degassing and fermentation?

 

[Wade E]

Red Star Montrachet says its abv tolerance is only good for about 13% so that fact you used this yeast and that high of a starting sg makes it lucky you made it where you are. Please for your sake make sure of the yeast you are going to use when deciding on what abv you are looking to get because this could have ended up really bad with a very sweet wine that could start fermenting again in the bottle later. IMO I wouldnt have chosen such a high starting gravity for this kind or many other kinds of wine.

 

[grapeman]

I would not have gone that strong of an So2 addition at that point. Wine yeast can be stressed at that point, especially with that high of alcohol level, then you stressed it even more with a ton of sulfites and that undoubtedly finished it off pretty well. It isn't far from dry, so you might like it there anyways.

 

[afewcats]

I used the yeast recommended from my local "liquid hobby shop" where I buy my supplies. He also gave me the recipe for muscadines.

I should have researched the yeast better, but I trusted his recommendation.

does this mean that the yeast will only produce to the 13% level and then die off? or does it mean there is still active yeast that will have to be dealt with?

If the SG is below 1.000, it seems that the sugar content should have been consumed, but that may not be telling of the condition of the yeast...

This yeast thing may be a problem.

 

[afewcats]

His recipe, along with some other reading I have done called for campden being added when racking to the secondary. Can I add additional sugar to help out anything at this point?

 

[Rocky]

The 13% number means that above that level, the wine is a hostile environment for that particular yeast and there is a danger of the yeast being killed off. You are fortunate to have gotten it started again. Adding more sugar will only result in more alcohol, so I would not recommend that. If you want to sweeten the wine, wait until fermentation has stopped, stbilize the wine with K-sorbate and add simple syrup to sweeten. Can you tell us the currect SG? It should have a final SG way below 1.000 with all that alcohol, maybe 0.990 or so.

 

[afewcats]

One is at .993 +/-, and the other is around .985 or so, my hydrometer stops at .990 and it is above that.

I think I will let them stay put in the carboys, rack the sediment off, and see if they start fermenting again when/if the campden tablets wear off...maybe it will or maybe it won't, but as long as I don't bottle the wine for 4-5 months I might be OK.

I tasted the batch reading .993 and it tasted pretty good to be so young.

 

[afewcats]

when I added the sugar, I thought maybe it was "stuck", and not actually dead...

Too bad we can't just put in some more yeast!!! And BAMM, like Emeril says, we go to bubbling again...