I think I killed the fermentation?

[Jim Cepaniewski]

Picked up two pails of Sauvignon Blanc. As I begin primary fermentation I bloomed the yeast and added .48g of Fermaid-O. When I did this the juice irruptdid and I lost quite a bit as it fizz way over the pails. Going forward everything seemed fine. When I racked into my 6 gallon carboys I realized I was about a gallon less in each car boy because of the fizzing over. So I went out and bought 1 gallon of Sauvignon Blanc for each carboy and added it to top off. Since I did that my bubblers are not even moving. That was 3 days ago. Did the sulfites in the wine I added stop the 2nd fermentation? Is it ok or should I add just a pinch more of the Fernando-O to restart the fermentation?

 

[winemaker81]

At this moment you're nonplussed, but it's highly likely that your wine is fine. I doubt the K-meta in the wines affected an active fermentation that much. What was the OG of each bucket, what was the SG at racking, and what is the current SG?

Fermentation slows down in the carboy -- you can have activity without it being obvious. Even in the initial fermentation, I've had whites where active fermentation just showed a bit of foam on the surface of the primary for the entire duration.

For future reference, I suggest fermenting in a container that is 1/4 to 1/3 greater in volume than the must. For fresh grapes I prefer double. From what I've read, most juice buckets recommend fermenting in the pail, but I'd rather have too much space than too little. I suspect you feel the same ...

You might purchase 10 to 12 gallon Rubbermaid Brutes -- they're a good size for 5/6 gallon kits and juice buckets.

 

[Rice_Guy]

my experience in looking at several years of white grape buckets is the free sulphite is close to zero. I doubt that is the issue.

Well today was delivery day for Chilean juice buckets. The numbers from the white grape are finished so I am tempted to crowd source an answer for the vinters club, ,,,, what would you do if you got ont or one each of these named varieties?
. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .pH .. . . .. .. ..gravity........ . .. . ..% TA ... . . . . free SO2.. temperature (infra red) on several buckets
View attachment 74216
the club runs QA on product purchased,
numbers look similar and I have seen this in past years

As Bryan asked What is the gravity? This turns out to be a better way to monitor over time than bubbles. The chances are good fermentation is there but you aren’t measuring it ,, for example if you tried a solid cork you would find it on the floor the next morning.