Secondary Fermentation

[Waldo]

OK...Here is the deal. A friend of mine at work brought me a gallon of his homeade muscadine wine. His recipe initially was about 3 lbs of sugar for each gallon of wine and used the wild yeast of the muscadines to ferment. The wine he brought me is still very sweet. The SG is at 1.078 with an alcohol content of what I would guess to be around 10-12%.


Can I do a secondary fermentation on this wine. Take it to dry and let it clear up and then bottle it?

 

[Hippie]

You should be able to if it has not been stabilized. Build a starter adding a little of the wine every few hours until you have a quart in vigorous fermentation. Pour it very slowly onto the surface of the main batch.If he didn't use pectic enzyme, go ahead and add the appropriate amount now. Use nutrient in the starter and in the gallon batch. You will need a high alcohol resistant yeast like Lalvin EC-1118. It still may not go completely dry. When it gets as low as it will or when SG does not change for 2 weeks,rack and stabilize with sulphite and sorbate.How much muscadines did he use per gallon?

 

[Waldo]

Not sure how much muscadine he used per gallon hippie. The wine is a very dark color. Looks more like grape than muscadine. I know he never added anything but sugar so I am going to give it a try and see what happens.

 

[Hippie]

Ok. Just was wondering about acid.

 

[Waldo]

Checked the PH with the strips and it was around 3.8

 

[Hippie]

That actually sounds pretty good if you are wanting a dry wine.

 

[Waldo]

It is fermenting again but really slow. Getting one bubble in the airlock about every 4-6 minutes.

 

[Hippie]

Alright! You are getting to be a regular guru Waldo! It takes real skill to restart a wine with that much alcohol content in it already. Please tell us all about the starter. Did you do anything special? Huge starter, or what?

 

[Waldo]

I hydrated the yeast in warm water (100 degrees). After I added the yeast to the water I gave it a quick, gentle stirring, covered it and let it sit for 15 minutes, stirred it again and in another 10 minutes it was beginning to foam up pretty good. At that point I added about 1/8 cup of the wine and recovered it. Somewhere around 3-4 hrs later I added another 1/2 cup of the wine and let this work till late that evening and I added it to the jug of wine. About 2 hours after I had added the starter to the wine all sign of fermentation had disappeard. I tapped the side of the jug and got a rush of tiny bubbles up from the bottom so I knew it was doing something.

 

[Hippie]

Cool! What yeast strain?

 

[Waldo]

I used Lalvin EC 1118 Hippie. Not sure how far it will take it as I have no knowledge of the beginning SG or exactly what the alcohol content was when I started the secondary fermentation.


I did find out from my friend that they use one bushel of muscadines for 5 gallon of wine. They use a crusher to process the muscadines in. Add water to 5 gallons and 2 lbs. sugar per gallon. They do not use strainere bags and push the cap back down twice daily during the initial fermentation. They bottle in gallon jugs and he said he has to loosen the caps on them occasionaly to let the pressure off.


They get their muscadines from some place near Altus. He said it isthe same Muscadines Wiedeker and Post use and at the beginning of harvest they can get up to 20 bushels if they want. I'm going to try and get in on some of that action next year.

 

[Hippie]

Sounds like the wine will likely be about 14% if you get it to ferment dry. 2 pounds sugar per gallon of muscadine must is fairly standard procedure and normally starts it at between 12 and 14% PA.

 

[Waldo]

May give the vinometer one more try before I chunk it in the trash

 

[Joseph1]

Waldo, the vinometer will not give a good reading if the wine contains residual sugar.

 

[Waldo]

Didn't know that Joseph. Thanks

 

[Waldo]

Active fermentation has slowed considerably but there is still evidence of some fermentation going on as there is still a ring of foamy bubbles at the top. It is beginning to clear too. The top 1" is quite clear right now.

 

[Hippie]

Yep, sounding like it is winding down and full of gas!

 

[Waldo]

I dont think this stuff is ever going to quit fermenting. I am still seeing a ring of tiny fermentaton bubbles around the neck and getting a burp in the airlock occasionaly.

Edited by: Waldo

 

[Hippie]

How long has it been in the secondary fermentor and what is the SG and temp?

 

[Waldo]

It has been 21 days since I started the secondary fermentation. The SG is now at 1.020 at a must temp of 72 degrees. I fed it 1/4 tsp of yeast nutrient which really got some serious foaming action going for about 30 seconds. I stirred it really well and put the airlock back on it.


Going to have to check with Daniel monday because I can detect no hint of Muscadines in this wine at all. I believe it is some varietal of grape.