First batch of wine

[jakefinley]

Hello you guys i have gotten most of my supplies and already crushed my grapes. They are sitting in a 2 gallon fermenting bucket and i added some campden tablets to the must yesterday. here is a reading of the juice

should i add more sugar? also for my yeast how much would i add. since its a 2 gallon must would i add enough for 2 gallons or less since i wont get 2 gallons of juice. thank you to all that help me out i really appreciate it

 

[bkisel]

Hi,

Using this ABV Calculator starting with an SG of 1.062 and ending with a guesstimate of 0.995 you'd get an ABV of 8.79%. So yes I would add some sugar. If you add sugar to bring your OG up to 1.080 you'd get an ABV of 11.16%. Play with the calculator.

Don't know the answer to your yeast question as I've only made 6 gallon batches and have always used one packet of EC-1118.

 

[jakefinley]

thank you kind sir and i added sugar and im around 1.080 now

 

[Arne]

Just use a whole pkg. of yeast and you should be fine. Most of the yeast packets say for up to 6 gal. of wine. A little extra yeast in there is not a bad thing. Good luck with it, Arne.

 

[jakefinley]

thank you guys. it fermenting now its bubbling it almost looks like its boiling. and i push the cab down and stir 3+ times a day. also for the secondary fermenting do the jugs need to be clear or can the have a green tint i cant seem to find my carboys, maybe they got lost in the move. but i did find a bunch of 4 littler green tinted jugs

 

[cintipam]

Hi Jake

green is just fine. Some folks say that light is bad for wine and gives off flavors if exposed long time, so green is better than clear even. You are good to go.

Pam in cinti

 

[jakefinley]

thanks cintipam also my 2 gal fermenting bucket the juice and skins are rising closer to the top and i hear the air leaking out that justs started to happen today is that something i should worry about

 

[cintipam]

Not real clear what you mean. My best guess is that the cap on top has gas leaking out thru it. If that's it, that is what should be happening. You need to push down and break up that cap a couple times a day while stirring. As long as it is in the bucket keep doing that. When SG reaches close to 1.00 it's time to put in the jugs with just a bit of room on top in case it foams up a bit. After a few days with no foam up then its ok to top up to the bottom of the neck to minimize air exposure. You're doing just fine.

Pam in cinti

 

[jakefinley]

thank you i checked my SG level today and i'm at 1.020 should i wait till it gets closer to 1.00

 

[peaches9324]

yes its only been 4 days in the primary ck it tomorrow it will be closer to 1.000 keep it a lil on the warmer side what is the temp now?

 

[jakefinley]

its about 65. also what is a good way to clean these 1 gal jugs there was a little wine sitting in the bottom for whos knows how long. also i got a siphon and two airlocks today. the guy said you have to fill the airlocks up with something he said the best is sanitizer since it doesn't evaporate, does that sound right

 

[peaches9324]

get it up to around 70 degrees a simple blanket will do the trick and I use step one to clean it works great! You would need a bottle brush also give it a good scrub since it has been sitting a while, some people use oxy clean I've never used it so I can't attest to that but I've heard only good things. And fyi you can reuse the wash you make up but I would throw the first of what you use away since there is probably mold to scrub out. do not use dish soap on wine equipment whatever you use hope I was of some help
good luck! And as far as the airlock goes a sulfite solution make sure to only fill it to the marked lines

 

[jakefinley]

thanks. i just checked the Sg level right now and its just a little under 1.000 i'm gonna let it sit for a couple more hours. and i washed my 4 liter jugs. now i think i'll have enough to fill at least one of the but definitely not two. and if i cant have any air what would i do with all the excess wine?

 

[jakefinley]

so today i pressed the grapes and transferred into jugs. i got the one 4 liter jug near full just left a little wiggle room for bubbling and filled the other one up about 1/4 of the way now when i filled the air locks up i filled to the line but when i press it in the jug it all goes to one side. here is a picture of what it looks like

 

[homesteader26]

Looking good! I'm so jealous yours has moved along so quickly - my primary's are moving slowly along even with my heat at 80 in that room. My airlocks have done the same thing.

 

[jakefinley]

update: the fuller jug seems to bubble slower and not a big bubble, compared to the less full one where i get big bubbles out of it, also is seems like there is something floating on top of the less full one like white round circles here and there since the jug is tinted its hard to see exactly what it could be but the bigger one seems clean. any ideas?

 

[Arne]

Don't think you have anything to worry about. The floaties are probably just lees that have some co2 in them. Mite be that the fuller one is still fermenting a bit and the other is starting degassing. And I use the cheapest rum I can buy in my airlocks. If they happen to suck back, what is a drop or two of rum in the wine? LOL, Arne.

 

[jakefinley]

thank you arne. about how long should i leave them in the jugs? And is the one that isn't fully all the way alright? i thought i read somewhere saying they have to be near full to minimize oxygen getting in or is that when just bottling

 

[sour_grapes]

It is after the active fermentation ceases that you need to top them off (or rack down to a smaller jug). Many would say that, if your SG is below, say, 0.996, and remains unchanged for 3 days in a row, the fermentation is essentially done. Personally, I just leave it in "secondary" for about 2 weeks, then degas and stabilize.

 

[jakefinley]

so im on my second week what should my next steps be?