First post here -- long and thorough plea for help!
I bought a bucket of Luvabella Chilean Chardonnay this spring to try something new. (I've made five kit wines so far after getting started with the hobby around the first of the year.) I have a stubbornly stuck fermentation that I'm about ready to give up on. I'm hoping someone has an idea or two.
I added pectic enzyme and yeast nutrient to the juice at the recommendation of the shop where I got the juice. I stirred it up and racked the juice to my primary fermenter because I didn't like the looks of the bucket the juice came in. Starting SG was 1.086. I warmed the juice with a brewing belt.
Primary fermentation went just fine. SG was 1.010 after a few days with the belt applied. (Temperature was probably just north of 80*F - off the scale of my stick-on thermometer.) I racked to carboy for secondary and moved the belt to the carboy.
I saw occasional bubbles in the airlock for a couple days, then no activity. I tested after a week and SG was 1.008. I let it go another week and was still at 1.008.
I asked the wine supply shop for advice and was told to make a starter of water and sugar with a packet of 1116 yeast to fill a wine bottle about half full and put on airlock on it. I waited about a day until a good froth was present and dumped the starter into the carboy. This boosted my SG to 1.010. I saw a little bit of activity the next day but that stopped too.
The SG remains stuck at 1.008 for the past three weeks. I took the brew belt off a couple weeks ago.
I tried creating a wine-based starter with instructions on the EC Kraus website: a pint or so of the stuck wine, a cup of water, a few tbsp of sugar, a packet of 1118 yeast and I threw in some yeast energizer. This mixture started to bubble in a few hours and then stopped. It has been sitting for a week with no signs of life. I tried throwing more sugar into it and I tried warming it. no luck. I haven't bothered adding this starter to the carboy.
It seems like something in the wine is killing the yeast since even my second starter failed. What else can I try before dumping the batch?
I bought a bucket of Luvabella Chilean Chardonnay this spring to try something new. (I've made five kit wines so far after getting started with the hobby around the first of the year.) I have a stubbornly stuck fermentation that I'm about ready to give up on. I'm hoping someone has an idea or two.
I added pectic enzyme and yeast nutrient to the juice at the recommendation of the shop where I got the juice. I stirred it up and racked the juice to my primary fermenter because I didn't like the looks of the bucket the juice came in. Starting SG was 1.086. I warmed the juice with a brewing belt.
Primary fermentation went just fine. SG was 1.010 after a few days with the belt applied. (Temperature was probably just north of 80*F - off the scale of my stick-on thermometer.) I racked to carboy for secondary and moved the belt to the carboy.
I saw occasional bubbles in the airlock for a couple days, then no activity. I tested after a week and SG was 1.008. I let it go another week and was still at 1.008.
I asked the wine supply shop for advice and was told to make a starter of water and sugar with a packet of 1116 yeast to fill a wine bottle about half full and put on airlock on it. I waited about a day until a good froth was present and dumped the starter into the carboy. This boosted my SG to 1.010. I saw a little bit of activity the next day but that stopped too.
The SG remains stuck at 1.008 for the past three weeks. I took the brew belt off a couple weeks ago.
I tried creating a wine-based starter with instructions on the EC Kraus website: a pint or so of the stuck wine, a cup of water, a few tbsp of sugar, a packet of 1118 yeast and I threw in some yeast energizer. This mixture started to bubble in a few hours and then stopped. It has been sitting for a week with no signs of life. I tried throwing more sugar into it and I tried warming it. no luck. I haven't bothered adding this starter to the carboy.
It seems like something in the wine is killing the yeast since even my second starter failed. What else can I try before dumping the batch?