Super Fast??!!

[jsmahoney]

Could someone explain to me why when I make wine that when they say When ferment reaches S.G. 1.030 (about five days) strain juice from bag and syphon off into secondary. I check it in five days and it reads 1.000.


Then it says when it reaches S.G. of 1.000 (usually in about 3 weeks) fermentation is complete. Syphon juice off again and wait about 2 months. It is still active in the primary.


I made Blackberry Wine (from The Wine Maker's Toy Store Recipe), followed the recipe to the T, except,,,,, I added a couple of bananas. Does this make things go faster when adding banana's? The temperature in house is around 75, and I set it on the Kitchen table, which has a heater vent close by. Would that have anything to do with it?


The Start S.G. was 1.090. That was five days ago, and today it is 1.000????

 

[Wade E]

The bananas have nothing to do with it. The heat absolutely does. The
warmer the temp to a certain degree obviously will make the must
ferment faster which is not always a good thing. I've heard that a nice
slow ferment is better but I still get pretty fast ferments in my
basement at 69*. Also the smaller the batch the faster it will ferment.
Was this a 1 gallon recipe?

 

[jsmahoney]

Yes, this is a one gallon batch, guess I never thought about that either.
Thanks!

 

[Waldo]

That seems to be awfully fast fermenting, even for 75 degrees and a gallon batch. Did you take more than one reading to verify your SG? On all of my country wines, I always strain the must/wine through a coffee filter before I take an SG reading too. Any sediment you get will affect your readings.
Just a thought....

 

[Wade E]

Yea, my 1 gallon batches are done fermenting in about 5 days.

 

[jsmahoney]

I too thought the same with the banana stuff still hanging around. I did take several tests and they all read about the same.I did try and filter most of the banana floating segments, even put it through a cooking strainer, but still came through with the 1.000. This has happened to me before, this summer with a six gallon batch. Went from the start S.G. to the finish S.G. Should I worry?


What is the difference with a fast fermentation verses a slow fermentation? Edited by: jsmahoney

 

[Wade E]

I would have to say that the wine doesnt get a chance to get its true
flavor . I know that especially with whites, commercially they ferment
them at very low temps. I am not exactly sure what this extreme low
temp accomplishes besides a much slower ferment. Maybe like I said to
get more flavor out of the must.

 

[jsmahoney]

Thanks!

 

[ms.spain]

I thinkthe fast fermentcould be a combo of both the bananas and the temp. Yeast are rather fond of bananas.I've made several batches of banana wine, and it always ferments fast.Bananas, in my experience,DEFINATELY help with fermentation.Also, the temp being at 75 is optimal for a fast ferment.
I may have missed it, but what yeast did you use?

 

[jsmahoney]

I used the Pasture Red in this one.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Most of my wines ferment fairly fast...it is usually pretty warm in here...will keep an eye on my 'New Moon Wine' that I started today and see how that acts....