Is my wine stuck?

[adams54]

My wine didn't ferment for more than 2 or 3 days then it stopped. Starting SG was 1.06. I added about 2lbs 9ozs sugar to bring it up to about 1.09. Added the yeast and watched what happened. Once it stopped bubbling after a couple of days, I measured SG again and it's now 1.00. My friend said bottle it, it's ready. But surely it should bubble for longer than that? Even when it was bubbling, it was was very slow. It's slightly cloudy, lovely red colour and it tastes a bit like Chianti, but you wouldn't want a whole glass of it, it's very dry.

Maybe I made a mistake when syphoning it into the demi-johns. I left a fair bit of sediment in the bottom of the brewing bucket. Now it occurs to me that I might have left the yeast behind in the sediment causing fermentation to stop.

I bought a pack of "restart" yeast in case I need to get it to ferment again. If that's the best course of action, do I need to add sugar again to raise the SG from 1.00 to 1.09? Can anyone point me in the right direction please?

 

[Julie]

leave it sit, you are probably not going to see any bubbling, depend on your hydrometer at this point. It will go lower. And never bottle a wine that is cloudy, be patient and let it clear.

 

[cpfan]

Your wine started at 1.09 and has fermented happily along until it is now 1.00. Basically it is nearly finished fermenting, as many wines finish with an sg below 1.00. This is about 12% alcohol. If you add more sugar, and if the yeast ferments it (likely) then you will get even more alcohol.

So it's not stuck, just nearly finished.

BTW, specific gravity is usually quoted as 3 decimal places.

Steve

 

[adams54]

Hi Julie, thanks for the advice. It tastes very very dry at the moment. Should I add a little more sugar to sweeten it slightly do you think, or does wine always taste like this when it's brewing? Also, I'll follow your advice and let it sit of course, but having never done this before, should it sit for many months, or a few weeks? How can I tell when it's finished doing it's thing? My friend said I should be aiming for 1.00 - but it's there already and I've got nothing to aim for now.

 

[adams54]

Hi Steve, you must have replied whilst I was typing my reply to Julie. Thanks for your reply. The most confusing part of wine making for me is the hydrometer. I did miss the zero out on the end so I'll bear that in mind in the future - thanks You sort of answered my question to Julie there - should I add more sugar - from what you're saying, it wouldn't be so wrong to add a little (dissolved in water) and it might make me feel more confident to see some bubbles through the airlock! I'm using fresh grapes that I picked myself locally. Seems to be a good year for people growing grapes in their gardens in the UK!

This weekend I picked some more grapes (again, red wine grapes although not quite as many as before) - so I've got my second batch of wine on the go too (smells like a winery here!). Keeping both completely separate and making notes of when I do what to each batch

Thanks very much for both comments - I thought batch 1 may have been ruined but now I don't think it has!

 

[robie]

Adams,
Generally, when the SG has not changed for three days in a row, the wine is considered dry and fermentation finished. The wine should stop below an SG of 1.000, though, else instead of being finished, it is probably stuck.

As mentioned, if you keep adding sugar, fermentation will continue. Eventually you might end up with more alcohol than you would like.

Do you want the wine to end up being sweet? If so, wait until fermentation is completed, add Kmeta and sorbate; degas; then back sweeten. Next, let the wine clear, then bottle it. Back sweetening without first adding kmeta and sorbate will likely only restart fermentation again, resulting in eventually your wine being ruined.

The process is not complicated, but it does take some knowledge of the steps involved. We have some very nice tutorials on this subject under our tutorial section. I recommend you take some time and study the process, so your wine can turn out as good as possible.

You can end up with a nice wine I'm sure. Good luck.

 

[adams54]

Thanks Robie. Since last posting, I've added a small amount of sugar solution. Although I don't want it to be sweet as such, it tastes overly dry at the moment and I'm hoping this will correct it. I've also put a heater band around the fermenting bin to encourage the right temperature (may be slightly too cool at 20 degrees). The bin I've put it in has a temperature gauge on the outside, so I'll keep an eye on it to make sure it's achieving the right temperature.

As I don't want the wine to be too sweet, I don't think I'll need the back sweetening (never heard of this before, but will read up on it now). I've never heard of Kmeta nor seen it here so I did some searching. I think this may be something you have in the US. In the UK people seem to use Campden Tablets and I've got plenty of them. Hopefully won't need to do this if all goes according to plan.

Batch 2 seems to be going better. The yeast is a different type and it seems to be doing exactly what it should (unlike last time!). I made a starter with it and it moved actively after an hour.

Crossing fingers now that both batches will be good!

 

[Julie]

Before adding sugar to sweeten a wine you need to 1. make sure it is done fermenting. 2. then add k-meta or camden tablets and sorbate, this is called stabilizing. then some use water but I prefer to take some wine, add sugar, heat this up until the sugar is dissolved, let it cool and then add it, add a little sugar at a time, maybe 2 cups at first, take a reading and taste it to see if you like where the sweet level is at, then take a hydrometer reading so the next time you make this wine, you know where to backsweeten it.

Understand if you do not stabilize your wine when adding sugar all you are doing is causing it to re-ferment, so you end up with a wine high in alcohol but still dry. Yes you can keep adding sugar until the yeast have all died off but now you have rocket fuel that might be sweet.

 

[Midwest Vintner]

Like stated, it will always be dry after fermentation, unless you have a high enough starting SG that the yeast can not ferment. Meaning the tolerance of the yeast is the key factor in determining if you will end up dry from where you started. With grapes, you have to work with what you got and sometimes you will add sugar, but only after you let it sit for awhile (3 days isn't enough for me, IMO, I let it sit over 2 weeks to make sure). Then you can stabilize like previously posted. ONLY AFTER stabilizing do you add more sugar or you might have the yeast start again, making MORE alcohol (not good). It's easier to let the yeast do it's thing, let it go full DRY, stabilize and then back sweeten. Trying to start with more sugar can lead to high alcohol. If you start at 1.090, you will have a little bit over 12% if you get down to .996 final SG.

What yeasts are you using?