Fermentation stopped

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Marius Radu

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I have a batch of wine "muscat" from juice - since October . At the beginning fermentation was good, density came from 1.045 to 1.020 but from November I move it in basement where was cold 50F and fermentation stopped. I transfered two times and now it's in the house at 70F. It's clear but very sweet, density still 1.020 and probably 5% alcohol. What I can do ?
 
I didn’t use any supplementary yeast. No special reason I didn’t want to keep it in the house. In the same time another red wine was going just fine -already in bottles.
 
Have near exact same problem with two musts... both stopped fermenting at 1.020 and 1.030...both still way too sweet. (yes, it was my fault for adding too much sugar at the get go) Tried adding yeast. Nada. Tried a new starter batch with sugar, water, and some of the "wine"---this in a quart jar, one jar for each batch. The yeast foamed up nicely after an hour or so, then ?? the foam disappeared in the jars.. I added to the musts anyway, hoping ...but again, nothing. So, I bought an expensive liquid yeast from ECKraus (two pkts) added one each to the musts, nothing once again. All I have in my equipment arsenal is a hydrometer. Thoughts on this mess?
 
I'm really embarrassed to have to admit this; please don't scold me. I've already done that many times over. Batch #1 SG 1.160 start; Now is 1.020. Batch #2, SG 1.134 start; Now is 1.120. (My earlier post saying it was 1.130 was in error)
 
Your Batch #1, probably isn't going to restart. If you went from 1.160 down to 1.020 you are at about 19% ABV. Not many yeasts are going to start up in that environment. The other one, I'm not sure if I completely understand, it sort of looks like it started at 1.134 and dropped to 1.020 at least earlier it looked like you said that. That's about 15% abv, so you might be out of luck with that also, if it did only drop to 1.120, you might want to increase the temp, 50 might be to low for your yeast.
 
Your Batch #1, probably isn't going to restart. If you went from 1.160 down to 1.020 you are at about 19% ABV. Not many yeasts are going to start up in that environment. The other one, I'm not sure if I completely understand, it sort of looks like it started at 1.134 and dropped to 1.020 at least earlier it looked like you said that. That's about 15% abv, so you might be out of luck with that also, if it did only drop to 1.120, you might want to increase the temp, 50 might be to low for your yeast.

Must have been typing at the same time. On this rare occasion someone just received consistent advice.
 
Your Batch #1, probably isn't going to restart. If you went from 1.160 down to 1.020 you are at about 19% ABV. Not many yeasts are going to start up in that environment. The other one, I'm not sure if I completely understand, it sort of looks like it started at 1.134 and dropped to 1.020 at least earlier it looked like you said that. That's about 15% abv, so you might be out of luck with that also, if it did only drop to 1.120, you might want to increase the temp, 50 might be to low for your yeast.
*** my error again... should be 1.020 now. So this is probably done too.
 
*** my error again... should be 1.020 now. So this is probably done too.

Yup.. So now you know first hand that the key is to craft your must with a starting SG that yields an ABV that doesn't exceed the alcohol toxicity of your yeast, and will produce a balanced wine.

Realistically, with the two wines, you can either:
1. thin them out with water to lower the ABV and try to restart fermentation to remove the rest of the sugar
2. add more of the same must to each and try to restart fermentation with the goal of converting all the sugar to alcohol and having a reasonable ABV for the style of wine
3. blend them with some much lower ABV wine, which will reduce both the ABV and residual sugar.

Thinning with water will also thin the taste and body, probably the least desirable option.
 
Okay, I'm giving up on these two and will bottle when I get back from vacation at the end of the month. To make it drinkable, I'm hearing others say to mix it with a dry wine at the time of consumption--or at bottling time, but it would get fairly expensive to purchase enough to make any difference then. Each of my batches are 5 gallons. I agree that thinning with water would destroy flavor... and I don't have enough must to add to either batch. People are writing at the same time here.... going to read what's come in.....
 
Okay, I'm giving up on these two and will bottle when I get back from vacation at the end of the month. To make it drinkable, I'm hearing others say to mix it with a dry wine at the time of consumption--or at bottling time, but it would get fairly expensive to purchase enough to make any difference then. Each of my batches are 5 gallons.

What kind of wine is it?
 
Yup.. So now you know first hand that the key is to craft your must with a starting SG that yields an ABV that doesn't exceed the alcohol toxicity of your yeast, and will produce a balanced wine.

Realistically, with the two wines, you can either:
1. thin them out with water to lower the ABV and try to restart fermentation to remove the rest of the sugar
2. add more of the same must to each and try to restart fermentation with the goal of converting all the sugar to alcohol and having a reasonable ABV for the style of wine
3. blend them with some much lower ABV wine, which will reduce both the ABV and residual sugar.

Thinning with water will also thin the taste and body, probably the least desirable option.

What kind of wine is it?
What kind of wine is it?

Batch #1 that started at 1.160 is Chokecherry; the next answer, for #2 is spoken in red face.... a friend gave me her old freezer fruit.... I'm calling it "Freezer Burn." The flavor isn't as bad as one might expect. Just way too sweet.
 
It only dawned on me as was reading the last few posts, but if you have sweet wine that's in the 18% - 19% range, you could consider fortifying it with some brandy or other strong alcohol to make a port out of it. The Chokecherry sounds like it could be tasty as a port, I'm not really sure what's in your "Freezer Burn" wine..............

Edit to say: "Port Style Wine"
 

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