# Wine is becoming vinegar and fermentation didn't stop



## faker (Oct 20, 2013)

Hi i'm in need of some help.

I'm trying to help my family Home Wine making, we have some equipment and using the rudimentary procedures of previous generations with wooden storage, etc it would work well but now the last 2 years have been a disgrace.

The equipment to smash the grapes is similar to this one for a few years:








Those products were used :



> Cada embalagem de vinobuono 1, com 325 g, contém: Levedura seleccionada seca
> activa (LSA) Saccharomyces cerevisiae 120 g; alimentos para leveduras: fosfato de
> amónio bibásico 30 g (E 373); tiamina (Vit. B,) 0,250 g; sulfato de amónio 93,375 g;
> bentonite activada em pó 1,250 g (E 558); celulose suporte de fermentação 80 g (E 460);
> monostearato de posorbitano (E 491); antioxidante: tartarato de potássio 0,125 g (E 336).



and 



> Cada embalagem de vinobuono 2, com 410 g, contém: Pirosulfito de potássio 80 g;
> caseinato de potássio hidrossoluvel 160 g; bentonite activada em pó 170 g.



It looked normal at the start but then 48 hours later it smelled like it had more sugar that it should, and the fermentation of the white grasps never ended, 1 week later it still continues and is becoming vinegar , more acid each day.


I think it's gone already but i would like to know the problem in order to fix for next year.

Since is night and hard to take a good photo at night , i will update tomorrow . It looks lighter than it should and after being on freezer a few hours few cm's of whiteish deposit show in the bottle. The Red looks pinks . Red had normal color and lost during fermentation in the container.

They are stored the white (around 1000 L) in a inox reservoir that was cleaned with high pressure water, dried and looked clean . The Red was stored in a small container 500L and the fermentation looks like it stopped but same thing happened, the color looks totally not wine.


I'm inexperienced in this and I've been following the instruction of the cooperative. Any idea what might have caused this? 

The Vineyard has mostly the following grape varieties:
"Trajadura","Loureiro" .

Info English:

http://www.vinetowinecircle.com/en/castas_post/loureiro-2/
http://www.vinetowinecircle.com/en/castas_post/trajadura-treixadura-2/



Any help trying to know what went wrong would really be great.

Thanks in advance.


----------



## jimmyjames23 (Oct 20, 2013)

If it is actually in the process of turning into vinegar then the bacteria mycoderma aceti (mother of vinegar) has infected your wine at some point. 
Putting the ingredients in English might help most users here. 
But you'll probably want to start with proper sanitation techniques. A power washer is a poor substitute for sulfites. Everything should be scrubbed with sodium meta bisulphide and then power washed. If possible I would sincerely consider a steam wand. By the sound of the equipment you're using I would consider an industrial/commercial model. 
Everything that touches your wine must be sterilized and sterilized thoroughly. 
Getting rid of mycoderma aceti is very difficult. It can live on walls, cracks and crevices. And it doesn't take much to infect a batch. 
If you're making commercial sized batches you will definitely not want to skip of sterilization.


----------



## JohnT (Oct 21, 2013)

I agree with above and would add that you could also k-meta the juice and also try to control any fruit fly population that you might have.


----------



## faker (Oct 21, 2013)

Thanks for the tips, i will apply them next year.

I'm getting a analysis done i will post the results tomorrow.


----------



## Turock (Oct 22, 2013)

yes--jimmy is right on. The first thing you need to do in order to prevent the acetobacter is the use of sulfites. This bacteria is also present on the skins of grapes--got to sulfite the must on the first day. Be sure all equipment and anything that touches the wine, has been sanitized in meta solution first.


----------

