stuck fermentation -help

[JohnBurns]

It is possible the wine is actually done. If you have the usual inexpensive broad scale hydrometer, it may have enough inaccuracy to mislead you. As someone else said, try calibrating it with distilled water at the same temperature as your wine.

Then for next wine making season, get a hydrometer that reads plus or minus 5 brix. Then you know very accurately what your finishing brix and specific gravity is and can make decisions based on a reliable number. I think in your case right now, you risk doing more harm than good by adding more yeast. I would add malo-lactic bacteria to get that fermentation underway.

Thanks for the feedback. I did check my hydrometer with distilled water. I also have used it on a dozen batches in the past and always got below 1.000 at finish.

 

[JohnBurns]

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I'm now 19 days into this fermentation. For the last 4 days I have kept it warm, stirred it gently daily and the SG has dropped from 1.010 to 1.001 this evening. I've not had a red wine take so long to ferment. Your feedback leads me to believe I should have used more yeast initially and maybe that is why the fermentation is so slow. I'll keep stirring and checking the SG until I get 3 days below 1.000 and then I'll rack it off the gross lees and feel much better!

 

[winemaker81]

Yes I pressed on day 10 when the SG was 1.022. Thanks for the feedback. Trying to be patient

You pressed early and put the wine under airlock. That slows things down a lot.

You have learned a lot from this batch, if you think about it. Don't look at it as anything negative -- everything IMO is positive. You have learned about:

• starting a good yeast colony
• pressing at a good time
• differences made by putting wine under airlock

Your wine will turn out fine, even if it doesn't go according to the schedule you planned. Welcome to dealing with Mother Nature and Dionysus!

Relax. Things are going ok.

 

[Jusatele]

Winemaker81 that is a great answer
Final gravity can be affected by a lot of things.
Looking to make a lot of fruit wines, I noticed different fruit tend to have different gravities in the end. One big nothing is also the quality of your tester. Most of us buy a hobby grade hydrometer because the hobby stores are buying at a price point. Also we do not correct for temperature.
I think we also. stress the details more than we should before our chops have developed. My experience is final decision on wine can take time for each wine. I have bottled some wines that I thought at the time it was a mistake that 6 months later were good wines. I have also bought cases of wines that at a tasting were young, but knew in a few years to bust the case open and it would be fine.
I'm other words, build trust by experience and enjoy the hobby

 

[JohnBurns]

You pressed early and put the wine under airlock. That slows things down a lot.

You have learned a lot from this batch, if you think about it. Don't look at it as anything negative -- everything IMO is positive. You have learned about:

• starting a good yeast colony
• pressing at a good time
• differences made by putting wine under airlock

Your wine will turn out fine, even if it doesn't go according to the schedule you planned. Welcome to dealing with Mother Nature and Dionysus!

Relax. Things are going ok.

Thank you Bryan. I read this blog regularly and you always have very thoughtful help. I didn't think putting it in carboys a bit early would matter but it does make sense that the carboy restricts the amount of oxygen to the yeast and would slow things down. My wine is at 1.000 this morning and I am feeling much better.

 

[winemaker81]

Thank you Bryan. I read this blog regularly and you always have very thoughtful help. I didn't think putting it in carboys a bit early would matter but it does make sense that the carboy restricts the amount of oxygen to the yeast and would slow things down. My wine is at 1.000 this morning and I am feeling much better.

Great! With very few exceptions, winemaking is the hobby for procrastinators.

Grape growing is NOT, but I'm not a grape grower ...