Homemade wine making advice needed

[Ranit]

Very new to making wine not from kits.

Just made Bramble 9lb & Elderberry Wine 11lb (Internet recipe), using 20lb fruit to approx 10.5lbs sugar, 3tspn pectin enzym, 5 crushed campden tablets, 6 tspn yeast nutrients, 5tspn wine yeast (instructions state rounded & no need to activate), 10 tspn citric acid in 5 gallon fermenting vessel.

Crushed fruit, boiled sugar syrup separately & when cool added to fruit, then added rest of ingredients, stirred well.

Poss 1st mistake teaspoon used was probably a bit large. 2nd mistake then put fermentation lock on FV, prob for approx 2 days. Fermentation was very fast. Stirred each day. Realised mistake & took lock off and covered just with towel to allow air in. After 7 days fine seived & racked to demi johns with fermentation lock. 3rd mistake didn't read specific gravity initially!

Problem the demi johns have stopped fermenting after only a couple of days, they were in dining room where heat is approx 21deg C (70 deg F) and a bit colder at night. Have now moved them near the boiler.

Measured the gravity for the 1st time tonight and its .994 which is too dry??? Also had a brief taste of wine and its very, very tart.
Has the wine stopped fermenting because its got enough alcohol & can we bottle it & hope the flavour improves?
Or should we try to start fermentation again by adding more yeast - if so how much per DJ?
Also to sweeten the wine should we add more sugar syrup if so how much? Or would we better with some form of sweet natural juice? Also when do we add the sweetener?
Any advice would be really welcome.

 

[bshef]

Your S.G. is great. Definitely not too dry. First, move the Demijohns away from the boiler. Coolish, stable temperature is best. Keep the Demijohn topped up and the airlock filled; cover the Demijohn so no light spoilage. Walk away for at least 3 months and let time work. Rack after 3 months; taste, sulfate, walk away for another 3 months. Then start thinking about taste. Another 3 to 6 months bulk aging won’t hurt before you do anything more. Kits are fast from juice to bottle. Fruit (grapes are fruit) has to go from fruit to juice to fine wine. Bramble and Elderberry should be tart and dry. After 6 months to a year you can think about how you want it to finish. I think you’ll be shocked how much time will do. Relax!

 

[Rice_Guy]

* Many fruit wines are fermented at lower temperatures as 65 (17C) or with chill tanks lower. Remember a hundred years ago grandpa used ambient temp. Kits are designed to ferment fast so they instruct high temperatures. For chemical reactions every 10C doubles the speed.
* yeast needs air to grow a big population, since it fermented dry you were ok.
* At this time you have CO2. in your wine. This will make it more acidic and contribute bitter flavors (the flavor difference between fresh sparkling water and tap water)
* i have experienced refermentation after back sweetening at 6 months and it usually is stable at 9 months. Kits add sorbate for stability which you could do if you want to drink fast. Fresh juice may have yeast in it so there is a risk of refermentation. Commercial juices (ex concentrate) have been pasteurized so they should be clean. I wait 9 plus months.
Most of us do flavor trials to pick an appropriate level of sweetness.
* Most of us like to estimate alcohol at the start. If your sweetness was pleasing or a tad above pleasing you should be 11 to 13% which is normal.
* patience is a magic ingredient.

 

[Johnd]

Very new to making wine not from kits.

Just made Bramble 9lb & Elderberry Wine 11lb (Internet recipe), using 20lb fruit to approx 10.5lbs sugar, 3tspn pectin enzym, 5 crushed campden tablets, 6 tspn yeast nutrients, 5tspn wine yeast (instructions state rounded & no need to activate), 10 tspn citric acid in 5 gallon fermenting vessel.

Crushed fruit, boiled sugar syrup separately & when cool added to fruit, then added rest of ingredients, stirred well.

