What would you do?

[Chateau Joe]

Greetings,

I had a first this past weekend. I had ordered 3 pails of Regina fresh juice and they arrived on Friday. One pail was a white zin. Now when I opened the pail the juice was already bubbling away. I've had this happen before with other juices, I do my testing, make my adjustments then pitch my yeast and away it goes. However this pail was different. When I checked the initial SG it was 1.030. I was shocked that it was so low. I racked it off and it had a little bit of lees in the bottom of the pail. Now I am stumped? I decided to pitch my yeast (lalvin ec1118) and I will see how much alcohol there will be when it stops. If the alcohol is low I will make a sugar solution to raise the alcohol to 11-12%. I have never received a pail that was this far along. Have you ever got a pail like this and what did you do?

Thanks
Joe

 

[Tom]

STOP!
Your wine has FERMENTED to your 1.030. White Zin is not a high % wine. I made one last year from Juice and the starting gravity was 1.100 Which will give you 13%. Leave it alone and dont add any more sugar unless you want to back sweeten.
BTW your yeast probably didnt take over from the wild yeast.

 

[Chateau Joe]

STOP!

BTW your yeast probably didnt take over from the wild yeast.

I believe you are correct. What can I do to get my yeast to take over?

 

[Tom]

You would have to get a super large starter. I think it to late its65% done. Try it if you want. Be hard to see which one won out.

 

[TheTooth]

I believe you are correct. What can I do to get my yeast to take over?

I don't think it matters if your yeast takes over at this point. The wild yeast has already consumed most of the sugar.