My first wine ever!

[mennyg19]

Thanks John, I have 3 bottles of K-meta solution that I dowse everything Im bout to use with.

Anyway, moving right along. Fermentation looking beautiful. Nice consistent bubbling. SG down to 1.074 from 1.084, temp is a bit high, so I add a few small ice packs.
Really bubbled up when I stirred, I hope that means I did it right.
My bag for my fruit ripped , I tied it closed again, but now theres a bunch of loose fruit. Oh well.

 

[mennyg19]

SG down to 1.055
Temp is a bit high, about 82 degrees
Fizzing right along. Seems like the yeast nutrient and energizer are not being missed.

 

[mennyg19]

SG is down to 1.032, seems like it slowed a bit. Last night it was at 1.035, and its been going down .10 every day since I started. I'm not worried.... yet.
Question: how much will a high temperature hurt my wine? The temp has been in the low 80s since I started. Im getting a new AC tomorrow, I am just wondering.

 

[mennyg19]

SG down to 1.014, almost done primary it seems.
Temp is at 33 celsius. A little high.
I took a small taste of it. Lesson learned: never taste wine during primary fermentation...

 

[mennyg19]

I found bugs crawling all around my bucket. Hope nothing got in. It was covered well.

 

[mennyg19]

Finally got an AC in my office. My toes were freezing off in there tonight. Dropped the temp of the wine down to 25C

 

[mennyg19]

So, my SG is down to 1.007.

I have a question: Dave said to wait until the SG stabilizes for 3 days under 1.000, the thing is, I started with a LOT of honey in this, and want to stop the fermentation process as opposed to fermenting it dry and then back-sweetening it. Is that possible? I want to do it when the SG hits 1.002 or something

 

[montanaWineGuy]

So here's an update and let me know if i did anything wrong please. (And how to fix it)
Ok, so last night I pitched the yeast. I used a bit too much according to the supplier. He said the package he gave me is enough for 2-3 batches and I used the whole thing. I asked him if its a problem and he said no. After 15 mins in 100F water, it was a big foam.
Added it to the primary and mixed it in.
This morning I checked up on it and it overflowed. I opened it up, and i see that theres this big gook on the top of the primary (Im guessing thats the yeast) and stuck to the cloth cover. I scraped it off the cloth and stirred it back in. I watched for some movement and there was a bit, but not a lot of bubbles coming up.

You might be early yet. I've seen four days go by before I start to see fermentation bubbles.

 

[mennyg19]

SG down to 1.006, Temp is at 25C, so with adjustments for temperature, my SG is at 1.0032.
My question is, I'd really like to stop the ferment now as opposed to fermenting dry and back-sweetening it, is that possible or will I kill my wine?
My ferment either way has either stopped or slowed considerably, there is no visible fizzing at all, and no movement on the hydrometer for the past day. In the past, it has gone down considerably every day since pitching the yeast

 

[Johnd]

SG down to 1.006, Temp is at 25C, so with adjustments for temperature, my SG is at 1.0032.
My question is, I'd really like to stop the ferment now as opposed to fermenting dry and back-sweetening it, is that possible or will I kill my wine?
My ferment either way has either stopped or slowed considerably, there is no visible fizzing at all, and no movement on the hydrometer for the past day. In the past, it has gone down considerably every day since pitching the yeast

Menny, it's time to rack your wine out of the primary fermentation bucket and into a glass carboy to complete fermentation. My advice to you is let it completely finish fermenting as opposed to trying to stop it. Do you have a carboy, bung and airlock ready to go?

 

[mennyg19]

All ready to go, do I rack it now and let it finish in the carboy or leave it in the bucket until it finishes?

 

[Johnd]

All ready to go, do I rack it now and let it finish in the carboy or leave it in the bucket until it finishes?

Go ahead and rack it, let the wine run down the side of the carboy. It'll be foamy and active when you do so, but may be quite still afterwards. If you've still got sugar and active yeast, it'll pick back up after a little time has passed.

Remember to sanitize everything that will or may touch your wine!
Put the airlock on when you're done and let us know how you did.

 

[mennyg19]

So I racked this morning. Is there a place on the forum with "tricks of the trade"? If not, it should be started. For example, I had a very slow stream coming through the siphon tube. Took a long time to siphon, much linger than I've seen in YouTube videos. So if anybody has any tips for doing it better, please let me know.
Anyway, the carboy, or rater the demijohn (different shape), is about 3/4 full. Is that a problem? I plan on watering it down a bit while back-sweetening it. Seems a bit on the dark side for me, and I had used less water than what Dave calls for (15 liters, which is about 4 gallons. Dave calls for 6 gallons). Photos will be forthcoming... I just checked the one I took while siphoning and it came out blurry.

Thanks! Menny

 

[mennyg19]

Here is the pic i promised. Slight movement in the airlock, about a bubble every half minute, and all the solution is on one side of the airlock.

 

[JohnT]

Yikes!

First, I would recommend against ever watering down your wine! This will raise the PH and also thin out the flavor that God has granted your fruit. The best options for you would be to either get yourself a smaller demijohn/carboy or top off with a wine that will complement what you are making.

Having that much air space is a recipe for ruin. You may be OK for the time being as your wine may still be producing CO2 to displace and air that might be in the container, but the picture shows WAY too much headspace for any kind of long term storage.

Your goal should be to keep that demijohn as full as possible.

 

[mennyg19]

Ok, I ordered a new smaller demijohn. I should get it on Monday.
John, Im just wondering why u say not to water down. Dave calls for 2 gallons (!) of water more than what I used. Also, my wine is VERY dark compared to pictures of other peoples wines on the forum. I didnt use pectic enzyme or clearing agents if that makes a difference.
Why shouldnt I add some honey-water to my melomel?

 

[JohnT]

My bad, I lost sight of you original post. I was assuming that you were making wine from fruit, in which case watering down is never a good thing.

 

[mennyg19]

So i racked to secondary, but its too big. I an ordering a smaller carboy and hopefully will get it tomorrow.
My question is: I didnt use any clearing agents or pectic emzyme. Anybody know how long it should be taking to clear? Because there is no visible clearing going on, just some settled nastiness on the bottom. Even if I flash a flashlight through it, I cant see any of the light on the other side.
Once again, Dave calls for 2 gallons of water more than what I used. If that makes a difference

 

[Johnd]

So i racked to secondary, but its too big. I an ordering a smaller carboy and hopefully will get it tomorrow.
My question is: I didnt use any clearing agents or pectic emzyme. Anybody know how long it should be taking to clear? Because there is no visible clearing going on, just some settled nastiness on the bottom. Even if I flash a flashlight through it, I cant see any of the light on the other side.
Once again, Dave calls for 2 gallons of water more than what I used. If that makes a difference

I always feel like wines will all clear in time, although I mostly do grape wines. If you have a lot of pectin in your fruit wines, from what I understand, it may not clear.

 

[mennyg19]

I'm hoping to get to a vineyard up north here in Israel over the summer and get me some Golan grapes... Supposedly world-renowned. But, the season is usually August-September.
So I started with a Dragon Blood to get the basics of winemaking down.