Getting the answer you want fast!

[sour_grapes]

Yes, gross lees refers to all the junk that (typically) falls to the bottom. It is mostly dead yeast cells. (For example, you get gross lees even if you ferment pure juice with no fruit in it.) I would describe it generally as "a slurry."

I do not know why you did not see any gross lees (unless it was what you are calling a "sort of pulpy liquid"). Did you, by chance, stir or otherwise agitate your wine just prior to racking to secondary?

 

[Sam]

It's possible that it became agitated during racking, since I kept having to remove the autosiphon and unclogging it from grape skins. But at the very beginning of the racking, I began the siphon, and gently placed it towards the bottom, where I was expecting to feel it come to a rest on the sediment. To my surprise I felt it hit the bottom of the carboy. During primary fermentation, a sediment buildup was not visible on the bottom, but I thought that may be because it was such a dark wine.

I do have a theory as to why it happened. As I mentioned, we put the crushed grapes directly into the wine during primary fermentation, which at first settled at the bottom. As fermentation progressed, however, a lot of the crushed grape skins broke free of the jam-like consistency and floated up toward the top. I think that maybe this upward push, and the fact that the bottom was already thicker/pulpier than the rest of the liquid, prevented the sediment from really settling at the bottom, instead just mixing in with the heavier liquid on the bottom of the carboy. Fortunately most of the stuff at the very bottom didn't make it into the secondary anyway.

 

[SoCalGuy]

I'm making a Cellar craft Chardonnay and I plan on doing a Batonnage. Like a moron I just racked to secondary and I accidentally put k meta in. What to do?

 

[sour_grapes]

I'm making a Cellar craft Chardonnay and I plan on doing a Batonnage. Like a moron I just racked to secondary and I accidentally put k meta in. What to do?

What was your SG when you transferred? What yeast did you use?

I would think about waiting a few days, maybe splash racking. Then make a yeast starter using EC1118, and re-inoculate.

 

[SoCalGuy]

SG is 1.000 and I used IVC-D47. Trying to get that buttery texture to it.

 

[sour_grapes]

Your first job is to get the wine to ferment to completion. The reason I asked what yeast is that I was wondering about the tolerance of your yeast strain to sulfites. However, I have to admit that I do not know how sulfite-tolerant D47 is, so I am not much help there.

Seems to me that there would be no harm in just keeping it warm and monitoring the SG for a few days, to see if it completes.

 

[SoCalGuy]

That's what I'm doing now. I put a thermo wrap on it at 75 deg. See what happens. At least it's down to 0%.

 

[Tasha]

Hi, My wine is at the secondary fermentation stage in a 6 gals carboy but my wine is about 4 gals which means Its has air space, i had to travel urgently on a trip the next day after transferring to the carboy leaving my wine unattended an average of four weeks, The color is still the same and it doesn't smell bad but I am not seeing any activity of bubbling from the airlock. Is my wine still fine or should I dump it?

 

[sour_grapes]

I wouldn't dump it. It is unlikely to be spoiled, but it may be a bit oxidized due to the air exposure. How does it taste?

 

[Tasha]

Hi, It taste fine just need sweetening.

 

[sour_grapes]

Well, good. You should just proceed as usual now. That means you should rack it off the lees, add potassium metabisulfite (k-meta), and let it age some more.

Two additional notes: (1) You need to eliminate that headspace. You can do this by racking to a smaller vessel, or by topping off your vessel with a similar wine. (2) if you do sweeten it, you need to add potassium sorbate to fend off refermentation of the sugar you added.

 

[Yellow]

Just doing a dandelion wine. I had about 500g of yellow pedals. I cut the bottom portion off the head of the flower to reduce bitterness as I read. Thing is most call for 2-3quarts of flowers which range from 89-100g weight. They then say 1gal of water to steep these in. I put my flowers in 1gal to steep just now. Question is since my steep fluid will be so concentrated is it ok to add another gallon of water after two days. Basically making a double batch. Here was what I was kinda using for instructions. http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/dandelio.asp

 

[Generaldisorder]

Newbies Questions

Hi All
Just a few quick questions about what i do next with two new brews.

17th April I made a gallon each of Brandy and ginger wine and Ginger wine on its own.
Brandy and ginger mix has reached 1.014 and I like a sweet one. Fermentation has slowed but not stopped and I have racked it off the mush. Removed it from warm location and sealed with an airlock in a glass gallon demijohn. The wine isnt anywhere near clear yet and i intend to store it for a min of 6 months as per recipe. Should I be adding ksorb or camden at this stage or should I leve it until clearer and then use chemicals such as finings ksorb and campden. Need to stop the fermenting but i think if i leave it in a cold place this might happen anyway??

