High alcohol wine slow ferment?

[JDesCotes]

I was making a high SG modified Skeeterpee and forgot to factor in the sugar from the bananas which I added so my starting gravity was somewhere around 1.130.

The only thing that I omitted from the recipe was the yeast energizer as none of my local wine shops seem to know what it is and certainly do not carry it.

My batch has been fermenting for almost a month now and over the past week has fallen from 1.030 to 1.025 SG and is still VERY sweet when tasted.

For the last month I had it open to the air, but since the ferment seems to be going slow I have placed it under an air lock now. There is a bubble through the airlock about once every 3 seconds.

Is there any risk in such a slow ferment? Also, what can I add to speed it up?

I have some yeast nutrient laying around, should I throw in a couple teaspoons of that? (It's already had about 5tsp in total, 3 at beginning and 2 about 2 weeks in)

Thank you!!

 

[wineforfun]

I am sure some more experienced folks will chime in but I would add some more nutrient and add some heat to it.

 

[JDesCotes]

I already have a sweater around it and got permission from the wife to move it upstairs to the kitchen, where it has now been for a week.

 

[JDesCotes]

Oh, it's also right beside the heat register with the house set to 21.5C (70.7F)

 

[JohnT]

How do you plan on extracting that hydrometer without breaking it?

 

[wineforfun]

What type of yeast did you use? You may need more heat, like heating pads, brew belt, etc.

 

[JDesCotes]

How do you plan on extracting that hydrometer without breaking it?

A trick my local wine shop showed me. Flick it down, then the boyency of the hydrometer will bring it above the neck of the bottle, so just grab it. I do it all the time.

 

[JDesCotes]

What type of yeast did you use? You may need more heat, like heating pads, brew belt, etc.

I did have the wine stall out at about 1.070, so I racked and introduced new yeast then. both times were EC-1118

 

[JDesCotes]

Maybe somebody here can answer... What exactly is yeast energizer? Is it something I can pickup at a pharmacy?

 

[wineforfun]

Yeast Energizer: A super nutrient with many vitamins and trace elements. Used to make wine with high alcohol content or for fruit lacking nutrients.

I assume you didn't add any energizer? Sounds like your yeast may have died off on you. Don't usually have that problem with EC-1118. I just made a port with a starting SG 1.130 and had it fermented down to 1.005 in 7 days. I kept heating pads on the primary for a few hours each day. I did use nutrient, energizer, raisins and EC-1118.

Not sure that a pharmacy would have energizer unless they are into selling winemaking supplies.

 

[grapeman]

Yeast energizer contains yeast nutrient, yeast hulls, vitamin B and a few other things and like said aids fermentation.
http://brewandwinesupply.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=17_98_116&product_id=434

 

[JDesCotes]

Energizer does kind of sound important... Anybody living in or around Toronto know where to get some? Shipping from the states is SOOOO expensive!