Thick stuff floating on top???

[MaineGal]

Arghhhh..... I've messed up again and would appreciate your help.

On 3/10, I made a batch of Ceres Youngberry using only juice and forgot to get the initial SG reading...

Yesterday I opened it and it had a thick coating of sludge floating on top...Is this normal?

With much hesitation, I racked it into a clean carboy. The SG at that time was 1.114

Does this sound right?

Should I just dump it?? That sludge on top was not looking very good.

 

[Joanie]

First of all never dump anything! I realize it has been some time since you started this batch but could the sludge be your fruit fermenting? How does it smell? Yeasty fruity? Have you tasted it?

 

[smurfe]

That was probably your yeast krausen.

 

[grapeman]

Again, I think something is amiss. 1.115 at this point is extremely high. A reading of 1.015 would be much more expected at this point. That should have been the very upper end of a starting SG. I suspect the juice was very sweet to begin with and you added 5-10 pounds of sugar. It should have fermented quite a bit already, which would explain the foam on top. PLEASE ALWAYS take a SG especially when making a wine from other than kit and adding suger. You have absolutely no cheap easy way to determine alcohol content now.

 

[MaineGal]

Appleman,
Again, you're correct. The SG reading is 1.014......(I forgot to put the zero in.)

I know I need to remember to get the beginning SG....I know...I know...but I forgot! I'm learning!

In this recipe I did not add sugar.

I used 11 quarts of juice
1.5 tsp yeast nutrient
3 tsp pectic enzyme
1 packet of yeast.

Smurfe, I didnt know what a yeast kruasen is, but I just looked it up and saw a picture. That is exactly what the sludge looked like.

No, I didnt taste it. It looked pretty scary.

Do I need to add anything else at this point? Or do I just let it clear and then bottle it?

Thanks again.

 

[grapeman]

Wait until you get a stable SG reading 3 days in a row below about .996. That means it is finished fermenting. Then you can add 1/4 teaspoon to a 5-6 gallon batch- you are a bit shy I suspect of a 3 gallon batch so half that or one quarter teaspoon full of k-meta. Then degas it some and (or degas before adding k-meta) let it sit to clear. If it doesn't start to clear on its own after a few weeks, use a clarifier such as SuperKleer.

 

[MaineGal]

Thank you Appleman!
I think I've learned this time to always get a starting SG!

 

[Wade E]

It might not get that low as we dont know what the beginning sg was and you could have exceeded the yeasts tolerance for alc. In otherwords, keep the temp up so that you dot get a stuck fermentation and when it looks like it has stopped fermenting then take the 3 day sg challenge, it my or may not get below the .996 that appleman has stated but that is the norm for most wines when you have used the proper starting sg and the proper yeast to let the wine ferment to dry.