Day 10

[wineomaker]

Going on day 10 of fermenting my California Connoisseur Riesling 28 day kit, everything looks good and ready to siphon to carboy at 1.010 and strong fermenting still going on, but i am worried about the smell of the wine, the wine doesn't smell like wine is this normal, i dont know how to describe the smell, strong alcohol wine smell, not a sweet wine smell and very cloudy. i did add 3 lbs sugar to the kit to bring the alcohol to 13%,
This is my first time at making wine and don't know what the wine should smell and look like.
Thanks for any info
Jim

 

[Tom]

1st WELCOME !

Now what you smell is the "yeasties" doing their thing. They are eating the sugar and making alcohol. The smell will go away and you will have a great wine. Continue following the directions.
Keep is posted..

 

[cpfan]

wineomaker:

What sg did you have after adding the 3 lbs of sugar? Also what temperature has the wine been at?

My experience with Calif Conn Riesling is that it is usually below 1.000 after 7 days. The higher reading could be temperature or the extra sugar.

Steve

 

[wineomaker]

Thanks for the reply's The SG was 1.080 after sugar was added and the temp has been 69 to 71 degrees

 

[proksy]

winomaker, I too am new and started a batch(5gal) with a starting S.G. of 1.080 @ 67F and am on day 10. I hope yours comes out great. Don't worry about the smell, I've smelled some funky wines out of fermentation that friends or family have done but a year later they were simply awesome

 

[Wade E]

Are you sure you mixed and dissolved that sugar well because thats a pretty low reading for adding 3lbs of sugar! It should have been very close to that without even adding the sugar!

 

[cpfan]

Are you sure you mixed and dissolved that sugar well because thats a pretty low reading for adding 3lbs of sugar! It should have been very close to that without even adding the sugar!

Exactly what I was thinking Wade. It's three years plus since I last made a Cal Conn Riesling but I remember the starting sg as 1.080 to 1.084.

The slower ferment was probably the cooler temperatures.

Steve

 

[Wade E]

Ive never even made one of these kits but I add 3 lbs of sugar to "Mist" kits to get the sg to that and the starting sg for one of those kits is much lower.

 

[wineomaker]

OK Let me start over, Remember this is my first time, The starting SG was 1.082 then i was reading on here you can raise the A.B.V by adding sugar, so on day 3 I added 3lbs of sugar to the fermenter the SG was at 1.070 before adding sugar and 1.080 after the sugar was added (to the fermenter and stirred that for around 10 minutes or so) after reading i think i should of dissolved the sugar in 1 or 2 cups of water first.
Racked to carboy after 11 days of fermenting S.G. was 1.004 at 68 degrees. now after 7 days in carboy the S.G. is .992 at 70 degrees is this normal for the S.G to drop that quick, the instructions says after 12 days in the carboy the S.G should read .995 or lower, just concerned if i should throw this batch away or not, or continue Thanks for the input.

 

[cpfan]

My norm for Calif Conn kits is .992 to .995 after 7 days. Thats at 74F temperatures. When I ran a Ferment on Premises, I made a lot of Calif Conn kits.

Your wine is just fine. But get the temperature up to 74F for adding the additives and degassing.

Steve

 

[wineomaker]

Thanks for the info Steve

 

[Wade E]

That makes much more sense now. So basically you would have upped the starting sg to around 1.092 if you added the sugar at the beginning. Temps can play a big difference as can yeast as to how fast a wine will ferment. Some will chug along slowly and some will ferment out in under a week. Your wine has gone very dry which is good and your wine is fine. Glad you rephrased this!