HELP! First batch emergency-UPDATE

[JKsmith]

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Background-Muscadine wine</font>


Following Jack Keller's Muscadine wine Recipe #1 See below:</font>


Started with 34 lbs. of muscadines. This wastoo much volume for one 6 gal. primary fermentation bucket so I split it evenly between two. (Goal amount is 6 galllons)</font>


Iadded water and sugar then added 6 crushed campden tablets and yeast nutrient. (split between the two)</font>


Waited 12 hours and added Pectic enzyme. Waited 12 hours more and added Yeast.</font>


24 hours later...NOTHING!! No fermentation activity.</font>


Realised that I premixed the yeast in water that was too hot and probably killed it off.</font>


Added another round of Yeast, this time premixed in 1/4 cup of lukewarm water</font>


It's now been 12 hours since the second yeast innoculation and still NO FERMENTATION ACTIVITY!!!</font>


WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?? And, can my batch be saved at this point??? </font>


Temperture in room is a pretty constant 72-75 degrees</font>


HELP PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</font>


This recipe is for 1 gallon. I am making 6 so I multiplied all ingredients by 6 except for the yeast. (I used Red Star Montrachet yeast. 1 packet in each bucket.)</font>
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6 lbs ripe Muscadine Grapes </font></font>


2-1/4 lbs granulated sugar </font></font>


3 qts water </font></font>


1 tsp pectic enzyme </font></font>


1 tsp yeast nutrient </font></font>


1 crushed Campden tablet </font></font>


1 packet Montrachet wine yeast </font></font></dir></dir>


Boil the water and dissolve the sugar in it. While sugar-water is cooling, wash, destem and crush the grapes, being sure to wear rubber gloves. Pour crushed grapes into nylon straining bag, tie securely, and put in primary. Pour water over grapes, add crushed Campden tablet and yeast nutrient, and cover primary securely. After 12 hours add pectic enzyme. Wait additional 12 hours and measure both specific gravity and acid. S.G. should be 1.090 or higher; acidity no higher than 7 p.p.t. tartaric. Correct S.G. if required by adding additional sugar, acid by using one of three methods described below following recipes. Add yeast, recover primary, and squeeze nylon bag lightly and stir must twice daily for about 5-7 days or until S.G. drops to 1.030. Press pulp well to extract liquid. Pour into secondary fermentation vessel, fit airlock, and let stand 3 weeks. Rack and top up, then rack again in 2 months and again after additional 2 months. If wine has cleared, bottle. If not, wait until wine clears, rack again and bottle. This wine may be sweetened before bottling by stabilizing, waiting 10-12 hours, then adding 2/3 to 1-1/3 cup sugar-water per gallon (2 parts sugar dissolved in 1 part water. May taste after one year, but improves remarkably with age (2-4 years). [Author's recipe.]</font></font></font></font></font></font></font>Edited by: JKsmith

 

[MedPretzel]

First, don't worry.


24 hours doesn't necessarily mean you have to throw away the batch.


What's the beginning SG? If you've taken it, take it again. Even the slightest change will mean there's something going on.


Just don't worry about it yet.


You've got a good temp. That is good. Keep it that way.

To make triple sure, I would maybe make a yeast starter and ease the MUST into the YEAST STARTER. there's a section "How To" here, and a yeast starter is explained there, I believe. It will help you at least do something while your batch is trying to get started.


Montrachet yeast has a variable reputation. I, for one, love it. It should be fine - did you check the date on the packet? Just making sure.


Just don't worry - 24 hours is not that long, although I bet it seems like ages to you.


So, in summary, this is what I would do.


1. Make a yeast starter
2. Check the date on the packet of yeast that you used.
3. Have a glass of wine.
4. Add 1/2 cup of your must to your re-hydrated yeast starter.
5. Check your must.
6. Have another glass of wine to calm the nerves.
7. At this point, 1/2 a day has gone by - add another 1/2 cup of your must to the starter.
8. Check you must. By checking, I mean check for fizz and take an SG reading wth a well sanitized hydrometer.
9. Go to sleep.
10. Tomorrow morning, when you wake up, add another 1/2 cup of your must to the starter.
11. If you still have NO SG MOVEMENT AT ALL, and your starter is doing it's thing, wait til you get home form work, add another 1/2 cup, (alltogether 2), and then stir gently. Let it sit for an hour or so, and if it's foaming, add it to your must. The juice will be fine that long.


Don't worry.

I have a feeling that it will start/has started, just not visibly yet.

 

[peterCooper]

Did you check the acid level?Acid will inhibit yeast activity apparently. Martina's suggestion abotu the starter will help with too much acid. I'm interested to se how yours turns out. I've got 9lb of Muscadines in the frezzer and I'm going out on friday to pick up hopefully another 20lb or so to start mine.

 

[JKsmith]

First off, thank you both for responding so quickly! I feel much better now knowing that all is not lost at this point! As soon as I get home today I will get a yeast starter going and will report back tomorrow, or later tonighton that progress. Now, more info on my preparations...


