orange wine..help

[trudy]

I'm making orange wine from fresh oranges but after 6 weeks I don't think it has fermented. .what should I do?

 

[jamesngalveston]

what was your sg reading on your hydrometer when you added the sugar, and what is it now....

 

[the_rayway]

If you could post your recipe, that would help. All ingredients, tests you did on the must, etc.

 

[trudy]

I did not do a reading at the start but it is now. .1.002.

 

[trudy]

Ingredients used
10 oranges
1 kg sugar
4 1 / 2 litres of water
1 / 2 tsp yeast

 

[the_rayway]

Well, if you added over 2 Lbs of sugar and your S.g. is now 1.002, it appears you had a very low-foaming (no foaming) ferment.

Did you taste it? If it fermented it will no longer taste sweet and will have an alcoholic burn to it.

Going by the wine calculator, your starting S.G. would have been in the 1.07ish range just from the sugar. Which would mean that it should be around 9%ABV right now.

Let us know how it goes!

 

[trudy]

Would you say it's Ok to bottle how would I know. .

 

[wineforfun]

This is going to be really tough to tell without all the steps, process(es), etc. used.

Do you plan on backsweetening it at all? If so, make sure and stabilize it.

Also, I would use the whole packet of yeast next time and not just a 1/2tsp.

 

[the_rayway]

trudy: check the SG for several days in a row. That's the only way to tell for sure if it's done fermenting. Then you can move to clearing/bottling/back sweetening, etc.

 

[trudy]

What is back sweetening. .

 

[wineforfun]

Taking sugar, simple syrup, etc. and adding "back" into the wine when it is done fermenting. This is how you can take away some of the bitterness(if it is there) or just plain sweeten it up(if that is how you like it).