First attempt, great, but?

[Kracker]

we decided to try this as a winter project. so far so good, too much reading and cannot seem to get on jack kellers site as its been down. so we tried a fruit wine from juice.

it is now no longer putting any air into the air lock. its crystal clear. but i still have a SG of 1.025, and has been there for a month.

is it done? it is no longer changing at all, and we have no idea if its a toss out or just stuck or as low as it will ever go. and if it is done, can someone point me to the direction of whats next, its our first.

 

[wineforfun]

What is the recipe?
What was the starting SG?

 

[djrockinsteve]

Yes we need a lot more information. Did you ferment entirely in a carboy, what yeast, did you add nutrients etc.

Give us more details to help you.

 

[Kracker]

i started with a recipe from my local brewery supply i was sent to, i started with melon juice, starting SG unknown as i didnt know yet to check it, i used

new sterile 1 gallon jug
airlock filed with vodka
6 cups sugar
1 tsp acid blend
1/3 tsp yeast nutrient
1/3 pectin enzyme
1/3 gallo water
topped off with melon juice

1 green package red star yeast

thats as much as i have, this was per LB recipe

 

[the_rayway]

I'm going to make a guess here, based on the information you have given.

6 Lbs of sugar in one gallon would have put your starting SG over 1.200 - which is waaaaayyy high. Thus, my guess would be that you started with too high an SG, and the yeast died of alcohol poisoning. i.e. hit their tolerance.

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

 

[Kracker]

so so sorry! i meant 6 cups

 

[vernsgal]

you used a 1/3 of a gal of water and the rest melon juice ,Im assuming that's at least 1/3/gal. Was it pure melon juice or was it store bought? If store bought, did you check ingredients?

 

[grapeman]

In my opinion you started with too much sugar even with 6 cups. For a gallon you would normally need no more than 2 pounds (4 cups) and you added 3 pounds. This probably was too much for the yeast to ferment totally. Red Star Cotes des Blanc only ferments to 12-14% alcohol. This may be the way the original maker likes the wine- sweet. If it is clear all the way, I would just finish it up as is and if you like it drier, next batch get your starting reading and only bring it up to 1.090 to start. I bet you were a lot higher with this one.

 

[Kracker]

ok is there anything i need to add for any reason, or pour it in bottles and shove a cork in?

 

[the_rayway]

Put a dose of potassium metabisulfate (or 1 campden tablet, crushed, per gallon) to protect your wine. You may also want to add some sorbate to prevent any live yeast from starting to ferment the leftover sugars, just in case. If you are unsure about what these chemicals do, check out the forum on 'yeast, additives, and wine making science'.

I would also suggest you rack and degas a bit before bottling - just in cased there is more trapped co2 in the wine. You don't want to end up with bottle bombs.

My preferred method is to put the additives in after racking off any gross lees, then forgetting about it for a few months so it can degas on it's own. (aka: bulk aging)

 

[Kracker]

awesome thanks! what would i add to sweeten it up a tad?

 

[vernsgal]

taste it. If you want more melon flavor sweeten it with more of the melon juice. Otherwise make a simple syrup, 1 part water to 2 parts sugar heated(not boiled) until sugar dissolves. Or if you don't want to water down wine,use 1 part of wine to sugar instead. I usually make up 1 cup of my wine to 2 cups of sugar and heat til dissolved. Then add a little at a time until it reaches the sweetness I'm looking for.

 

[vernsgal]

make sure you use sorbate 1st though!

 

[the_rayway]

I would also suggest that after sorbating, and backsweetning like Kim says - to leave it in a carboy for at least a few weeks to ensure there is no further fermentation that starts.

Just in case.

 

[loumik]

we decided to try this as a winter project. so far so good, too much reading and cannot seem to get on jack kellers site as its been down. so we tried a fruit wine from juice.

it is now no longer putting any air into the air lock. its crystal clear. but i still have a SG of 1.025, and has been there for a month.

is it done? it is no longer changing at all, and we have no idea if its a toss out or just stuck or as low as it will ever go. and if it is done, can someone point me to the direction of whats next, its our first.

Kracker,
At the top of the Beginners Wine Making thread there are a number of stickies. There is much to be learned by reading all of them, but you should read the ones by Pumpkinman and Wade if you want to get helpful information from other members of the forum.
Good Luck with your wine making.

LOUMIK

 

[Kracker]

I have. all of it.

 

[BernardSmith]

Hi Kracker...
My 2 cents: if the gravity is about 1.025 that should taste quite sweet even without any additional sugar. Are you saying that it does not taste sweet, or does not taste like melon? A gravity of 1.025 tells me that there is about 10 oz of unfermented sugar in that gallon. That's the equivalent of about 60 teaspoons of sugar in 16 cups of liquid. I am thinking that if the liquid was coffee or tea you would call that "sweet". Now for some wines and some people 1.025 is not sweet and that's OK but ... If I were you I would take another reading with your hydrometer. The problem may not be one of "sweetness" but of a lack of (fruit) flavor. Melon juice is very thin on flavor IMO and diluting the juice by 1/3 is going to make it even thinner (unless you were using some kind of concentrated juice) or the problem may be that the wine is too acidic for your taste and the acid is neutralizing the sweetness...

 

[Kracker]

oddlyt a few days later it now tastes perfect but still has had a high sg and im sure i added too much sugar up front so were just going to drink it now and not cork it in bottles, and just be happy our first try didnt taste gross and learn from here!

 

[olusteebus]

You could always make another gallon and mix them. I recommend using a ferment bucket for the primary ferment and stir it everyday until it gets around 1.010 and then put it into a gallon jug.

 

[Kracker]

well we took some to the NYE bash last night, it didnt last long everyone LOVED it