Stuck Peach Wine

[Stumpman]

I started out w/ 300lbs of peaches, made a heck of a mess pressing them into 20-25 gallons of juice. I used 4 packs of yeast, nutrient, energizer, sugar, k-meta. Its fermented real nice for the first week. Now I'm getting zero action from air lock. Its leveled out. I'm making it in a 30 gallon drum with a snap lock ring to hold the lid down. Has anyone else used these? I'm thinking I messed up somewhere or the drum is leaking. I've searched the drum high and low and see no leaks?? What do ya think?? I was thinking a little more sugar and a pack of yeast?

 

[Tom]

Do you have a hydrometer?
If so what was the starting gravity?
What is the gravity now?
Check it daily and see if it changes. I bet its either finished or you have a bad seal.
What yeast did you use? I would not add any more sugar. Fruit wines should have a starting gravity around 1.085.

 

[jim]

peach stuck

Hi stumpman,
I also have peach on the go in 2x djs left fruit in bin for 8 days with all usall,
transfered to djs started fermenting before yeast went in. two weeks and suddenley stops. taken hydr readings 14 for one 10 for other. tried some sugar in dj at 14 some slow bubbling but wine is very sweet. dj at 10 Ive stopped.
Ive been brewing for a year have an old receipe book from the 60s. The book says add sugar in stages until gravity is between 10 and 15 fermentation takes about 7/8 months. rack when gravity is 10. Final racking is done at gravity 5. Still very much a novice. started with youngs brews and moved on to real fruit with blackberries last year. I came on to get advice with mine, I hope this helps.

 

[Madriver Wines]

I am with Tom. With out SG readings it is hard to say what is going on. Most likely it has just slowed enough to be less than the seapage you had all the time but didnt notice due to higher fermentation. It is hard to maintain an air tight seal.

 

[Wade E]

We need an sg reading. If its stuck the last thing you want to do is add more sugar. As for adding more yeast, unless you make a really good starter this wont work as youll be introducing this yeast into an alchoholic environment which will shock it to death. You will need to introduce your wine into this starter very slowly to acclimate the yeast to the abv and keep slowly increasing the amount of wine and then add it back to your wine. I hope you checked the sg before you started though and hope you can tell us what yeast you used as each yeast has a different abv threshold.

 

[Tom]

The common thread is GET A READING. This proves one thing using a hydrometer and keep checking the gravity is important. If you need help we need all this info as well what kind of wine, recipe, when started etc and yeast used.

 

[cpfan]

Stumpman:

I'd like to know the temperature of the room and the wine/must.

But the sg is most important. One week might be enough time to feremnt the wine dry (or nearly so).

Steve

 

[Stumpman]

OK well here's what I got..Started with 1.850 on 8/4/09. I checked it again on 8/20 and it was 1.000 I used 4 packs of wyeat sweet meat yeast. 30 lbs sugar. 5 gallons spring water. 1 1/4 k- meta at start. Yeast energizer. 12 oz acid blend.
On a side note when I came home from work today the water was up a little on the airlock. My drum has a real nice rubber seal on it and it seems to pull the lid down tight. I would think the path of least resistance would be the air lock.
Thanks for all the responses!!

 

[Tom]

Well its not stuck at all. The wine is almost done! Its time to rack. 14days is more than enough to get the wine dry. Rack it off the lees and in less than a week I bet it will be 0990. Then its time to start to add your finning agenst.

 

[Wade E]

With all that pulp in there I bet it created a layer in there and cut off the o2 supply to the yeast. With smaller batches of wine in a primary bucket its not so important to stir it p a little but when the must gets pretty deep like this and also with a thicker consistency like peach it really needs to be stirred or at least break the surface up as it can block 02 from getting to your yeast which is another benefit of punching down the cap with fruit and why when you do this itgets crazy sometimes. That yeast should be good to around 15% but sometimes they just stop earlier. Did you want this to be very dry as thats a good sweetness level for this wine and if it was me I wouldnt have minded if it stopped a little earlier.

 

[Stumpman]

I'm with you Wade, I would stir it up. There was a ton of pulp in there. As far as the flavor of the wine I'm hoping to make it taste like eating a fresh peach, Sweet, not too sweet, with that nice bite at the end, leaving you wanting more.

Tom- What would you recommend for the fining agent? I've used bentonite in my strawberry and it worked nice, Also I've used Isinglass in apple and it too worked good.

 

[Tom]

SuperKleer works real well but pricey. If you have isinglass use it. They all work, some faster than others.
If you have that much lees rack it 1st

 

[Wade E]

Isinglass and Bentonite are the gentlest on wines besides just plain "ole" time but sometimes nothing seems to work and peach is one of the tougher ones and when all else fails SuperKleer always comes to the rescue and does the job and fast!