dewberry wine...has my fermentation stopped?

[Moeiz8up]

I making my first batch of dewberry wine...In the primary container the initial fementation went well! I was sick and unable to rack to secondary when the sg was 1.02 or so. When I was well enough the SG had dropped below 1.000. So I read in one of my manual and on line that the product was still ok and go to ahead and move the wine to the secondary, which I did. I moved it to a 5 gallon carbouy. However the amount of wine is apprx. 3 gallons. I put the bubble stopper thing in and it's been two days and I still don't see any bubbles coming through. Is the carbouy to big, having to much air space? Should I re-start the fermentation?

 

[lockwood1956]

If the specific gravity is below 1.000 then it has probably finished fermenting or has very little left to do. so you do not need to re-start it. It may however still be fermenting, just because there are no visible bubbles doesn't mean that nothing is happening. check your S.G. every day, if it stays at the same reading three days in a row, then you are done.

The 5 gallon carbuoy is too big for this batch, you need to put it in a three gal carbuoy, or 3 X 1 gallon jugs otherwise there is a chance of contamination or oxidisation (or both) due to too much head space

hope this helps
regards
bob

 

[Luc]

Bob beat me to it and he is right.

The air space below the air-lock (bubble stopper thingy ) should be minimal.
So go for a smaller carboy or multiple carboys

If the SG dropped below 1000 then the yeast have consumed all the
sugar and basically the wine is finished. So there is no need and no sugar
to restart fermentation.

Don't worry it will be fine.

Luc

 

[Moeiz8up]

thxs

Oh air-lock...that was the name I was trying to dig out of the brain cells, thxs ...Ok smaller secondary & chk sg every day for 3 days & stop worrying...after all this is suppose to be fun!