Stopped Fermentation?

[burningalive]

I recieved two buckets of juice from Chilie a Malbec and a Carmenere. Both began Fermenting in the bucket before I got them home so I had no started SG. I added oak and yeasted them last Friday and they have been bubbling like crazy ever since. But the Carmenere is still bubbling with a SG of about 1.005 and the Malbec seems to have stopped completely at around 1.000. Is the malbec done? Or did it stop the ferm from some reason? Should I rack now? I really wanted to have the oak chips in for at least a week and it's only been 5 days. I don't want to leave the malbec in the bucket if the airspace is going to damage it. Any suggestion?

 

[ibglowin]

So transfer the oak over to the carboy. Fill it up to within 3 inches from the top, include as much gross lees as you can. Keep it warm (~72) for another 12 days to see if it will finish out normally. You still should have taken an SG when you got the bucket to see where it was at. You should see some bubbling in the airlock every now and then. Take a sample out after ~7 days and test the SG. Use a wine thief or graduated cylinder to put the Hygrometer into.

Good luck, it should turn out fine.

 

[burningalive]

I did take an SG when I got them but they were at like 1.050 and bubbling away. There is no bubbling in the Malbec that I can see.

 

[Rocky]

I am not familiar with the juice buckets or buying wine in them. My sense is that they are buckets of pure juice, much like the AllJuice product of Mosti Modiale.


The question that I have is, if they were fermenting when burningalive got them, where did the CO2 go and how did it escape the bucket? Do the buckets have a one-way valve or something? If the SG was 1.050, that would mean that a lot (almost half) of sugar had converted as I would guess the normal ISG would be on the order of 1.090-1.095.

 

[ibglowin]

CO2 will find away out Rocky, those buckets are closed, not sealed so tight a gas molecule can't find an escape route. That is quite a low SG for sure. I could see 1.08 but 1.05!

 

[robie]

I don't know if it applies here, but some of those juice buckets actually come with the yeast already in them. The idea is to keep them frozen or very cold, so the yeast are inactive. Then, once you receive the bucket and warm it up, the yeast begin to work...Ha! best laid plans of mice and men.

I just can't understand why they have to do that! It is a disaster in the making!!!

If this is the case, as a result of warming up too soon (before he even got the juice), fermentation had already started, so he had no way of knowing what the starting SG was.

 

[burningalive]

Yeah....I was suprized! It's fine...but I'm not sure about the malbec stopping...is1.000 considered dry? I guess it is but I'm used to kits going to .996.

 

[ibglowin]

1.000 is not considered dry. 0.998 or less is. Don't give up, its not done yet!

 

[robie]

1.000 is not considered dry, but very close. I doubt you would be able to taste any sweetness. If it ends up at 1.000, you will still have some very nice wine, so don't sweat it.

If it does stop at 1.000, be sure to ad sorbate to make sure fermentation doesn't start back up later.

 

[burningalive]

ok.....do I need to rush to carboy? Or can I let it sit?

 

[robie]

Stir it from bottom up really well, warm it up to mid 70's if you can, and let it sit for another week. If in that week it drops even a little, repeat. If no drop, stabilize and clear.

 

[ibglowin]

There is alot of CO2 in the wine ATM but you probably should not go much past 8 days in primary. The bucket and all that headspace will not help if your at 1.000 and it just acts as a nice effective radiator of sorts to release CO2.

 

[burningalive]

ok, thanks guys!

 

[Rocky]

With the SG at 1.000, I think I would get it into a carboy and under air lock to reduce the chance of exposure.

 

[robie]

I had forgotten it was not in a carboy already. Sorry I was not more observant.

With the SG at 1.000, it needs to be isolated from oxygen, especially since it seems to have stopped on you. The best way to do that is to rack it to a carboy and add an air lock.

The act of racking the wine to a carboy, along with lots of its lees, should help get it going again. Stir everything in the bucket up just before you rack from the bucket to the carboy. This way you will be sure to take much of the yeast with you to the carboy. Be sure to add an air lock to the carboy.

 

[burningalive]

Yup.....I racked this morning and brought over about half the oak with it. I need to get a few more marbles to bring it to the top, should have them today and add them after work. Thanks for all you advice, it's been a long time since doing a juice......

 

[burningalive]

it started bubbling again......yay!

 

[robie]

Bubbling can be from CO2 escaping, especially if the temperature of the wine is rising. The real proof of fermentation happening is if the SG is falling.

 

[burningalive]

true.....haven't checked it yet but it bubble for 2 days so I'm hoping......

 

[Rocky]

BA, just out of curiosity, I would check both the SG and the temperature of the wine. I recommend that you try to keep the wine temperature in the mid 70's. I think you are going to be fine, but I would try to find out exactly where you are at this point.