my 1st disaster,wine tastes sour

[ewanfish]

I made a cranberry,raspberry,ginger & a cartain of purple grape juice wine on the 3rd of november with 1000g of brown sugar, 2 camden tab & 1 tsp nutriant. start SG was 1130 6th nov i put tank heater in as it did not want to ferment then she started on the 25th december it was down to 1000 then on the 3rd jan she was still down to SG 1000 & has stayed there, so was going to bottle but there is a sour taste so much so that you could not drink it. what shall i do with it or can i salvage it.

 

[Tom]

Thats HIGH % (17%)
What yeast did you use? The yeast may have maxed out

 

[abefroman]

Your starting SG was way too high.

 

[AlFulchino]

the high alc could be the culprit on the sourness...i have had wines that high..granted they were zins and sangio and barbera etc....by 18 months only the Vinturi could make them a WOW.....side by side right out of the bottle w a sample that we did not decant.....amazing difference....take that wine you have and try splash pouring several times or more and them let it open up at room temp...or even better 72 degrees of more and them do another taste test...my high abv's that i mentioned needed 20 - 24 months to properly integrate and stand up to the alcohol and when they did....they DID

 

[winemaker_3352]

What are the TA and PH levels?

 

[ewanfish]

The yeast i used was Lalvin K1-V1116, i thought about the high start SG was to high when i took the first reading but never thought it would make it taste sour, that is my only batch with as high SG as that so hopefully the others will be ok. it was also quite hard to start fermenting so had to put in a heater to start it off, if i added some sugar could i start it off again or will it just turn into rocket fuel

 

[Sirs]

not sure if you used fruit or juice but if you used fruit couldn't it be just high tannins causing the sourness?? I know a couple of mine where extremely sour right after they fermented but with a couple of months age they've lost most of the sourness.... and as far as the high alcohol I can't say I've heard of that making a wine taste sour, lot of hot mouth feel maybe but not sour. I could be wrong as I normally always got alot of alcohol in my wines and never have they been sour from that at least not to my knowledge.

 

[ewanfish]

I tried this stuff with cartains of juice. I added 350g of sugar, Camden tablets & stabiliser & syphoned off all the lees so will see what is like when i get home in a months time but it tasted better when i back swetened it, just have to watch how i drink it with a 17% content , might try it again with less sugar.

 

[Wade E]

Its probably high acidity as cranberries are very high in that.

 

[Sirs]

thats what I was thinking it will probly be fine given abit of time

 

[Wade E]

I would get a test it and check the acidity and if it tests high like I believe it is get the supplies to drop it down.

 

[ewanfish]

I will see what it is like when i get home maybe it was an acid taste instead of a sour taste, i'm just a poor soul from the islands & dont drink much acid so dont know what it's meant to taste like
Will remember about the cranberrys & acid next time.

 

[grapeman]

Acid= Sour

 

[cpfan]

Another possibility is dissolved CO2 (ie the wine wasn't degassed enough). I don't think that I would call it a sour taste, but some might.

Steve