YIKES, concord grape mess

[fabrictodyefor]

Happy New Years Eve all,
So, I came downstairs this morning to a mess..... There is grape juice all over the floor....and there is a “cap” on my must.
This is the recipe I am following:
5 Gallon Recipe
50 lbs Concord grapes (crushed and stems removed)
2 gallons hot water (tap water)
5 teaspoons pectic enzyme (more is needed than most other fruit wines)
2 ½ teaspoons yeast nutrient
Corn Sugar to 1.080 original gravity (approximately 2.5 lbs.)
5 campden tablets, or ¼ teaspoon potassium metabisulfite
3 ¾ teaspoons potassium sorbate (to stabilize the wine)
1 package Premier Cuvee yeast
I took the grapes out of the freezer 12/27 [I did have 54 lbs], 12/29 I added the 5 tsp pectic enzyme and squeezed the grapes till my hands hurt! Several hours later I added the campden tablets, nutrient and sugar and only 6 cups water [only needed to add 6 cups to bring the liquid to 6 gallons]....had added 2 1/2 lbs of sugar and sg reading was only 1.070, so I thought to let it sit overnight and stir some more as I didn't want the sg to be too high. 12/30 in the morning I ended up adding 1 1/2 lbs more sugar and brought sg up to 1.082. (I do have 2 hydrometers to make sure my hydrometer was working right) Thought to let it sit for 24 hours and planned on pitching the yeast this morning. NO, I have yet to pitch the yeast!!! Is there some natural occurring yeast that the campden tablets did not take care of? Should I add more campden tablets? Should I just pitch the yeast like I was planning? I have already decided to split it into ferment buckets as it has already overflowed and I don't have a larger bucket and I live 40 miles to the nearest store where they "might" have a larger something. Ambient temperature was 72 when I came down stairs. Hope I have given enough info and thanks for the help

 

[fabrictodyefor]

OK....took an sg reading and I guess fermentation has already begun...sg now at 1.070, yesterday am it was 1.082....help!!!

 

[Scott]

Hopefully someone with more expertise will be along shortly but I would add your yeast to try to offset the natural yeast. Maybe should have added the campden as soon as thawed?

 

[Runningwolf]

Happy New Years. YES...get a yeast culture going immediately and add it to your must. If you get it going strong enough it will become the dominate yeast and take over.

 

[fabrictodyefor]

Thank you, Thank you, I was sweating bullets!!! We are headed to town this afternoon to get a 20 gallon Brute trash can, so I will not have to separate the wine into 2 ferment buckets. There was a gallon head room, but guess that wild stuff really went wild! I've got my yeast softening and will pitch it soon, and hope it does not overflow before we get back! 80 mile round trip....not like just running down the street! thanks again!

 

[Runningwolf]

Buddy you think you had issues take a look at one of my fermentations I did two years ago. This was Fredonia, talk about sweating bullets!! It was a third of the way through fermentation and I added some Fermaid nutrient to the batch.

Being aware that it could happen, I added the nutrient very slow and then BAMMM with only have of it in there. Lucky me, it ran straight to a drain inside the building. OH Yeah, this was in the middle of a wine trail event. Thank God the customers were right around the corner and I didn't have to explain anything.

Click on picture to see video

 

[mromilio]

Wolf, oh jeez. It must have smelled like heaven in there....

 

[fabrictodyefor]

I know it was not funny at the time, but hopefully 2 years later you can laugh about it!! It definitely looks like a growth from an alien world. For me, all is right with the world now.....by the time I got home with a 20 gallon Brute bucket the cap was 2" above the rim of the ferment bucket...just waiting to spill over! Yeah, caught it in time and it is now fermenting away with lots of room to grow. I believe this is going to be a fast ferment...at 1.056 already....

 

[Turock]

In your recipe, you mention sorbate. Did you put the sorbate into the must????

 

[fabrictodyefor]

In your recipe, you mention sorbate. Did you put the sorbate into the must????

No, not yet! I just copied and pasted the recipe, thus the mention of the sorbate. So I did add my commercial yeast, but back to the original problem?? My friend, where I got the grapes, is more than happy to let me come over every year and pick her grapes....she lives no where near a winery. How do I prevent this in the future?

 

[barryjo]

No, not yet! I just copied and pasted the recipe, thus the mention of the sorbate. So I did add my commercial yeast, but back to the original problem?? My friend, where I got the grapes, is more than happy to let me come over every year and pick her grapes....she lives no where near a winery. How do I prevent this in the future?

Whenever I pick wild friut, I wash it, bag it, add a shot of k-meta and then freeze it. A gallon ziplock-type bag holds about 5 pounds.
Hopefully, this eliminates any "foreign" material and kills the wild yeast.

 

[Arne]

When you get the juice ready to go, add k-meta, wait 12 hrs add pectic enzime, wait another 12 hrs add any other ingredients and pitch the yeast. The k-meta should stun the wild yeast and keep it under control til you pitch your tame cultures. Arne.

 

[dralarms]

Freezing will not kill the wild yeast. I had apple this year try and start on it's own. And that's after 3 weeks in the freezer, once thawed it tried to kick right off.

 

[JohnT]

I think that we all have experienced "The Ruby Shower" at one point or another. Like others, I would suggest that you add K-meta while the must is still (partially) frozen.

 

[seth8530]

Not much for me to add since the others seem to have explained some pretty good techniques for kmeta usage. However, something you might want to consider (if possible) would be waiting a few hours and stirring vigorously after a sugar addition before taking a hydrometer reading to insure you get a good reading.

Ie, in the past I have measured directly after adding sugar and it read low, then the next day it was reading nearly 10 points higher.

 

[fabrictodyefor]

When you get the juice ready to go, add k-meta, wait 12 hrs add pectic enzime, wait another 12 hrs add any other ingredients and pitch the yeast. The k-meta should stun the wild yeast and keep it under control til you pitch your tame cultures. Arne.

So...I had added the enzyme first, then added the campden tablets hours later, I should have reversed that process....

Seth, I did wait on the sugar...I had added 2 1/2 lbs of sugar and only got an sg reading of 1.070 and as it was late I had decided to let it set overnight before I added more....in the morning it was still 1.070 and ended up adding another 1 1/2 lbs sugar to bring the sg up to 1.082....THEN I was going to wait the 24 hours before I pitched the yeast....but by the next morning it was already working!

In the future I think I will use barryjo's suggestion and add k-meta or the crushed campden tablets before I put in the freezer!!!

Guess I'll let you know in a year or two if this wine is any good! Thanks to all for all the suggestions and help....not sure what I would do without this forum! Happy New Year to all

 

[seth8530]

I understand, this years experience working with frozen must showed me that working with produce is quite a different ballgame compared to juice and mead fermentations.

Ie I found that many of the things which are quite simple with juice fermentations such as taking hydrometer readings get complicated by the fact that your must might have been fermenting before you even received it.

However, all the rules and guidelines still apply, sometimes they are just harder to keep up with.

Good luck!