# My wine stopped bubbling



## tdagner (Sep 26, 2012)

I have made some Muscadine/scuppernong wine. I have had it in the carboy for about 2 weeks now and it has been bubbling away through my airlock. I went down and looked at it yesterday and it has stopped bubbling. It is not clear yet, it is still a little murky, cant see through it, and there is a lot of gunk at the bottom of the bottle. I have about 4.5 gallons. I did add sugar to it, as well as winemaking yeast. I think I added about 6 pounds of sugar. Is it time to start botttling? or do I need to wait longer before doing that? I have been searching online and have come up with mixed things to do. I hope yall can give me some good advice. I am new to this, but would like to continue it if I can figure it out well.


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## Rocky (Sep 26, 2012)

tdagner, did you take an initial SG reading? What is the SG at present? It may be that your wine has fermented to dry (i.e. SG is in the 0.992-0.995 range or so) and there will be no more fermentation. Do not bottle wine that is not clear. The murkiness that you see is suspended particles in the wine and if you bottle the wine, they will be in the bottle forever. You can allow the wine to clear on its own by keeping it in the carboy, under airlock and letting the particles settle to the bottom and then rack the clear wine off the top into another carboy. You can help the clearing activity by employing fining agents, e.g. kieselsol and chitosan.​


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## robie (Sep 26, 2012)

Welcome to the forum.

Making the type of wine you are making probably started with someones home-grown recipe. Those can turn out pretty good in most cases.

There are some pretty well established methods for successfully making wine these days. It would be good for you to maybe read up on them as it takes some of the drama out of wine making.

Fermenting wine produces CO2 gas. Even after the wine has stopped fermenting for several weeks, it can still produce bubbling in an air lock or bubbles coming up from the wine.

he best way to determine if fermentation is complete is to use a hydrometer. It is a $6 to $7 decive, which you can buy at most beer or wine making supply houses, we refer to them as a LHBS. It measures the specific gravity (SG) of a wine or beer. When the SG fail to or below 1.000 and stays there for at least three days in a row, the wine is considered dry and fermentation is finished.

Your wine's bubbling at this point doesn't mean anything except that it has CO2 gas in it. I would suggest you get hold of a hydrometer and check the wine's SG.

Once the SG is at or below 1.000 for 3 days, rack it off into another container and leave the junk in the bottom behind and discard it. At that point you should add sulfites to stabilize it. It you are going to sweeten it, you must also add sorbate. You must fill that container to within 2 inches of the top and add an air lock to keep all air out.

To get the wine to clear, you can do one of two things:
1) Add a clarifier to it and let it set for about a month. It will force clear it.
2) Let the wine set for 3 to 6 months and the stuff in the wine will settle to the bottom.

In either case, once the wine is clear, rack it again into another clear, clean, sanitized container, top off and add an air lock again. You can bottle it anytime after that.

These instructions are very general and not detailed at all. I would suggest you read the following manual before you go much farther.
http://www.morewinemaking.com/public/pdf/wredw.pdf

Good luck and have fun.


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## tdagner (Sep 26, 2012)

I have a hydrometer. It is reading at a little below 1.00 so .9 something. Its not that the wine is murky, just thick. If that makes any sense. I had approx 3.5 gallon of juice, I added 1 gallon of water and 6 pounds of sugar. And it bubbled like crazy for the past 2 weeks. I fell like I cant see the light through it because I didnt add very much water, could this be true? Is it possible for the wine to be done after such a short period of time? I was under the impression that it took a minimum of 6 weeks. 
This has been mine and my grandfathers project. i told him that if it turned out sour or something we would just donate it to the church for communion and sit back and watch the peoples faces. haha

Thanks for all the help. Keep it coming.


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## tdagner (Sep 26, 2012)

and sorry. I dont really know what the hydrometer reading was when I started. I didnt know how one worked so didnt take a reading. I did take a reading after I placed the juice into the carboy. It was about a 1.03 or so.


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## tdagner (Sep 26, 2012)

SO when I rack it and put it in the new carboy do I add water to it to get it back to 5 gallons?


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## Arne (Sep 27, 2012)

IF you add water to it, you dilute your wine. To bring it back up, top it off with wine or add sanatized marbles til the wine level is where you want it. Or you can put it into smaller vessels. (like a 3 gal. carboy, a 1 gal carboy and maybe a 1500ml bottle.) Good luck with it. Arne.


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