I was surfing the web for a help abd reached here. I am an amateur on home wine making and am on traial for making my first time batch of white wine. just 5 weeks after initiating fermentaion while everything was working well on PH, temperature and taste and sugar consumption, It got bitter when I tasted it yesterday. The PH is 3.6 and suagar is 9 brix and the ambient temperature is 19 degree of centigrade. what should I do, should I give up or still there are ways helping to solve the problem.
Hi everyone
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It would help us out a lot to know more about what you started with. What is the kind of juice used? Amount of sugar added, Starting specific gravity, yeast etc would all help. What did you ferment in and has it been transferred? Topped up if needed, and so on.
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Welcome to the forum. Please follow up with Grapemans questions.
hi;
I used Fresh white grape juice ( made through crushing and pressing), no sugar added. I just added bisulphite (1.8 Gr/15 Liter total) in a plastic barrel. The sugar level was 23 Bx. After 48 hrs, I racked it to a glass carboy and added Yeast(dosage regulated according to instruction), and sealed the carboy with a stopcock I stirred it everyday during frist 2 weeks which accompanied with PH of 3.4 and sugar level drop to 12 Bx. during 3rd-5th week i stirred it twice weekly but i noted no change in sugar level but a decreasy in acidity up to 3.9. On advice of a friend, i stopped stirring and just tested it for PH and sugar every other day. when after month 2, i recorded a PH of 3.6 and sugar level of 8. I got happy asif everything was working well, the taste was fruity and sweet ofcourse. 2-3 days after this record, despite everything was unchanged(Ph and sugar), I tasted vague bitterness in it. The ambient temp. during whole procedure has been within 15-20 degrees of centigrade.
Thanks for help and waiting for your soonest advice.
Mehrdad
I used Fresh white grape juice ( made through crushing and pressing), no sugar added. I just added bisulphite (1.8 Gr/15 Liter total) in a plastic barrel. The sugar level was 23 Bx. After 48 hrs, I racked it to a glass carboy and added Yeast(dosage regulated according to instruction), and sealed the carboy with a stopcock I stirred it everyday during frist 2 weeks which accompanied with PH of 3.4 and sugar level drop to 12 Bx. during 3rd-5th week i stirred it twice weekly but i noted no change in sugar level but a decreasy in acidity up to 3.9. On advice of a friend, i stopped stirring and just tested it for PH and sugar every other day. when after month 2, i recorded a PH of 3.6 and sugar level of 8. I got happy asif everything was working well, the taste was fruity and sweet ofcourse. 2-3 days after this record, despite everything was unchanged(Ph and sugar), I tasted vague bitterness in it. The ambient temp. during whole procedure has been within 15-20 degrees of centigrade.
Thanks for help and waiting for your soonest advice.
Mehrdad
Welcome to the forum, Mehrdad. It sounds like you have a stuck fermentation. What brand and type of yeast did you use? You say that you started at 23 Brix, which is a very good starting point and you moved from the barrel into the carboy after 2 days. What was the Brix (or specific gravity) at that time. Unless fermentation in the barrel was proceeding very rapidly, you may not have allowed for enough primary (aerobic) fermentation before swithing to secondary (anaerobic) fermentation.
Unfortunately I am not aware of the brand. It was of a newly unpacked yeast bought by a friend. Let's remind you that Yeast initiation to the Must was done on day 3 after juice extraction. During this first 2 days, the juice in the plastic barrel had just SO2 and nothing else and just on day 3, yeast was added.
The sugar level on start day of fermentation was again 23 Bx.
I live in Iran, and I regret to tell you these kind of joys here are forbidden. I love wine as an art and for me, this first batch is just an experiment which hand me for next autumn.
The sugar level on start day of fermentation was again 23 Bx.
I live in Iran, and I regret to tell you these kind of joys here are forbidden. I love wine as an art and for me, this first batch is just an experiment which hand me for next autumn.
jtstar
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If it was me I would have left the wine in your primary until it had reach an sg of 1.000 or less then I would have transfer it to your secondary and put an airlock on it. At the beginning did you have any Campden tablets to add to the juice to kill off any wild yeast and other stuff. how many gallons of juice did you have. Did you sanitized your secondary before you used it. It would help us also if you could find out what kind of yeast you used. One thing you want to remember is to take notes of what you have done when you have done it anything you do to your wine you want to write it down so if you have trouble and need help you can go back to your notes to help us figure out what to do.
North_Ga_Jug-Or-Not
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Hello and welcome to the forum. First thing I see, you need an airlock and to stop stirring quite so much. If ferment is far enough along for secondary by this point, which it may be by the 5 week fight you just described, just airlock it and let it sit. If it is exposed to too much oxygen your gonna have a bunch of really good vinegar for cooking, but no wine. Lol Not a total loss, but I would rather drink wine.
