Ginger wine

[WaWa]

my ginger wine appears to have finished at 1.100. Been this way for a month. It has great flavour but is too sweet. If I started a dry wine would I add the ginger wine to the must (I havent added sorbbate or campden yet) of the new wine or wait till the new wine is finished and blend the two?

 

[arcticsid]

Hi WA

Wine doesn't "finish" at 1.100(is that correct, 1.100?). Sounds like it never got going. It is hard for me to offer you an opinion, or anyone else, without more details.

What SG did you start at? Did you add any sulphites or campden in the begining? How big of a batch are we talking about? Please post us your recipe so we can take a look.

It sounds to me like it would be quite possible to make a starter and get it fermenting (again) and let it do its trick until it ferments out, and then put it under airlock.

It sounds like it never started to begin with. All hope may not be lost, so please don't panick. I think it was Allie who was talking about a ginger wine and it sounds good.

For now. Take about 1 cup of the wine and heat it to about 100 degrees/F, sorry, I don't have a metric conversion in froont of me, and I NEED TO! Lots of members in here who use it. Bring it up to about 100F, sprinkle your yeast(what did you use to begin with?) on top and allow it to rehydrate. Keep your starter in a warm place. Every hour or so, add about 1/2 cup of the wine to your starter, let it "grow" for an hour or so, and add another 1/2 cup, and again, allow it to "grow". Keep doing this till you have at least 1 quart of starter and pour it in. No need to stir. It SHOULD go.

As I said, without anymore details it may another problem.

But until someone else chimes in. Get that starter going. As I am sure you realize, you want your must at least 70F before you add your starter,

Don't panick, I think you will probably be allright. I'm sure hoping so anyway.

Got my fingers crossed for you. Get that starter going right away, just in case. Keep us posted.

Troy

 

[St Allie]

Wawa?

please confirm your SG.. did you mean to type 1.010?

Alllie

 

[arcticsid]

Hi G, glad to have you back too! I hope you enjoyed your time off. I, like you, hope WA mis-typed, sounds like she has a great wine working, I hope its not to late to make it turn out excellent. With your help I think it will.

Troy

 

[WaWa]

hi
not a mis-type, the sg started at 1.140 ( too high i know that now, but I was a rookie and following a very old recipe) anyway, started in september and chugged away fine until november when all came to a grinding halt. My guess is too much sugar for the yeast. I used Ec-1118. Here's the recipe.
5oz crushed root ginger, 2 pts strong tea, 10 lbs sugar, yeast nutrients etc. I have 3 gals.
the wine is still very fizzy.
Has been racked off twice. Is very clear and smells great!!!

 

[St Allie]

My guess is a stuck ferment Wawa..

if it was mine.. there are three options I'd consider...

first option.. at roughly 6.5 % now..you could fortify with high alc vodka or whiskey.. that will give you a "Stones" ginger wine effect. If you like that particular wine? It'll be sweet.. but that wine is supposed to be sweet as an aperitif or add a soda mixer to dilute to a 'rtd' ( 5% style drink). Not the cheapest option with 3 gallons.. however you could split the batch and put 1 gallon into a fortified wine.

second option would be to try and restart the fermentation with a superstarter..and add must to it, til it is fermenting well. EC118 will do it.. but you are going to end up with an ice wine style finished abv.

third option.. use it to blend or as a fpac, for other wines. it'd have to be used fairly soon if an fpac. Make sure you sulphite it in the meantime.

Allie

 

[St Allie]

Hi G, glad to have you back too! I hope you enjoyed your time off. I, like you, hope WA mis-typed, sounds like she has a great wine working, I hope its not to late to make it turn out excellent. With your help I think it will.

Troy

Stuff had to be attended to Troy.

thankyou and glad to be back, missed signing in here.

it's a funny old life online really!

Allie

 

[WaWa]

Thanks Allie, i think i'll make a citrus wine and blend with the ginger. I think that would be nice....