Meja

[MEJA]

Hi everyone I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving. Last month I made some apricot wine, something I have never tried before. When I put it in the secondary it fermented to dry in about two weeks. After three weeks I racked and filtered it off the lees then I poured in a cup of honey dissolved in some of the wine. I expected it would restart but it did not. It has been sitting in a 6gal. carboy for about a month and I am concerned about its color. It has turned brown; about the color of weak tea near the top and the color darkens as you go down with it being the color of dark cinnamon at the bottom. Is this a normal color for apricot wine? I thought it would stay the pale yellow color it was when I racked it to the carboy. I am a beginner and I am just beginning to learn about acid testing so at this point the acid has never been tested or adjusted. I doubt that oxidation could be an issue because I have a good air lock and the wine has not been exposed to air except when it was racked,( I did not degas). I am not at home to be able to refer to my notes so I can't give you the exact recipe I followed to make this wine but it was pretty standard and included the usual items such as campden tabs, acid blend, yeast nutrient, energizer, grape tannin etc. When I racked the wine it was 72 degrees with a sg 1.002. Thanking you in advance for your help and advice..Merle

 

[sly22guy]

Id recheck you sg now and see what it is. if its still around 1.000 id say its not done fermenting. What yeast did you use? It might have picked up the brownish tint from the honey also. How does it smell, have you tasted it?

 

[Wade E]

Adding honey to this wine coud esily ghange the color and since its a different color from top to bottom this tells me that either you didnt mix in this honey mixture well or its clearing very slowly on its own with from the top down as usual. Since you didn t degas this batch it will take quite some times especially since you added honey as it makes the wine more viscous thus making it harder for the wine to degas. If you havent added any sulfites then its time to do so so as not to chance any oxidation. With wines such as this I advise also using ascorbic acid along with the recommended dosage of sulfites to prevent browning.

 

[MEJA]

Thanks guys , it sounds as though you are not concerned about the brown color and that with aging and settling it may slowly return to its pale yellow color. I can certainly add some ascorbic acid but I have no idea how much to add to 6 gal. also I do not know how much sulfite to use. If I crush campden tabs how many would I need to add to 6 gal. at this stage? (I used 5 tabs in the primary) When I get back home Monday I'll give it a sniff test, check the sg and see how it taste. The yeast I used was Lalvin EC-1118. Also, when adding the ascorbic acid and crushed campden tabs will I need to stir them into the carboy? If so will this stir up the sediment I have been waiting on to settle out, or should I re-rack and add the acid and sulfite?

 

[jsavage]

Check the campden bottle for how much sulfite 1 tablet contributes per gallon, and add enough to get up to 50ppm/gal. My bottle says 150ppm, but I've seen other bottles with 38ppm, 50ppm, 75ppm, etc. Crush them up as fine as you can, add a little bit of your wine and stir until completely disolved. Then stir into your wine. You will need to stir the wine around to distribute. As far as re-racking, that's up to you. I'd just add the campden, and then de-gas, that should help it clear a bit faster - and rack after it clears. For ascorbic acid, someone else will need to chime in, I've never needed to use it.

 

[sly22guy]

i would rack and then add your additives, i just add them and throw a bung on and swirl the carboy around real good then put the air lock on. or add them while racking it should mix in fine then.

 

[jsavage]

If oxidation is a concern for him, wouldn't it be better to add the sulfite first, and then rack?

 

[sly22guy]

if your doing it while racking or just after its not gona matter