WineXpert WE Lodi Ranch Cab stopped at 1.01

[IQwine]

I have done 7 of these kits since Jan 09. (My first kit was received for Christmas '08) The first 4 had a FG of .994-.996 and the last 3 kits have stopped at 1.008-1.01. I have tried unsuccessfully to restart 2 of these. I had the 3rd on in the secondary at 1.008 for the past 10 days. Why did the first ones go to the FG without difficulty and now I am having problems. I don't know that I am doing anything different. Love this hobby but am frustrated at the moment. Thanks for any ideas.

 

[Wade E]

Are you racking later now as racking later and leaving too much live yeast behind will make the existing yeast struggle with the higher abv. Racking a little earlier when the wine is very active is good because the whole mix is all stirred up at this point and you get much more transfer of live yeast and dead yeast hulls which also help the yeast finish fermentation. Another way to do it is to keep the bucket sealed towards the end and let it go dry in the bucket like I do and Ive never had a fermentation stop early with the exception of the Chocolate raspberry port which was chaptalized and lots of people have this problem with this kit for some reason even though it has not exceeded the yeast strains potential.

 

[IQwine]

Interesting thought there, Wade. I'll have to check my notes for the different batches.

 

[IQwine]

And now what do I do with a "sweeter than I wanted" Cab ???

 

[IQwine]

The only other thought that I have is that I continue to use a brew belt for primary and secondary. Maybe it got to hot and stopped.

 

[Wade E]

What were the temps. Not really much you can do about the wine with the exception of making a very strong starter yeast using a yeast strain that has a high tolerance like Premier Cuvee or EC-1118 and keep slowly introducing small amounts of your wine slowly to try and acclimate the yeast to the abv un til you have quite a bit of your wine in their and then introduce it into your wine. I dont really know if its worth it but its the only recommendation I can think of and if it does work on this batch then rack off it and use it on the other batches that didnt finish either as it will be strong then.

 

[IQwine]

hey, thanks for the idea. Will try it and see what happens.