First Timer

[anmom]

My husband bought me a wine kit last month after I expressed interest in learning a new hobby. The kit came with the "purple book" and since i don't have a clue what I'm doing I went ahead with the recipe included in there. With strawberry season looming and a goal of a semi sweet or sweet strawberry wine I set off. I ended up using a little over 20 pounds of berries instead of the 17 it called for (have I mentioned I'm not good at following directions?). First issue was there was no way the amount of water the recipe called for was going to fit, so it was reduced dramatically. I checked the sg after adding yeast and it seemed high, 1.090ish. The book said to move to carboy once it reached 1.030 however, I neglected to check one day and the next it had got to 1.000. I went ahead and moved to the carboy with the airlock. It has only been in there a few days and there is a lot of sediment. The book says to rack after 30 days and then again until it clears. Does this sound right? If I backsweeten, will I be able to get what I had planned for?

Sorry if I sound like a complete amateur, I am!

 

[Angelina]

Your doing just fine. Adding the extra berries is a good thing, it will add extra goodness to your wine. You might want to make a habit of measuring your sg before pitching your yeast. I would wait a few days and let your less settle and gently rack your wine off of them. I recently also made strawberry wine and had the same issues. If you have a extra carboy, rack it into that would be best but if not I think you could still get away with racking into your bucket and then clean and sanitize your carboy and rack it right back into it.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Yes
you are doing fine -
dont back sweeten till it clears more. There are several ways to bench test on how you sweeten - either by simple sugar syrup or a strawberry concentrate to help bring out the strawberries if needed.

 

[sour_grapes]

Do your instructions call for you to add potassium sorbate before backsweetening? It is used to reduce the chances of starting a refermentation when you sweeten.

 

[anmom]

Do your instructions call for you to add potassium sorbate before backsweetening? It is used to reduce the chances of starting a refermentation when you sweeten.

Yes, it does.

 

[Julie]

Hi anmom,

Welcome to winemakingtalk. Good luck with you batch you have going and I am happy to here you don't follow directions well, lol, in winemaking you have to follow taste and testing, recipes are there for guidance not the rule. 1.090ish maybe a little high but it will be fine. Normally I try to start my fruit wines out around 1.080.

 

[anmom]

Your doing just fine. Adding the extra berries is a good thing, it will add extra goodness to your wine. You might want to make a habit of measuring your sg before pitching your yeast. I would wait a few days and let your less settle and gently rack your wine off of them. I recently also made strawberry wine and had the same issues. If you have a extra carboy, rack it into that would be best but if not I think you could still get away with racking into your bucket and then clean and sanitize your carboy and rack it right back into it.

I went ahead and racked the wine like you suggested. I used the bucket, cleaned and sanitized the carboy and then added it back in. Because of the amount of sediment it took out, the carboy is not as full as it was before, it comes to the part where the carboy starts to taper, when before it was right at the neck, is that ok for it to have that much headspace?

Also, before I racked off the sediment I could see visible "bubbling" in the carboy along the top of the wine but I do not see that any longer. Did I do something wrong, or is this normal after racking?

Thanks for the advice for this newbie!

 

[Angelina]

You did nothing wrong.
Are you planning on adding a f-pak or backsweetening? Have you taken a sg reading since racking it? I'm not sure what everyone else does but anytime I do something to my wine I take a reading to see if there is any change. Being you were at 1.000 when you first racked it, it may have dropped a little more. If you wish to ferment your strawberry wine to dry (sg 0.990) don't add anything to your carboy till fermentation is finished. You will want that final reading so you can calculate your abv. If you are happy with your ending sg reading right now, you could do a couple different things to get the volume up on the neck of the carboy to leave as little head space as possible which will help in preventing oxidation. You can stabilize and sorbate your wine, then add simple syrup, a f-pak, or top it up with a similar wine, or any combination of the three to get the level up. If it was me I would make a strawberry and sugar f-pak so it would add strawberry flavor and some sweetness back in since I like a fruity sweet wine.

 

[anmom]

I have tried searching instructions for a f-pack but can not find exactly how to do this. Can someone provide me with a link or instructions?

I did plan to backsweeten since we prefer a sweet wine.

How exactly do I know when fermentation has ended? I was under the impression I just kept reracking in the carboy until it clears, then add stabilizer and bottle?

 

[sour_grapes]

How exactly do I know when fermentation has ended? I was under the impression I just kept reracking in the carboy until it clears, then add stabilizer and bottle?

Your hydrometer is the tool of choice. Once the SG is below, say, 0.996, and is steady at that value for 3 or 4 days, then the fermentation is effectively over.

 

[Angelina]

Here is a tutorial
http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44497&highlight=fpac

When your sg doesn't change for a week or two and/or your sg is 0.990 or 0.992 your should be done. It's not a technical answer, but it is what I know.

 

[anmom]

Your hydrometer is the tool of choice. Once the SG is below, say, 0.996, and is steady at that value for 3 or 4 days, then the fermentation is effectively over.

But do you do anything different? Do I not still leave it until clear and then stabilize, backsweeten, and bottle?

 

[sour_grapes]

But do you do anything different? Do I not still leave it until clear and then stabilize, backsweeten, and bottle?

Different from what? Yes, it sounds like you have it correct: When fermentation is over, as judged by the SG, you can start degassing (if desired), clearing (if desired), stabilizing, backweetening, and, eventually, bottling.