Cranberry wine

[acorn]

Since 2010 I have been making cranberry wine every year. So, this year, not being an exception, I crushed about 16 lbs of fresh cranberries that made up around 8 gallons of must in total volume (water added). Although some recipes state that I should crush 3 or 4 lbs per gallon of must, I think it is excessive, considering how acidic cranberry is. At this point, it has been about 24 hours since I pitched the yeast (Red Star Cote des Blancs), but there is no trace of bubbles forming on the surface. I am getting worried about it. As usual, I added yeast nutrient and energizer and the must is sitting at 21.5 Brix (S.G. 1.090).

When I tested pH, it is approximately 3.0, and TA is (somewhat surprisingly) 1.2-1.3 g/L. Is it because cranberry has citric acid that dissociates differently from tartaric, as in grapes, and therefore it makes the TA so low? I will certainly not add any acid to the must, because last time when I was making cranberry wine, I found myself having to add calcium carbonate to save it from heading into a stuck fermentation.

Have you any ideas how to make it start bubble? One hypothesis I have is that I rushed pitching the yeast. I may have stressed it with all the acidity, temperature jump, and sugar, such that it didn't have a chance to assimilate to the environment. By the way, room tamperature is 72*F.

Thanks.

 

[FTC Wines]

I also make cranberry wine every year. I usually hydrate my yeast in a 2 qt container, with a cup of water, then slowly add some of cranberry must, first addition diluted a little. After I have 2 qts fermenting I dump into the 5 gal fermenter. This seems to work very well. Roy

 

[Norske]

I would buffer the pH to 3.5 - 3.6 with pot carb. A starting pH of 3.0 makes it a tough environment for the yeast. Cranberries are low in Nitrogen, perhaps an addition of DAP would help. Do you hydrate your yeast prior to pitching? If not, You may want to try that. I use 1.25 Goferm for every 1 g of yeast per gallon. Use 20X volume of water that is heated to 110F. Once it cools to 104F, add your yeast. Let it sit 15-20 min and give it a light stir. After another 5-10 minutes, add half the amount of volume of must to your goferm yeast. Wait 20 minutes, check the temp. You want no more than a 18F temp differential when you pitch this into your ferment. If it is within this range, then add some more must and wait 15 min and recheck temp. Once in range, pitch this into your ferment.

 

[acorn]

I also make cranberry wine every year. I usually hydrate my yeast in a 2 qt container, with a cup of water, then slowly add some of cranberry must, first addition diluted a little. After I have 2 qts fermenting I dump into the 5 gal fermenter. This seems to work very well. Roy

Thanks I will take a note on that.

I would buffer the pH to 3.5 - 3.6 with pot carb. A starting pH of 3.0 makes it a tough environment for the yeast. Cranberries are low in Nitrogen, perhaps an addition of DAP would help. Do you hydrate your yeast prior to pitching? If not, You may want to try that. I use 1.25 Goferm for every 1 g of yeast per gallon. Use 20X volume of water that is heated to 110F. Once it cools to 104F, add your yeast. Let it sit 15-20 min and give it a light stir. After another 5-10 minutes, add half the amount of volume of must to your goferm yeast. Wait 20 minutes, check the temp. You want no more than a 18F temp differential when you pitch this into your ferment. If it is within this range, then add some more must and wait 15 min and recheck temp. Once in range, pitch this into your ferment.

I wanted to add either CaCO3 or K2CO3, but it says on both packages that it shouldn't be used prior to fermentation. Any ideas why and should I just disregard it?

 

[acorn]

And so it started. It took 3 days to successfully re-launch fermentation for the entire volume of must. At least, it hasn't spoiled on me while I was making the yeast adapt to a more acidic environment.

 

[dragonsblood]

And so it started. It took 3 days to successfully re-launch fermentation for the entire volume of must. At least, it hasn't spoiled on me while I was making the yeast adapt to a more acidic environment.

I have also been making cranberry wine for several years..and it always seemed to take a while for the yeast to start working, this year I had another wine(raspberry) going and took about a quart of must from that wine and added to the cranberry, it took off within 8 hours.

 

[Winorick]

Ideas

Cranberry wine pretty much needs a starter. It is notorious for slow & stuck fermentation. Next time, try about 4 pounds per gallon and make a second run. When the first run is ready for real tasting, blend it with the second run and sugar for more perfection in the final wine.

 

[acorn]

I have also been making cranberry wine for several years..and it always seemed to take a while for the yeast to start working, this year I had another wine(raspberry) going and took about a quart of must from that wine and added to the cranberry, it took off within 8 hours.

That's interesting, because I was thinking of blending my cranberry wine with raspberry, although as an f-pack during the later stages of the process.

