Sorry to keep asking silly questions ... but I figure I'll never learn if I don't ask. I think I may have screwed up again. I just racked my rhubarb from the primary to the secondary. The first reading I did,the SG was 1.090. I did another reading before I racked it and it was .996. Since my recipe says it should be racked at 1.040... I got a little worried and thought my poor yeasties would starve without more sugar. So ... I went ahead and added 1 pound of sugar. Of course, it fizzed up,overflowed andmade a big mess in my kitchen.So... did I screw up?
Low sugar in my rhubarb
- Thread starter poppysue
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That's great. Well "screw up" is a subjective term. But in my opinion... Yeah, I guess a little (I was trying to sugar coat that to be a little nicer. Pun intended).
More than likely what happened is your yeasties were *very* healthy and ate all the sugar and were about done. You simply missed 1.040 by a few days. It wouldn't have hurt to just rack without adding anything (that you didn't plan to add, i.e. sorbat, metabisulphites...)
Esentially, the damage done to your wine (some would say improvement) is possibly sweeten it, and if the yeasties start growing again (if you didn't add potasuim sorbate) made your alchol higher. Depending on the size of your batch will depend on the amount of alcohol increased.
I would suggest tasting it now. If it is ok tasting add Sorbate and metabisulphite to stop yeast from growing. Finish fining it, then bottle. If you let it keep growing you'll have some pretty strong stuff when you're done.
But it's not a hugh problem, it could still turn out to be the best wine you have made!
More than likely what happened is your yeasties were *very* healthy and ate all the sugar and were about done. You simply missed 1.040 by a few days. It wouldn't have hurt to just rack without adding anything (that you didn't plan to add, i.e. sorbat, metabisulphites...)
Esentially, the damage done to your wine (some would say improvement) is possibly sweeten it, and if the yeasties start growing again (if you didn't add potasuim sorbate) made your alchol higher. Depending on the size of your batch will depend on the amount of alcohol increased.
I would suggest tasting it now. If it is ok tasting add Sorbate and metabisulphite to stop yeast from growing. Finish fining it, then bottle. If you let it keep growing you'll have some pretty strong stuff when you're done.
But it's not a hugh problem, it could still turn out to be the best wine you have made!
if it went from 1.090 to .996 it should have about 13% alcohol (roughly). It should be done. Tast it and it should tell you. Depending on the type of yeast you used it could take a week or so in the 'perfect' conditions to make that sort of progress....
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A week is only relative for being too soon. What was your average temp during this time. The higher the temp(up to a point), the quicker the fermentation takes place. If the temp was 75 to 80 deg, then it may truly be about done. If you took a reading at a high temp of the must, then you need to adjust the SG to compensate for the temp and it may actually be quite a bit higher. Others can tell you the formula for the temperature correction. That said, no you didn't ruin the wine, just changed it's character and who knows, may be for the better.
I used Montrachet yeast and.... I'd guess the temp to be around 68. If it ends up a little on the sweet side that'll be okay with me. I'll have no complaints if the alcohol content is a little high either.
Thanks for your comments.
PolishWineP
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The really cool part of fruit wines is that you never know what you'll get in the end. (Lot's of people don't like that, but I love an adventure.) You have loads of time to correct things. You should be fine. Maybe people will be posturing to get a bottle of YOUR rhubarb in a few years!
