Skeeter pee is stuck

[Cheryl]

On 7/27 I added fresh cherry slurry and a half package of bread yeast to skeeter pee start up. SG was 1.08 to start...fermented down to 1.05 on 7/31. I've had tons of foam and Sulfer smell. I've had a copper pipe soaking on and off for 2 days. Sulfer smell seems to be going away. On 7/31, I added third bottle off lemon juice, nutrient and energizer. It is now 8/3 and SG is still at 1.05, maybe even a little higher, hard too tell with all the foam.what is my next step? I've been stirring twice a day. I was thinking rack and degas, then add a package of lalvin 1118? Any suggestions appreciated

 

[meadmaker1]

Dont use bread yeast.
The standard yeast for this is ec1118. This yeast is the undisputed work horse yeast.
The alcohol threshold may have exceeded bread yeasts tolerance. The smell is most likely due to stressed yeast yeast nutrients will help prevent or at least reduce it.
I would and the 1118 as is and it should finnish just fine.

 

[cmason1957]

I would probably not rack and degas. Don't see where that would do much good at all. But I would be sure to hydrate that EC-1118, wait about 15 minutes. Add about the same amount of liquid as you hydrated the yeast in, wait about 1/2 an hour. Add about the same amount of liquid as you have in the Ec-1118, again way about 1/2 an hour (waiting a full hour or two between won't hurt). Then add about as much as you had, probably do that one, maybe two more times, then add whatever's remaining. If you have a good vigorous ferment going after the third addition, you can probably add it all at that time. What this is trying to do is make sure you have the best chance for the EC-1118 to take off. It might not be absolutely necessary, but it won't hurt.

Oh and take that copper pipe out, yes it will get rid of the sulfur smell, but you put some unknown amount of copper into your wine and copper is toxic. Reduless is the product to use to put in a minimal amount of copper and keep yourself safe.

 

[Cheryl]

Thanks for the input..I did rack and degas, removed the copper and added EC1118. It is now bubbling vigorously. It should finish. Again, thank you.

 

[Shayne Edwards]

From what I read you will need to add bentonaise (clay stuff) as a clearing agent to help remove free floating copper ions and make the wine safe for consumption. Maybe someone with a better idea could clarify.