And the ginger wine I brewed is at 1.060 still and I know this is nowhere near finished. It is still fermenting and not racked off the mush yet.

Any advice appreciated. Thanks

 

[sour_grapes]

Hi All
Just a few quick questions about what i do next with two new brews.

17th April I made a gallon each of Brandy and ginger wine and Ginger wine on its own.
Brandy and ginger mix has reached 1.014 and I like a sweet one. Fermentation has slowed but not stopped and I have racked it off the mush. Removed it from warm location and sealed with an airlock in a glass gallon demijohn. The wine isnt anywhere near clear yet and i intend to store it for a min of 6 months as per recipe. Should I be adding ksorb or camden at this stage or should I leve it until clearer and then use chemicals such as finings ksorb and campden. Need to stop the fermenting but i think if i leave it in a cold place this might happen anyway??

And the ginger wine I brewed is at 1.060 still and I know this is nowhere near finished. It is still fermenting and not racked off the mush yet.

Any advice appreciated. Thanks

Am I to understand that you added the brandy early in the fermentation? I think to answer your question about stability, we will need to figure out what the total ABV (alcohol by volume) of the fortified ginger wine is right now. We can do that, but will need to know what the SG was when you started fermentation, how much brandy you added to how much must, and when you added it with respect to your SG readings.

 

[Generaldisorder]

Thanks for posting Paul. I did not add any brandy yet. I made a must from potato, raisins, barley and demerara sugar. The recipe said to ferment until required sweetness was reached on the hydrometer and then rack the wine off the mush. After clearing add brandy and store in a cool dark place for at least a year but anything up to 3yrs. I didnot work out any abv before starting so i dont know. What I need to know now is the best way to stop the fermenting and clear the wine before adding the brandy and storing.

Thanks
Generaldisorder

 

[Generaldisorder]

Also the ginger wine is a separate gallon of wine to the brandy+ginger just so there is no misundeerstanding. The ginger wine is still at 1.060 and is still fermenting. As with the other wine i took no sg rading at start of fermenting.

 

[sour_grapes]

I didnot work out any abv before starting so i dont know. What I need to know now is the best way to stop the fermenting and clear the wine before adding the brandy and storing.

The only practical way to stop the fermentation is to raise the ABV (by fortifying) such that it exceeds the alcohol tolerance of the yeast you used. I think 20% ABV is a fine target.

In order to ascertain precisely how much brandy you would need to add, you need to know the ABV (and the volume) of the wine before you add the brandy. That is why I asked what the starting SG was. Next time, be sure to measure your SG before fermentation commences.

If it were my wine, I would make a reasonable estimate of your starting SG, then work out how much alcohol there is in your must now, then use a Pearson's square to figure out how much brandy to add to reach the desired ABV (~19 or 20%, probably). Rack the must off the lees, then add the brandy, and let it sit for a while.

 

[Boatboy24]

We need to change the title of this thread to "How to get an answer fast" and lock it.

Welcome to WMT, Generaldisorder.

 

[Generaldisorder]

The only practical way to stop the fermentation is to raise the ABV (by fortifying) such that it exceeds the alcohol tolerance of the yeast you used. I think 20% ABV is a fine target.

In order to ascertain precisely how much brandy you would need to add, you need to know the ABV (and the volume) of the wine before you add the brandy. That is why I asked what the starting SG was. Next time, be sure to measure your SG before fermentation commences.

If it were my wine, I would make a reasonable estimate of your starting SG, then work out how much alcohol there is in your must now, then use a Pearson's square to figure out how much brandy to add to reach the desired ABV (~19 or 20%, probably). Rack the must off the lees, then add the brandy, and let it sit for a while.

Thanks Paul - so next time i make a wine must I measure the sg before I add the fermenting yeast is that right? As to making an estimate of starting sg that would be almost impossible unless I assume that it was somewhere between 1.000 and the 1.014 it is now. As I have nt a clue would it be reasonable to half the difference and call it 1.007? The quantity i have now is exactly one gallon and the recipe said to add half pint of brandy per gallon, but not to add this until the wine is clear. And do I wait until I have done the calculations and stopped the fermentation before i add finings or would it be just as well to add the brandy now to stop the fermentation and then add finings.

 

[Generaldisorder]

why would you wantt to lock the thread? I am a newbie and worse than clueless because I have always made my own musts as per recipes and never did any calculations regarding abv etc