Cranberry wine pretty much needs a starter. It is notorious for slow & stuck fermentation. Next time, try about 4 pounds per gallon and make a second run. When the first run is ready for real tasting, blend it with the second run and sugar for more perfection in the final wine.

Are you sure 4 pounds per gallon isn't too much? I mean, I had issue starting it with half that concentration per gallon.

 

[Winorick]

Cranberry amounts

Over the years, I've changed the amounts of cranberries that I've used in my wines.
Most of the time, I've used around 3 - 3.5 lbs per gallon. But I've also used 5,
2.5 and 4; along with an assortment of canned, whole cranberries in the jellied sauce. I've made second runs with the used berries and I've added wild grapes to that run,also. My best combination was joining the second & third run of cranberry (Yes, third run!); a total of 6 gallons, with a second run of Elderberry, 4 gallons. I had 10 gallons of a wonderful wine that needed just a bit of sugar; and was drinkable on day one.
The main difference in the pounds of cranberries that I use is how many I can get on sale or free. My last batch, where I used 5 lbs par gallon, were sweeping from the hauling truck! That turned out to be very very good. The bottling SG was 1.05. I also used two packs of K1-V-1116

 

[WaterWolf]

While the differences between pH and T.A. can vary by a surprising amount, they don't vary by THAT amount! I suspect you made an error with your units.

There are at least two ways that people express T.A. (I can't for the life of me see why we need two!) Either as a percentage per 100ml or in grams per litre. Sometimes people leave out the % symbol which makes things confusing. I think you have measured your T.A. at 1.2% - 1.3%, which is 12g/l - 13g/l. This is a very high amount of acid but it would match up with your pH.

Jack Keller gives some ballpark acid targets on his site (http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/acid.asp) but really it comes down to what you think tastes nice. If you're happy with how it turned out in the past then keep doing it! If you find it too acidic then you can blend it with a low acid wine later on.

Last time I did a cranberry wine my T.A. was 9g/l. It turned out very nice!

 

[acorn]

Over the years, I've changed the amounts of cranberries that I've used in my wines.
Most of the time, I've used around 3 - 3.5 lbs per gallon. But I've also used 5,
2.5 and 4; along with an assortment of canned, whole cranberries in the jellied sauce. I've made second runs with the used berries and I've added wild grapes to that run,also. My best combination was joining the second & third run of cranberry (Yes, third run!); a total of 6 gallons, with a second run of Elderberry, 4 gallons. I had 10 gallons of a wonderful wine that needed just a bit of sugar; and was drinkable on day one.
The main difference in the pounds of cranberries that I use is how many I can get on sale or free. My last batch, where I used 5 lbs par gallon, were sweeping from the hauling truck! That turned out to be very very good. The bottling SG was 1.05. I also used two packs of K1-V-1116

Thanks for the insight. It is interesting because in the last 3 years I was experimenting with cranberry, having fermented it completely on wild yeast, whereby the wine got progressively better than the previous years' batches. This year is the first time when I am using commercial yeast on cranberry and, surprisingly, its the first time I am having issues with it.

It is bubbling now, losing about 0.010 on S.G. scale every day. Currently it is at 1.062, temperature 72*F.

While the differences between pH and T.A. can vary by a surprising amount, they don't vary by THAT amount! I suspect you made an error with your units.

There are at least two ways that people express T.A. (I can't for the life of me see why we need two!) Either as a percentage per 100ml or in grams per litre. Sometimes people leave out the % symbol which makes things confusing. I think you have measured your T.A. at 1.2% - 1.3%, which is 12g/l - 13g/l. This is a very high amount of acid but it would match up with your pH.

Jack Keller gives some ballpark acid targets on his site (http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/acid.asp) but really it comes down to what you think tastes nice. If you're happy with how it turned out in the past then keep doing it! If you find it too acidic then you can blend it with a low acid wine later on.

Last time I did a cranberry wine my T.A. was 9g/l. It turned out very nice!

Thanks for the article. Yes, this surprised me quite a bit too, and it was 1.2% -1.3%, actually (or 12-13 g/L). I measured the second time over and the reading was the same. In retrospect, I think it was because I took a sample very early in the maceration process, such that the majority of color and compounds hadn't been extracted. I will take another measurement right before I rack into a secondary. I expect it will be much different. If not, I will get a fresh NaOH solution and retest.

 

[acorn]

Okay, so earlier today (day 12 since the start of fermentation) I transferred the wine to the secondary carboy.

S.G. 1.023
Temp. 71*F
pH 3.05
TA = 6.2 g/L

So yes, pretty much the initial TA reading was way off, as I was technically measuring colored water and what not. This time the reading appears to be within reasonable limits.