Stuck Cab Sauv Pail?

[rvanacke]

Hi all,

Its been a very long time since I've made any wine and have only made kit wine before I decided to get back into the hobby. This time around i decided to try an all juice pail that was imported from Cali. The juice (Cab Sauv) came chilled and pre-inoculated so all I had to do it warm it up, give it a stir and off it goes. All has been going fine and the SG had been dropping well. I racked to secondary when the SG hit 1.014, thinking it would be completely dry in a few days. Well it has been slowwwwwwwwly bubbling away until yesterday which is like a month...and that just doesn't seem right.

Background: So the only thing I did to the juice pail was add a grape pack so I could get some fermentation happening on the skins. Although not in my notes, I did punch down the skin pack everyday, twice a day. I removed the pack when I racked to secondary.

Here are my notes:

October 11, 2011
Started Cab Sauvignon all juice pale from Winemount estates this evening. Starting SG was 1.100. Brew belt was put on primary. Will add grapeskin pack tomorrow if I can locate one.

October 12, 2011
Fermentation started today – air lock is bubbling away. Added a Zweigest grape pack from CellarCraft tonight. Gave the must a good stir.

October 14, 2011
Fermentation still bubbling away. Took SG reading at 1.090. Im assuming that the grape pack probably raised the original SG to 1.110. Gave the wine a stir and added a racking can to the must to hold the grape skin pack down under the surface of the must.

October 16, 2011
Fermentation appears to be slowing as the air lock is not bubbling as furiously. Took SG reading at 1.064 so there is still a ways to go. Gave the wine a stir and punched the grape pack down a few times then left the racking cane in again to keep the skin pack below the surface of the must. Will SG check again in 2 days.


October 23, 2011
Fermentation is definitely slowing – SG reading at 1.020. Going to stir the wine once more before racking to secondary later this week.

October 25, 2011
Racked to glass carboy tonight - SG reading at racking was 1.014.

After this I basically just left it to do its thing for a month since it was still bubbling ever so slowly. Tonight I checked SG as bubbling has basically stopped and it was at 1.000. Is it safe to say its done/dry enough to stabalize and age or should I try to get it started back up with a starter to get it down below 1.000? Fermenting for 2 months just doesn't seem right....

Any help is definitely appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[Gr8zins]

The one thing I can think of is that with such a high SG start point it produced enough alcohol to kill the yeast strain that it came innoculated with. There are strains of yeast that can tolerate higher alcohol levels that you can add to finish fermentation. Did you stir in a lot of air during primary? Yeast benefits from that at that stage.

 

[ibglowin]

You don't say where your at or what temps the must it at but it should be kept warm 72-74 degrees. You could try a little yeast nutrient. That starting SG was not all that high really. You have a potential ABV of only 13.9%. You could try a pack of EC-1118 along with the yeast nutrient but quite frankly at that low SG there is not much food left for them so its going to be hard for them to get going. The reason you can ferment to less than 1.000 is because by that time you have literally billions of yeast looking for food and they will find anything left with those numbers but when your starting off you only have ~million or so.

Good luck but it may be stuck!

And welcome to Winemaking talk!

 

[rvanacke]

Hey guys - thanks for the quick reply's.

Gr8zins - I did try stirring/punching down the grape-skin pack twice a day during primary, but it could be possible that I wasn't getting enough oxygen in there for them to multiply like they should have.

ibglowin - I honestly do not know what temp the must is at as I don't have a thermometer to check...perhaps I should invest in one - but it's in my furnace room so it should be easily in the 70's. I do have a pack of that yeast laying around - if I did want to try to get the sugar content down should I make a starter with with nutrient, or do I just pitch on top?? Are there any directions or hints on making a starter at this stage? Im assuming I would use a sugar of some sort instead of my must to get the starter working??

I have not had the pleasure of making a starter before so any tips or tricks are welcome.

One last question...if it were either of you guys at this stage...would you bother trying to get the sg down or would you just add k-meta and maybe some sorbate and let it age?

Thoughts?

TIA

 

[ibglowin]

1.000 will be slightly detectible as far as sweetness. Give it a little taste and see if you can detect it. You could make a starter solution by taking a cup of the must, add in some simple syrup to get the SG up to something decent. Add the yeast to the starter and let it get going for a few hours and then add it into the must.

Make sure you have added some yeast nutrient to the must and for goodness sake you can't make wine without a Hydrometer AND a Thermometer! You have got to know what temp the must is at all times. One of the peel off thermometers stuck to the carboy or primary works great.