yeast question

[ed71]

Hello everyone. I would just like to say that I'm not too new into the scene of making your own stuff. I'm mostly an ale guy but Ive made cheapo get drunk wine in 1 gallon batches before.
Ive only used bakers yeast over the years since I was just too lazy to drive to local brew store or too impatient to online order. But this time I decided to make 5 gallons worth with a wine yeast. (Since I read that it can make more alcohol compared to bakers yeast)
Since I plan on drinking it right after fermentation, I went and bought 5 gallons worth of grape and cranberry juice at the dollar store, added half a pound of sugar (I dissolved the sugar in water on the stove) and then added a yeast called "Lalvin EC-1118" (specific gravity was 1.040)
I did rehydrate it then pitched one packet around 22C or 71F. However, It didn't do the normal foam I'm so use to with bakers yeast. It just barely bubbled a bit, but not much foam.
So afraid I had a stuck ferment...I used 3 packets of the same stuff re-hydrated alot longer, added a glass of the juice to it, waited till it foamed..and then pitched it again. After a few hours it finally foamed like crazy and SP is now 1.030
My question is, did I over pitch? And was one pack enough for 5 gallons? (Ive never brewed more than 1 gallon before) Or was my wine never stuck and somehow related to the yeast?

Ed

 

[grapeman]

The wine was never stuck as evidenced by the move from 1.040 to 1.030. You really need to bump up the starting sg to about 1.090 which will require more sugar. 1.040 will make a wine with typical beer content alcohol. Sounds like you don't need to worry about it at the rate you drink it, but the wine will not keep long enough to age properly at that low of an alcohol level. Don't worry about 3 packets being too much, but only one would have been needed. Don't judge the activity too much by the amount of foam, use the hydrometer to monitor fermentation more carefully.

 

[cpfan]

ed71:

EC-1118 is considered a low foaming yeast (as I think are all wine yeasts). You probably didn't need the extra packets of yeast.

Steve

 

[mmadmikes1]

the 1118 will win the yeast war and do the job. Bakers yeast will just die out. And what grapeman said, more sugar

 

[ed71]

Thanks guys. I'm just so used to beer foam and my old bakers yeast method. Didn't realize that wine yeast is very less foamy. When I posted this I went online and started reading. I did notice that everywhere most wine started with a much higher SP and that I didn't add enough sugar. I'm assuming that the dollar store juice was more watered down juice compared to the Welches juice I have been using for years. (But hey, I'm just making get drunk juice...and didn't want to spend 5 gallons of Welches concentrate) Grapeman is right and I cursed myself for not following the hydrometer instead of visual clues. Its only been 2 days now in the fermenter, I'm wondering if its too late to just dump more sugar in?

Ed

 

[SBWs]

Not to late to add more sugar, you will need about 6 pounds to get the specific gravity up around 1.090 from the initial gravity of 1.040 for a 5 gallon batch.

Need to watch those dollar store juices, first make sure they are 100% juice and second a lot of times they are mostly apple juice with flavor added.

 

[ed71]

6 pounds! Good Gosh! Thats alot of sugar. Ill probably put half that amount and just deal with a low gravity wine and just drink more to get a buzz. Thanks for the info!

 

[seth8530]

Looks like you are on your way. I might recommend some patience though, one of the core ingredients in wine making.

BTW, if you are trying to make some "drunk juice" ( not to insult the creator of it) I would recommend dragons blood. Relatively quick turn around ( around a month) and it drinks pretty well for being a quick wine.

 

[richmke]

6 pounds! Good Gosh! Thats alot of sugar. Ill probably put half that amount and just deal with a low gravity wine and just drink more to get a buzz. Thanks for the info!

It is like the difference between regular and lite beer. If you want to drink a lot, then less sugar is fine. If you are going for the buzz, then you might as well add the full amount of sugar. If you have to drink twice as much, then you will have to make your next batch sooner, and use sugar for that batch. Total sugar used is the same.

 

[ed71]

Thanks guys, I'm gonna try out that Dragon Bloods recipe. I had no idea you could use concentrate lemonade. Ive always thought too much citric stuff was bad. But I guess I'm learning new stuff about wine making. Its very similar to beer making but beer has a turnout of bout 4 months compared to wines 1 year turnout. I guess you definitely have to be patient with wine. Hehehe....but for me, the cheap stuff for now.