S.G.= 1.022, tastes good,Bottle?

[maditonto]

I made 6 gallons of strawberry wine, from frozen strawberries. Upon 2nd racking, at about 7 weeks the
the hydrometer read (1.022), tastes good, can I Bottle it?

 

[Sacalait]

Bottle only after wine has stabalized. You can stabalize by placing the carboy in the refrigerator for as long as it takes to ensure there is no longer any fermentation activity. After this, remove from refrigerator, add sorbate and let it sit for a time to make sure there's no fermentation then bottle.

 

[Sacalait]

BTW, what was your starting SG? If your alc. content is not in the 10% range you could be taking a chance on spoilage. It may be to your advantage to allow the wine to ferment to completion and then sweeten to taste.

 

[Luc]

maditonto,

I agree with Muscadine. Look at the initial S.G. and do the calculations.

seven weeks is short notice and 1022 means a lot of residual sugar so the wine
should be protected by sufficient alcohol.

And by all means stabilise with sulphite AND kalium sorbate to inhibit further fermentation. Wait at least a few weeks afther stabilising to make sure no fermentation re-occurs.

Nothing as nasty as corks plopping out or exploding bottles.

Luc

 

[maditonto]

I just started using a hydrometer with my last batch

I just started using a hydrometer with my last batch, "raspberry",so no starting reading...

* 24 lbs frozen strawberries
* 20 lbs cane sugar (3.33 lbs per gallon)
* yeast nutrient
* champagne yeast
* well water to top off a six gallon glass carboy
* two rackings
* 1 SG reading = 1.022...

 

[Luc]

Ok this requires some heavy math.

I am in Europe so I convert to kilo's and liters so please correct me if I am wrong.

3.33 lbs per gallon equals 3.33 lbs per 3,78 liters
So for 1 liter this is 3,33 / 3,78 is 0.87 lbs.

0.87 lbs equals 394 grams (this is all from the calculator at this page : http://web2.airmail.net/sgross/fermcalc/ )

Okay now I looked into my tables of fruit and I found that strawberries have about 70 grams sugar per liter, so the initial sugar amount would be: 70 grams + added 394 grams = 464 grams per liter.
Now that is a hell lot of sugar so you are lucky that it would ferment at all........

Ok now the last SG measurement told you it was 1022.
The Oechsle calculation tells me there is still (1022 - 1000) * 2.6 = 57.2 grams sugar per liter in your wine.
Now this is a sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeett wine

You have fermented 464 - 57 = 407 grams sugar.
Now 407 grams while 18 grams provides for 1% alcohol would give........
Eehhhhhh that would give 22 % alcohol

Now we presume we have a faulty reading of the strawberries.
Then we still have an initial sugar amount of 394 grams with residual 57 grams = 337 grams which would give 337 / 18 = 18 % alcohol.
The Champagne yeast is indeed capable of this.

You told us it tastes good, with this kind of alcohol it should taste like rocket fuel

I think the wine will be safe, the alcohol is way to high to restart fermenting again. But beware of Malo Lactic fermentation.

Anybody want to comment on this ????

Luc

 

[Caplan]

The strawberry content used is spot on but it seems you've roughly added an extra pound of sugar compared to the usual 'country wine' recipes i've seen/used. I make it around 16%ish which will be easily masked by the high levels of sugar left when you taste it.

The yeast probably has finished.... However I would use sorbate and sulfite as recommended previously to be sure before even thinking about bottling it. Champagne yeast IS tough stuff and you still have a lot of sugar left.

Malolactic fermentation isn't something you need to over worry about - Malolactic bacteria doesn't like sulphites or high alcohol. You already the high alcohol, just use sulfite!

 

[maditonto]

Thanks alot !!!

Thanks alot !!!
I remain, Mike Di Tonto