Started this kit on 2/9/10 with initial sg of 1.092. Pitched the yeast (EC-1118) at 74 degrees and it has maintained temp. of 70-73 for the last 9 days. It satarted slow and has never really took off like all of my other wines have at the same temp and at the same spot. I have been stirring daily and have the skins bag submerged by a spoon. On day 9, my sg is only down to 1.020 and still slowly going. All of the other kits I have made have pretty much been dry by day 9. I was thinking about adding some energizer or nutrient to help it along and try to avoid it getting stuck at this point. Anyone have any advice or is this a bad idea?
Cellar Craft 5 week Amarone Very Slow
- Thread starter jake77
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might also say that none of those ideas are bad choices, and perhaps a combination of them both is best. keep in mind also that a slow fermentation is considered a good thing with alot of the "pros". Some of them ferment wines for over 4 months as I found out during a tour of a winery and vineyard this summer.
Not sure if you are making the same Amarone that I did or not but sounds like you are and it was quite a quiet fermenter for me as well, but well worth the wait.
IMO, the kit directions are good to follow, but, as you learn more about the hobby, you will also gain more knowledge about what you can do to the must/wine and what you should not do as well.
Having said that you may want to consider just putting the amarone into a carboy for a while and monitor what is going on with the SG. It may take a bit longer to finish then the direction say, but that should not hurt the wine as long as it was treated correctly and your head space was within the 2" of the top. I'd have to check my records but I believe that I had mine in the 2ndary carboy for an extra 2 weeks before it finished fermenting and I did not add any additional fermentation helpers.... nutrient/energizer.
The other note to this issue would be how much oak flavor that you want in it. depends on how much you like, when you would need to rerack the wine to remove the oak so that you get the flavor that you like, but for me I believe the amount that was given in the kit is depleated of its "flavor" by the time you need to take it out, that is however a personal taste.
Probably starting to confuse you so I will stop here...... as you learn more you will start tweeking your kits and recipes to what you like and trying some new things. there are indeed many, many other options for wines that haven't been mentioned in this post.
good luck with your Amarone, and I think you will enjoy it in a few months, it is a very mellow dry wine that does not have a dry finishing taste to it, I was very surprised at the final results and will make another of these very shortly as this one simple won't be around for long.
Not sure if you are making the same Amarone that I did or not but sounds like you are and it was quite a quiet fermenter for me as well, but well worth the wait.
IMO, the kit directions are good to follow, but, as you learn more about the hobby, you will also gain more knowledge about what you can do to the must/wine and what you should not do as well.
Having said that you may want to consider just putting the amarone into a carboy for a while and monitor what is going on with the SG. It may take a bit longer to finish then the direction say, but that should not hurt the wine as long as it was treated correctly and your head space was within the 2" of the top. I'd have to check my records but I believe that I had mine in the 2ndary carboy for an extra 2 weeks before it finished fermenting and I did not add any additional fermentation helpers.... nutrient/energizer.
The other note to this issue would be how much oak flavor that you want in it. depends on how much you like, when you would need to rerack the wine to remove the oak so that you get the flavor that you like, but for me I believe the amount that was given in the kit is depleated of its "flavor" by the time you need to take it out, that is however a personal taste.
Probably starting to confuse you so I will stop here...... as you learn more you will start tweeking your kits and recipes to what you like and trying some new things. there are indeed many, many other options for wines that haven't been mentioned in this post.
good luck with your Amarone, and I think you will enjoy it in a few months, it is a very mellow dry wine that does not have a dry finishing taste to it, I was very surprised at the final results and will make another of these very shortly as this one simple won't be around for long.
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