Wine too sweet and head space ???

[beyondhuman]

Hello everybody, It's been a while since I was here last. I am currently making my third wine and my largest batch so far and have run into a bit of a snag and I hope somebody might be able to me out of it.

The wine: (as accurately as my skill can determine)
Concord grape juice concentrate
~8ish gallons (6 in a carboy, and 1 each in 2 separate growlers)
Starting SG: 1.121 (potential %: 16iss)
Current SG: 1.020 (current %: 11ish)
Currently fermenting slowly but steadily (bubbling at a rate of about 1 per 5-8 min, depending on the carboy)
Just finished the first racking earlier tonight.

The issue:
1) The wine is hella sweet, like a syrup, far sweeter than any wine cooler even.
Is this fine at this point or is there some issue (ie stuck fermentation, overly zealous starting SG, etc.)? If this is not fine what might somebody suggest to fix the issue?

2) After racking I filled the 6 gallon carboy up very high so that there would be very little oxidation. However, the two 1 gallon growlers have about 1/4 of their volume as air space. Should I just pour in distilled water to fill it or will that do something crazy to the wine (since it will all be mixed together but would be, at this point at least, diluted differently)?

Thanks! I'd love to hear your thoughts.

 

[Julie]

What yeast did you use? That would tell whether or not you have a stuck fermentation and why did you rack to a carboy?

 

[Arne]

Think I would just let it sit for a while. Sometimes the ferments take longer than others and the high start s.g. will probably make it take a while longer. With the right yeast, you mite be done with the alcohol content killing the yeast off.
On the top off thing, I would fill one of the gallon jugs up and pour the extra in a smaller bottle or two. Pop airlocks on them and you have your top offwine. Arne.

 

[beyondhuman]

Well I split this batch with a friend who is just starting winemaking. He insisted on using two yeasts that he had purchased already so we did. We used Lalvin RC-212 dry yeast packet and then a white labs liquid lager culture although I am not sure exactly which and he doesn't remember either (for some reason the clerk at the brew store suggested this mix and so he was dead set on it).

Now that I think of it though I suppose the two yeasts together might have fermented it to 11% (probably dominated by the lager) at which point the lager yeast died leaving only a much smaller quantity of RC-212 yeast still in the must. Given that it is still fermenting but very slowly should I...

1) Just give it time and let the RC-212 repopulate the must
2) buy and then add another packet of RC-212
3) add a packet of EC-1118 I already have (if RC-212 is out of its league at this point)
4) Some other solution you have.

Thanks.

 

[Arne]

Personally, I would just let it go and see where it ends up. If it ferments down to dry, no problem. If not, mite try another yeast or an addition of a yeast like you have already used. If you add yeast, make a very active starter. Rehydrate the yeast and add a bit of the wine several times over a period of hours to get the yeast used to the wine. Then pitch it in and see what happens. This ferment winding down mite take a while as it is pretty high alcohol. Make sure the wine temp is up in the 70's. I would shoot for 75 or so. Give it a stir and see what happens. Arne.

 

[Tom_S]

I agree with Arne. Let it go for a while and see what happens, then if it gets stuck finish it off with EC-1118.

 

[Gr8zins]

regarding the head space, I think there should be enough CO2 present protecting the wine from O2, so I don't think that should be a problem. In fact, with the SG still that high, I would give a good stir and leave some head space until the wine has fully fermented. When you put the airlock back on there will still be CO2 being driven out of the wine and that will give the wine a protective "blanket" from O2 contact. The yeast might really benefit from a little O2 at this stage of the process.