Stuck Cranberry

[ronberntson]

I used this recipe http://www.ehow.com/how_2123157_make-cranberry-wine.html for a gallon of cranberry wine. I choose lavalin k1118 for a yeast. Because the must was so "thick" with berries and raisins, I didn't get a starting SG. When I racked it into a secondary today, the SG was at 1.11 and I could not taste any alcohol in the must. So, likely, it never started fermenting. From checking out http://www.grapestompers.com/articles/stuck_fermentation.htm I can conclude that K1118 is a reasonably reliable yeast and that there might be a problem with how much sugar is in the must.

What would your recommendation be?

thanks
Ron

 

[ronberntson]

After writing the above, I see from this discussion http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3495 that Cranberry can be hard to start.

Ron

 

[Rocky]

Ron, I looked at the recipe for the Cranberry Rocket Fuel. It looks to me that the wine would be about 15% ABV if you fermented it to dry. Wow!

The concern that I would have, even if you could get the wine fermenting as it is now constituted, is that it would not taste like anything except alcohol. You mentioned "raisins" in the must. Did you add them on your own? I did not see them in the recipe.

My recommendation is to put the wine back into the primary fermenter and add enough water to bring the SG down to something like 1.085 which would give you an ABV around 11.5% and still retain some of the cranberry taste.

 

[ronberntson]

That makes sense to me. How would you restart the fermentation?

Ron

 

[SarahRides]

My first few batches of cranberry were tough to start, but then when I had learned how to adjust and fix the pH, I haven't had a problem since! Ever since then mine have fermented all the way dry with out a problem.