Fresh grape stuck fermentation???

[jhanger]

fermentation might be stuck?? Newbie making first wine from fresh grapes. At 9:30 am on 10/13/13, I bought 144 lbs fresh cabernet sauvignon grapes, ran through a crusher/destemmer, tossed a 1/4 tsp k-meta on the must and skins and brought them home (a two hour drive) on dry ice. Once home, I transferred the grapes and must into my cleaned and sanitized 32 Gal food grade brute. Ran my tests and got the following results: SG - 1.112, Brix 26, pH 3.5, Free So2 - 4 ppm, TA - .4. Must temp 66F, room temp 64F. At 9:30 pm, I added 2 g/L Acid Blend. At 9:35 pm, I added 8 tsp Yeast Nutrient. At 9:40 pm, I added 4 tsp Pectic Enzyme. On 10/14 at 1 pm I checked the TA - now .6. At 1:15pm, I dissolved two packets of Red Star Pasteur Red yeast in to 100 mL of 105F water and then stirred into fermentation brute. Room temperature is 62F. Punch down the cap every morning and evening. After 1 week, raise the room temp to 70F. Today, test SG - 1.10. What gives??? What to do next?

 

[Arne]

Sounds like it is fermenting down. Everything is going as planned. At some time you will have to remove the grapes and press them in some way. Let it ferment to down to 1.010 or so and get it into your secondary. Think you are allright. Arne.

 

[cpfan]

fermentation might be stuck?? Newbie making first wine from fresh grapes. At 9:30 am on 10/13/13, I bought 144 lbs fresh cabernet sauvignon grapes, ran through a crusher/destemmer, tossed a 1/4 tsp k-meta on the must and skins and brought them home (a two hour drive) on dry ice. Once home, I transferred the grapes and must into my cleaned and sanitized 32 Gal food grade brute. Ran my tests and got the following results: SG - 1.112, Brix 26, pH 3.5, Free So2 - 4 ppm, TA - .4. Must temp 66F, room temp 64F. At 9:30 pm, I added 2 g/L Acid Blend. At 9:35 pm, I added 8 tsp Yeast Nutrient. At 9:40 pm, I added 4 tsp Pectic Enzyme. On 10/14 at 1 pm I checked the TA - now .6. At 1:15pm, I dissolved two packets of Red Star Pasteur Red yeast in to 100 mL of 105F water and then stirred into fermentation brute. Room temperature is 62F. Punch down the cap every morning and evening. After 1 week, raise the room temp to 70F. Today, test SG - 1.10. What gives??? What to do next?

OK, original sg is 1.112. Yeast pitched 10/14. It's now 10 days later. Is the sg 1.100 or 1.010? If 1.100, you may have a problem. Possibly low temperature. If 1.010, there's no problem.

FOLKS: Please ALWAYS quote sg as 3 decimal places.

Steve

 

[BeeWine]

A good practice to fallow in wine making is to start a yeast starter using some of the must twelve to twenty four hours before you plan to pitch the yeast.
High SG or OG must's can stress yeast due to the high sugar levels.
Making a yeast starter acclimates the yeast to the must and also quadruples the amount of yeast you are pitching.
Also after twelve hours if your starter is not bubbling away you know you have some bad yeast.

John

 

[jhanger]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

Steve, you were right. I did mis-read the Hydrometer. SG is 1.010, not 1.100. I'll keep punching down the cap for a few more days then use the press

 

[jhanger]

All is good...for now. I just pressed the grapes. I filled a 3 gallon carboy with free run, a 5 gallon carboy with free run and pressed wine, as well as

 

[jhanger]

A 750 mL bottle. I'm wanting to start MLF next. I have two packets of Lalvin Bacchus MLB, but not a mlb yeast nutrient. Is one necessary?? How long can I wait to add the MLB? Right now all three vessels are under airlock in a 60F room.

 

[Turock]

YES--use the nutrient for the MLB. The MLB has complex nutrient needs and wine is often a poor source of these nutrients.

 

[jhanger]

Okay. So I started MLF on 10/30/13. I raised the room temp to 65. On 12/7, I performed a chromatography test which showed there to still be a little Malic Acid. On 12/24, I did another test and there are still traces of Malic in the results. I can let it go another week or so, but my concern is now spoilage as I have yet to add any k-meta. Any thoughts or suggestions?? Thanks.

 

[Pumpkinman]

Wait another week before you decide to do anything, within a week or two MLF should be complete.