Poss 1st mistake teaspoon used was probably a bit large. 2nd mistake then put fermentation lock on FV, prob for approx 2 days. Fermentation was very fast. Stirred each day. Realised mistake & took lock off and covered just with towel to allow air in. After 7 days fine seived & racked to demi johns with fermentation lock. 3rd mistake didn't read specific gravity initially!

Problem the demi johns have stopped fermenting after only a couple of days, they were in dining room where heat is approx 21deg C (70 deg F) and a bit colder at night. Have now moved them near the boiler.

Measured the gravity for the 1st time tonight and its .994 which is too dry??? Also had a brief taste of wine and its very, very tart.
Has the wine stopped fermenting because its got enough alcohol & can we bottle it & hope the flavour improves?
Or should we try to start fermentation again by adding more yeast - if so how much per DJ?
Also to sweeten the wine should we add more sugar syrup if so how much? Or would we better with some form of sweet natural juice? Also when do we add the sweetener?
Any advice would be really welcome.

First, make safe what you have created, when your wine is finished fermenting (indicated by an unchanged SG reading three days in a row), it's time to add some sulfite to the wine to protect it, as well as topping up your storage vessel to eliminate airspace. One crushed campden tablet per gallon is sufficient (make sure yours are potassium metabisulfite, not sodium metabisulfite). If you've accumulated some sediment in the bottom of your vessel since fermentation ended, the above activities can be combined with racking off of that sediment to eliminate it from the wine. Again, keep the vessel properly topped up until you bottle.

As stated above, CO2 trapped in the wine can contribute to some pretty sharp tastes, fortunately, time will eliminate that CO2 for you, much as an open soda loses carbonation, wine just takes longer to do it. Some folks attempt to speed up the degassing process through agitation or vacuum racking, you can try those methods if you like. The other thought that I had about the tartness is the addition of 10 large teaspoons of citric acid, which probably contributes to the tartness you sense, off hand, it seems to be a lot of acid. Consider acid blend next time, and check your pH to make sure you don't overdo the additions.

When your wine has sufficiently degassed, it will also clear, because the CO2 in the wine helps keep particles in suspension. There are clearing agents available to speed the clearing process if you so desire. When you wine is degassed and clear, it's time to consider adding some sweetness to the wine. Adding sweetness helps a lot with overcoming tartness in wine, and it also tends to bring out the fruit flavors. Every winemaker has different tastes, so there is no set amount of sugar to add, we usually take small, measured samples of wine, and add small, measured increments of sugar to the wine and taste it. Once you get to a pleasing level of sweetness / fruitiness, you can expand that level of sugar to your full batch size.

As far as what to sweeten with, it's your choice. Straight sugar will do the job, won't dilute the flavors in your wine, and won't cause the wine to get cloudy again, ruining all of your hard work to clear it. Adding simple syrup is an option as well, it won't cloud the wine, but will slightly thin the flavors as it has water in it. You can also use fruit juices as well, but they will almost certainly cloud the wine and you'll have to clear it all over again. Whichever method of sweetening you decide on, conduct your bench trials / tasting with that method.

At the time you add the sugar, you should add an appropriate dose of potassium sorbate, and a dose of sulfite to the wine before adding your sugar. The sorbate will prevent any remaining yeast in the wine from being able to restart fermentation, which obviously causes problems for a wine in bottles. The sulfite dosage at the same time enhances the effectiveness of the sorbate, and is sufficient to protect your wine once it's in the bottle. Give the wine a few days after adding the sorbate/sulfite/sugar, just to make sure it doesn't start to ferment, then bottle it.

 

[salcoco]

I would suggest some reading of instructions and recipes on this web site https://winemaking.jackkeller.net/index.asp. I believe you overdosed on acid and yeast nutrient. I would suggest purchasing a ph meter if you don't have one and balance your wine with ph readings rather then teaspoons of acid. also yeast nutrient is normally 1.25 grams per gallon again I would purchase a small scale and measure your additions. reasonable economic equipment is available on Amazon. for your present wine the above comments are good advice.