Maple Sap/syrup problems..

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Dirtydog420

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2009
Messages
264
Reaction score
0
I made some maple sap wine that I sweetened with some maple syrup and sugar to get an sg of about 1075.. I pitched yest on it about 2 or 3 days ago and since then the must has seemed to turned to gel.. Cant really even get a spoon full.. I added some petic enzyme but I am not sure its going to help..

My experiment isnt going well so far..

my recipe is pretty much just maple sap slightly boiled to sterilize, I added a quart of maple syrup and sugar..

Chris
 
I made two batches and the one I started first is fine, which is just sap with lemons and cloves.. Its the second batch thats the problem.. Im still unsure of what I am going to do...
 
That's strange. My 60 gallon batch of maple sap wine has now fermented out all the way and remained "watery" all the way.
 
Cutting my loses..

Well after adding a double dose of pectic enzyme and no improvement, I decided to cut my loses and dump the batch.. First time in a year and a half of wine making I have dumped it down the drain.. I had to use the garbage disposal just to get it down the drain, thats how thick this was.. All I can think is that somehow by boiling it to pasteurize the sap then adding syrup to the mix somehow made it congeal.. My other batch of map sap which I am using jack kellers recipe is doing great.. Well, anyway, lesson learned, I think :d

On a side note, I found my first popped cork.. I know that its not from re-fermentation cause I have opened other bottles and had no problem..
 
I had to use the garbage disposal just to get it down the drain, thats how thick this was.. All I can think is that somehow by boiling it to pasteurize the sap then adding syrup to the mix somehow made it congeal.. My other batch of map sap which I am using jack kellers recipe is doing great.. Well, anyway, lesson learned, I think :d Lesson learned? I don't think so. Any idea what thats going to do to your pipes if its that thick? Hopefully they'll be ok.

On a side note, I found my first popped cork.. I know that its not from re-fermentation cause I have opened other bottles and had no problem..
This is just bizarre!!! Every single forum members are complaining about this. I had one pop where the rest were ok about a month ago. Then this weekend I opened a bottle up that was given to me last summer and it had a fermentation going. I am dumping all of my sorbate and buying fresh. Sorbating everything in the future and running through .45 micron filter.
 
it is odd for sure I've never had any wine do this and I had them sealed for years in mason jars lol
 
I used lots of hot water and pipe cleaners after I dumped it.. There wasn't any other option.. Plus we are close tot he street and the waste runs right into sewer.. I worked at a hardware store for four years, I planned this out a bit..

The one pops cork was weird.. I figured there was a bit of air trapped in bottle and there is a coating of something on the corks, and maybe the bottle was not cleaned right or something..
 
I don't think the boiling your sap would have been the problem. I took 12 gallons of sap and boiled it down to 2 gallons so it was a very light maple syrup. My must didn't get thick like you describe. It worked out well and is now in the secondary.
 
I don't think the boiling your sap would have been the problem. I took 12 gallons of sap and boiled it down to 2 gallons so it was a very light maple syrup. My must didn't get thick like you describe. It worked out well and is now in the secondary.

Well thats good to know.. I just dont get it cause the other batch i got going is fine and it came from same sap..
 
This is just bizarre!!! Every single forum members are complaining about this. I had one pop where the rest were ok about a month ago. Then this weekend I opened a bottle up that was given to me last summer and it had a fermentation going. I am dumping all of my sorbate and buying fresh. Sorbating everything in the future and running through .45 micron filter.

Same thing here...I did 2 batches of kit wine - one had an f-pack the other did not. I back sweetened the one kit at the same time I added the f-pack to the other. They both sat in the carboy for a good year. I bottled both just before Christmas and everything seemed fine. The kit with the f-pack is not a problem but the kit that was sweetened started popping corks about 4 months after bottling. I can only think that with the additional sugars the k-meta was not enough at the end of fermentation. Lesson learned - I would have thought that a year of aging would have settled any lingering yeast in the wine. There was no activity in the airlock for the year!!
 
You know I'm just throwing a guess out there but this sounds alot like Katen powder(japanese agar). Once it's heated then cools it thickens into a gel that you can cut with a knife. It's very high in fiber, but not what your looking for. I wonder, not sure about this, but is there any starch in the sap? Or is just sugar water? It would make sense if there was a type of complexed carb in there that thickened after it was cool. Triggered by the heating. Just my two cents.:fsh
 
I don't know.. All I do know is that it so far has the weirdest and strangest things ive seen so far in my wine making...
 
Cutting my loses..

Well after adding a double dose of pectic enzyme and no improvement, I decided to cut my loses and dump the batch.. First time in a year and a half of wine making I have dumped it down the drain.. I had to use the garbage disposal just to get it down the drain, thats how thick this was.. All I can think is that somehow by boiling it to pasteurize the sap then adding syrup to the mix somehow made it congeal.. My other batch of map sap which I am using jack kellers recipe is doing great.. Well, anyway, lesson learned, I think :d

On a side note, I found my first popped cork.. I know that its not from re-fermentation cause I have opened other bottles and had no problem..
 
Hi Dirty Dog, I am having the exact same problem!!!

Dark maple, spring water, Yeast nutrient, EC-1118

Heated water in my SS kettle.

Didn’t heat syrup/water mix.

I very knowledgeable friend said it could be a iron or sulphur bacteria.

I’m at s loss. 115 L toast!!

Did you ever get to the bottom of it?
 

Latest posts

Back
Top