when to bottle???

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

mala54

Junior
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
Messages
23
Reaction score
0
how do I know if wine is ready to bottle?

began Vinter's Harvest Blueberry on 2/27/10 SG was 1.110
racked to secondary on 3/5/10 SG was 1.094
racked to another carboy on 3/29 SG was 1.070
racked again on 5/11 SG was 1.040
racked again on 6/13 SG was 1.030
racked again today(7/11) SG still 1.030

SG seems to have levelled out, but seems high??
is it ready to bottle yet??
 
Why rack so fast? You may have killed the yeast. No way is it ready UNLESS, you are reading the hydrometer wrong.
Your readings are aou of wack. Need more details ;
What have you done step by step from the begining.
what yeast you used etc..
 
1.110 sounds like an awfully high OG. By my calculations you have an ABV of 10.48%. Depending on the yeast you used, that could have been high enough to kill it.

That is a higher than typical final gravity, but a taste test is the only thing that'll tell you if it turned out or not. If there are no bubbles or other signs of activity, and the taste is where you want it, go ahead and bottle.

If not, you could try adding more yeast to get it going again.

One way or the other, we need more info.
 
As others have said, that's REALLY high. At 1.030 it should be extremely sweet and there is plenty of sugar left for yeast to munch on. If it really is 1.030 I'd re-inoculate with an aggressive yeast to get it going again. If you taste it and like it, you could stabilize it and bottle...but again, that's a whole lot of sugar ya got there. More info is definitely needed...temperature, yeast used, etc.
 
Why rack so fast? You may have killed the yeast. No way is it ready UNLESS, you are reading the hydrometer wrong.
Your readings are aou of wack. Need more details ;
What have you done step by step from the begining.
what yeast you used etc..

I agree - that is fast to rack your wine - especially while it is still fermenting.

I there a reason you did this? Instructions, experimenting, etc.

What strand of yeast did you use? How much sugar, k-meta, nutrient, etc did you add?
 
Is it red or white? there are different durations for a wine to mature. Different aging level.
 
here's the details(following the directions from Vinter's Harvest)

on 2/27/10
blueberry fruit base and water
12 lbs. of white sugar
4 tsp. acid blend
4 tsp yeast nutrient
2 1/2 tsp. pectic enzyme
1/2 tsp.wine tannin
5 camden tablets

next day I added 1 packet of K1-V116 yeast
all in 6 gal. primary

the following day it began to actively bubble and foam
I stirred it daily with a sterilized spoon
SG was 1.110

6 days later I racked to the secondary(carboy)SG was 1.094

since then I've racked every 4-5 weeks(to leave "mud" in bottom of carboy, and get clear wine)
I racked this last time on 7/11 and the SG was 1.030
 
Why have you been racking it like this. You should keep it in primary until sg gets down to around 1.015 or even ferment to dry in bcket while putting the lid on once the sg gets down to 1.015. If you keep racking it your going to leave behind more and more yeast making it very hard for the little yeast left to do whats needed. In the beginning the yeast multiply but after a few days they stop multiplying and start consuming the sugar at a much faster rate and then as the abv gets higher the wine needs all the yeast cells possible to finish properly.
 
I agree with Wade. The first racking shut down your yeast production and there were not many left to finish the job.
 
I guess I mis-understood the directions:slp
I thought I was supposed to rack every 4-6 weeks regardless of SG?????
 
Live and learn I guess. The 4-6 weeks racking is probably OK once you get the SG under 1.01 but that never happened in this case and the racking continued to make it difficult to bring down your SG. If you had posted your situation earlier around early March you might have been able to pitch some more yeast, but I'm not sure.
 
how often should I rack wine after it is in the secondary???

and then,
I should bottle wine after the SG gets below 1.00 and stays there for several consecutive days??

then add potassium sorbate to stabilize
what is the proper formula to mix potassium sorbate and how much do I add to 5 gallons of wine????
 
The proper way to make wine is to start your wine in a bucket with plenty of room for fermentation since sometimes it can foam up about 4" during vigorous fermentation and try and keep the temp around 75* for most wines. Once the sg gets to around 1.015 rack to carboy with a some ehadspace in there in case its still a little active and put the excess in another bottle. Once the sg is stable for a few days then top up your carboy properly to reduce the amount of space for 02 to accumulate and oxidize your wine. At this point you want to add 14 tsp of sulfite to each 6 gallons and 1/2 tsp of sorbate per each gallon. After adding both te sulfite and sorbate you can now sweeten your wine as doing so without adding the sulfite and sorbate would create renewed fermentation. If you are making a wine from grapes or fresh uice liek Cab or Chardonnay and you need to do a Malo-Lactic fermentation on it then do not add any sulfite or sorbate when the fermentation is done and instead innoculate the wine with the MLF culture and let that fermentation finish before adding sulfite. Im sure you are not t the point of dealing with a Malo-Lactic fermentation but wante to throw that in in case you do make a wine of that caliber and dont make the listake of following the instructions above cause MLF fermentation will not happen in the presence of sulfites and also you should never do MLF on a wine that has been sorabted or even add sorbate afterwards to a wine that has gone through MLF as it will create a Geranium smell and taste in your wine.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top