Hi everyone. Im new to fresh grape wine making.i started fermentation my hydrometer reading 1070. I added the yeast and after 6 days the juice reads 1.000 but the juice color is pinkish and not red yet. Should i keep it for a few days? Or what should i do?
Dono if my wine is done or not yet
- Thread starter Elie
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Welcome to WMT, Elie!
Firstly: The rule of thumb is that the fermentation is finished when the SG reading is below 1.000 and does not change for 3 days in a row. So I suspect you are almost finished, but not quite yet.
But we could likely be a little more helpful if you told us more about your wine. What kind of grapes? Did you crush them and ferment on the skins?
Firstly: The rule of thumb is that the fermentation is finished when the SG reading is below 1.000 and does not change for 3 days in a row. So I suspect you are almost finished, but not quite yet.
But we could likely be a little more helpful if you told us more about your wine. What kind of grapes? Did you crush them and ferment on the skins?
With a starting SG of 1.070, you will wind up with a final ABV of about 10%. That is on the low side, but not unreasonable for a wine. If you wished to have higher ABV than that, you could have added sugar earlier. However, I would not advise you to add sugar now. There is too much danger of the fermentation not kicking off again, and then you are stuck with an overly sweet wine. Moreover, this is evidently your first attempt, so I would keep things simple.
The pink-instead-of-red problem is probably just from light scattering off of suspended particles. As the wine clears, it will darken.
The pink-instead-of-red problem is probably just from light scattering off of suspended particles. As the wine clears, it will darken.
I must say I am confused about something. I gave you advice regarding the sugar, and I gave you my opinion that the pink will go away as the wine clears. You have chosen to ignore both of those opinions. That is fine: it is your wine, so you can obviously do as you please. But what I don't understand is: Why you are asking again for advice and opinions?
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sour_grapes has knowledge, and won't lead you astray, as he said, your wine your choice,
Dawg
Dawg
@sour_grapes you are completely right. Im sorry. Ur the expert after all it seems. It is just that im little worried about my wine. First time u know. No more sugar as u said. Thank you
i make wine from concord grapes which is a low sugar grape and chaptalization is a common practice with this variety. i have always added my sugar (2/3 lbs per gal broken into two doses about a week apart) after pressing and moving to secondary. i have even been able to make sparkling wine without adding yeast after 6 months of bulk aging (adding sugar when bottling), probably cause i have never used k-meta. you said you were making wine with fresh grapes. are your grape skins still floating (cap formation) in primary? I think you can still get color from your skins safely (without too much oxidation) as long as cap formation is still happening. young wine starts purple/pink and as it ages changes to more of a red color (at least 6 months) and with enough aging/oxidation orange to finally brown. i make wine very differently than most people here as i always do spontaneous fermentation.
I agree completely with @sour_grapes and @hounddawg. You are a beginner. Keep things simple. If things go wrong it is much easier for us to help you. Chaptalization, making sparkling wine, these are advanced options available to you once you understand the basics, and complete a few batches (or a few dozen batches) successfully. Sour_grapes knows his stuff.
Ok im convinced guys thank u soo much for your support. But now thay my wine reached 1.000 and the color still pinkish its 7 days already in the plastic bucket. Should i now move only the juice to the glass jug and put the airlock on top??
Its been already 7 days skin and must together. I used to open the bucket and see the skin on the top edge of the bucket. After 6 days i see the skin on top of the juice and still see some bubbles popping on top. And the mixture is not getting very high anymore
Did a little research into the Sweet Celebration grapes, see photo and info below. In my opinion, these are table grapes, are large compared to wine grapes, and light in color compared to most red wine grapes. I don’t think that you’ll get a dark red wine from them no matter what you do. The skins are light colored to begin with, plus these grapes are big, making the juice to skin ratio higher than red winemaking grapes, which are typically very small, like blueberries. Your wine will probably darken as it clears, as @sour_grapes said, but don’t expect a dark wine like cab or Merlot. I’m assuming you didn’t add any water to your grapes after they were crushed and destemmed, if you did, the wine will be even lighter.
It’s time to separate the wine from the skins and press the skins to get the remaining wine from them. I suggest that you combine the free run wine and press wine, as the press wine will help darken the final product, as well as adding body and tannins to it.
It‘s no longer juice, you’ve made wine!! And yes, move the free run and press run wine to an appropriately sized glass jug / carboy with an airlock. It’s still a bit active, so no need to worry about a little air space just yet.
In three days, fermentation should be pretty close to finished. You’ll notice that the wine is clearing from the top down, darkening, and sediment will be accumulating at the bottom. The sediment, at this stage, is gross lees, and you need to leave them behind. Rack your wine to a new vessel, get as much liquid as possible, as little gross lees as possible.
Continue to monitor SG, when it’s below .998 and unchanged for three days in a row, add potassium metabsulfite at the rate of 1/4 tsp per 6 gallons, stir in well, and top up the vessel to within an inch of the underside of the stopper / airlock assembly. If you don’t have enough of the wine to do that, use a smaller vessel, or add a similar wine to the vessel.
No, He means a big glass jug called a carboy. You will want to squeeze all the wine out of the must, and transfer that to a carboy. You will need an airlock on top to let the carbon dioxide gas escape and keep the oxygen out.
How much wine are you trying to make?
