D
drscottuk
Guest
Hi Everyone! Just signed up here. I'm fairly new to winemaking and have 3 batches of wine on the go at the moment:
1) Dried elderberry
2) Dried elderflower
3) Strawberry
My main concern is with the dried elderberry wine..
I followed a good recipe to the T, primary ferment was pretty vigorous and lasted approx 4-5 days. I let it sit for another few days but after no activity did the first rack (as there was a huge amount of lees due to the recipe).
That was now 2 weeks ago, and the SG has not changed from 1.100. I just bought a pH meter which reads 2.9 pH.
After 1 week of no activity I tried a re-start wine yeast, mixed with orange juice and sugar as a starter solution. There was slight bubbling for 1 evening, but that stopped pretty quickly.
As to the smell, it seems a lot better than when all the must was in it, and is almost recognisable as wine.
My questions are -
1) Is there any way I can coax the wine to restart the secondary ferment?
2) Should I add precipitated chalk to increase the pH to 3.2 BEFORE trying to do 1) above?
3) Should I add a small amount of crushed campden tablet before trying 1) above?
Temp of the 5 gallon fermenting bin is approx 17 degrees C.
Any help would be greatly appreciated! The elderberry wine cost a fair bit in ingredients so I would really like it to reach the bottling stage.
1) Dried elderberry
2) Dried elderflower
3) Strawberry
My main concern is with the dried elderberry wine..
I followed a good recipe to the T, primary ferment was pretty vigorous and lasted approx 4-5 days. I let it sit for another few days but after no activity did the first rack (as there was a huge amount of lees due to the recipe).
That was now 2 weeks ago, and the SG has not changed from 1.100. I just bought a pH meter which reads 2.9 pH.
After 1 week of no activity I tried a re-start wine yeast, mixed with orange juice and sugar as a starter solution. There was slight bubbling for 1 evening, but that stopped pretty quickly.
As to the smell, it seems a lot better than when all the must was in it, and is almost recognisable as wine.
My questions are -
1) Is there any way I can coax the wine to restart the secondary ferment?
2) Should I add precipitated chalk to increase the pH to 3.2 BEFORE trying to do 1) above?
3) Should I add a small amount of crushed campden tablet before trying 1) above?
Temp of the 5 gallon fermenting bin is approx 17 degrees C.
Any help would be greatly appreciated! The elderberry wine cost a fair bit in ingredients so I would really like it to reach the bottling stage.