Recent content by peterg

This year I'm trying to make a white wine for the first time from fresh juice. I have a conical fermenter (FastFerment brand) and am wondering if I can use it effectively. I know white wines are particularly sensitive to oxidation, and there will be significant head space if I use this (it has a...

BTW I'm bummed this happened but it is kind of fun to try to figure out what to do. :)

Funny but I just decided to taste it and was pleasantly surprised. It's rough of course, but no "off" taste of spoilage or anything. I think you might be right that the odor I was noticing was nothing abnormal/pathologic -- my wife thought it smelled fine. Pretty strong alcohol taste, a little...

Thanks - really appreciate your advice!

Reading more, it sounds like trying to restart is pretty complicated and could have a very limited chance of success. Should I consider just stopping and trying to stabilize it and make it a sweeter wine? I'm at 0.8 Brix now. I had also planned to try MLF -- would I need to abort the MLF if I...

Thanks -- will give it a try. I will have to see if I can find the Uvaferm somewhere. The only thing I have on hand is Red Star Pasteur Red which appears to have an alcohol tolerance of 15-16%. Not sure about nutrient requirements. Do you think it would be reasonable to try?

PS -- I do think there is an off odor, as well, but it doesn't seem like any of the odors I've read about (e.g. rotten eggs for H2S). I can't really describe or put a finger on it, but it doesn't smell right.

Hi all -- thanks for feedback -- sorry for my slow reply. I do think it is stuck now -- Brix has not budged in 4 days and everything appears still now. NorCal did racking too soon end up removing most/all of the viable yeast? Turock nutrients could indeed be part of the problem. I used Go-Ferm...

This is my second attempt at winemaking. I'm using fresh grape juice (cabernet sauvignon from California) and Lalvin D80 yeast with Go-Ferm and SuperFerment nutrients. Started fermenting in a FastFerment conical fermenter and everything seemed to be going well for the first few days. When I got...