I did do an initial SG and Acid test before adding the yeast and here are the results: SG was 1.090 and acid was 5.5 p.p.t. tartaric. (I used two types of test kits and one said 5ppt and the other said 6ppt so I just split the difference here) From what I have read so far, these levels were close to ideal so I didn't try to adjust them at all. (Does that sound correct?) Actually, I was expecting the acid level to be higher and require something to reduce it since muscadines are so acidic but that turned out not to be the case. Again, I very much appreciate the help and value your comments greatly! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!

 

[Waldo]

How did you process your Muscadines JK? I have not made a batch yet that I did not need to adjust the acidity some.

 

[JKsmith]

Hello Everyone,
I just got home and checked my primary fermentation containers and, Voila!,
fermentation is occurring like crazy!!!!! All of the hulls were floating and CO2 was bubbling all around them! I have to say, that was best sight and smell I have experienced in quite a while. I was so worried this morning that the whole batch was going to go bad. (inexperience, I know) Anyway, thanks everyone for the great advice and support! I'm sure I'll have more questions along the way but at least I'm out of the blocks now and in the race!

Waldo,
This is what I did as far as preparation goes...

Since I wasn't able to pick enough for the batch all at one time, I would pick 5-10 lbs. of really, really ripe ones and de-stem (if necessary), wash and then freeze them. I did this for about 2 weeks until I had enough. I did notice after I thawed them, however, that the flavor was slightly different. They tasted much more like regular store bought type grapes (think Welch's grape juice flavor) instead of muscadines and seemed to have lost a little of the "wildness" that they had before freezing. So, I'm not sure whether freezing them somehow affected the acid content or whether just waiting until they were very ripe before picking them did. I feel pretty confident about the acid level though because I tested it twice with 2 different types of tests.

What method of acid reduction do you use when you have to lower it?

Kevin Smith...

 

[MedPretzel]

Phew,

I'm sure glad that your wine is okay.


Keep us posted. We here like lots of pictures!


M.

 

[JKsmith]

Thanks Martina!
I will try to post some pictures tomorrow.

Kevin Smith

Phew,

I'm sure glad that your wine is okay.


Keep us posted. We here like lots of pictures!


M.

 

[eddie]

Don't worry it will start. You might want to try stiring it. I found out that I get better and more juice by running my muscadines thru a meat grinder using the plate with the largest holes I can get. I just run it into a clean fermenter bucket and then dip it into a bag and press it out. The bag helps to catch some of the pulp and skins and seeds. The draw back is that there is a lot of suspended stuff in the wine to be cleared with the clarifier. But it will clear up fine and you can read a newspaper thru it. I also tried rehydrating my yeast and found it works much better to just sprinkle it on top of the must. I had a batch recently that I re-pitched my yeast because it had not started in about 48 hours. I used 71B-1122 Lalvin at first and then repitched with Red Star Pasteur Champagne. The next morning I thought there was a air pump in my fermenter.

 

[JKsmith]

Update: Things are progressing really well, and ahead of schedule I might add! I just checked the SG and it is down to 1.020 from a starting point of 1.090!!!! Last night it was 1.060 so it has dropped really fast. (temp has been a pretty constant 72-78 degrees) Why has it fermented so fast? I thought it was supposed to take 7 days and it has only been 72 hours! The acid level seems to have changed as well. It is now .7 from a starting point of 5.5. What would cause it to become more acidic than when I started? Should I add some acid blend? Speaking of acid blend, how does adding more acid LOWER the overall acid level? It would seem to me that I would need to add some type of base to neutralize the acid-not add more acid. Anyway, I apologize for all of the newbie type questions but I could really use some more advice since this is my first time doing this. Should I go ahead and rack to the secondary carboy tonight or let the SG drop some more first? Some recipes say rack to secondary at 1.030 and others say wait until 1.01. What do you guys reccommend? Thanks again everyone for all of the help!

 

[MedPretzel]

I'm not a good one with acid, but I'll ahve a go at it:
EDIT!!!!!!!!!!
Lower acid levels (i.e. lower pH) is normal in a wine. You should shoot for roughly 4.something for reds (I think, just off the top of my head). But do not add anything to get to this amount!!!! You seem to be fine. I wouldn't add anymore acid. It's dropping (i.e. becoming more acidic), and that is what you need to keep bacteria out.


Why does fermentation go so quick? Food is there, it's nice and snuggly for the yeast at that temp. 78 is on the higher end of the snuggliness (and it is not bad at all - anything over 80 is something to take care of, in my opinion), and they just are happy that way. Don't worry about it.


As for racking at 1.030 or 1.010 -- it's totally up to you. I usually do it at 1.030 because I can see it in glass and see what is going on a lot better, but that's just me. It totally doesn't make a difference.


Don't worry about the wine. You followed the initial directions, and let nature take it's course for the most part. Mr. Keller's directions are pretty foolproof, and you should be fine following what he says. The greeks made wine in the worst of conditions - so did the egyptians. And they all lived to tell about it. So will you.

You're doing great!!!Edited by: MedPretzel

 

[JKsmith]

Thanks for the super fast reply Martina! Great advice once again.
I think I am going to go ahead and transfer it tonight. I have a lot of hulls and pulp to filter out first so I better get crackin' I'll post an update when I get evrything squared away. Wish me luck!!

Kevin