48 hours and no fermentation!

[Bossbaby]

Got down to 1.010 sg this morning. Tossed in some sugar and brought both buckets up to 1.030, will be getting more yeast nutrients from the store and will be adding 2 tsps to both buckets. I did notice it sometimes smells sulfuric when I catch wifs of it. Is that from the campden tablets maybe? Should I be alarmed? Sure does taste good though!

The first batch I made that had the same issues as yours to a T, I split the batch and all ended up with a noticeable hydrogen sulfide issue. I ended up treating it with reduless and it saved the wine from the egg smell, I just actually just had a glass and it is wonderful..

 

[AJH89]

The first batch I made that had the same issues as yours to a T, I split the batch and all ended up with a noticeable hydrogen sulfide issue. I ended up treating it with reduless and it saved the wine from the egg smell, I just actually just had a glass and it is wonderful..

Hmmm, that reduless is interesting stuff. I just did a little research on it. The instructions are kinda confusing though. From my understanding you pre mix the powder with 10x it's weight in water and then add it to your primary and then rack into a carboy after 72 hours? Couldn't I just figure out how much my must weighs and divide the weight by 10 and add that amount of reduless straight to my must?

 

[AJH89]

How'd you do it @Bossbaby ?

 

[Bossbaby]

How'd you do it @Bossbaby ?

I followed these directions in the package..

 

[hounddawg]

View attachment 73414
I followed these directions in the package..

hum,, what is you're using powdered water?
Dawg

 

[AJH89]

View attachment 73414
I followed these directions in the package..

So does the reduless leave behind stuff at the bottom that I need to avoid picking up during racking over?

 

[AJH89]

I must say I'm not crazy about using that stuff, apparently can poison your wine. I may just dump out this Skeeter pee and do something else. Can't say I'm a fan of Skeeter pee so far!

 

[AJH89]

Funny how things change. I can't seem to smell any sulfur smell today . I did add more nutrients to it yesterday, maybe the yeast is less stressed and not emitting anymore odors? I gave both primaries a really good drill mix today, just smells like alcohol. So far 10.5lbs of sugar added and still fermenting.

 

[AJH89]

Hmmm, one of the buckets of must seems to have stopped fermentation at 1.020. It's only gotten 10.5lbs of sugar. Surely it hasn't hit max abv% right? My guess is it's stuck or done, what's yalls take? Sorry for this thread to keep dragging on. I'm still learning.

 

[montanarick]

not sure how much volume you started with or what the brix/SG was but off hand 10.5# seems like a lot of sugar. you may have gotten the alcohol beyond the point where the yeast can handle it. also depends on what yeast you're using - some have lower ABV tolerance

 

[AJH89]

not sure how much volume you started with or what the brix/SG was but off hand 10.5# seems like a lot of sugar. you may have gotten the alcohol beyond the point where the yeast can handle it. also depends on what yeast you're using - some have lower ABV tolerance

K1V-1116 is the yeast I started with. 5.5 gallons. Never got a SG reading before I added sugar. I started with 9lbs and when the SG dropped to 1.010 I added 1.5 lbs

 

[montanarick]

went back and skimmed the entire thread. looks like K1V-1116 has alcohol tolerance of 18% so yeast isn't likely the problem. when and how many campden tablets did you put in the brew? what temp is your must? how much Reduless did you add?
sometimes too much stuff added can mess things up - i've learned from experience

 

[AJH89]

went back and skimmed the entire thread. looks like K1V-1116 has alcohol tolerance of 18% so yeast isn't likely the problem. when and how many campden tablets did you put in the brew? what temp is your must? how much Reduless did you add?
sometimes too much stuff added can mess things up - i've learned from experience

I started my must on the 28th with 5 campden tablets, but I split the must on the 4th so only 2.5 campden tablets in each bucket. The fermentation started on the 5th. No reduless has been used

 

[AJH89]

I think I may just need more nutrients. Both buckets have already gotten 4.5 tsps of nutrients.

 

[montanarick]

I think I may just need more nutrients. Both buckets have already gotten 4.5 tsps of nutrients.

literature calls for between 0.4 and 0.8 gm/gal which equates to roughly 1/4 to 1/2 tsp based on 2.75 gal. assuming you split your initial 5.5 gal batch. you may have already overcooked you wine.
If you already don't have it download FermCalc - do google search. it'll really help you with all the calculation and conversions. and get a decent digital scale - relying on tsp's really ain't the way to go

 

[AJH89]

literature calls for between 0.4 and 0.8 gm/gal which equates to roughly 1/4 to 1/2 tsp based on 2.75 gal. assuming you split your initial 5.5 gal batch. you may have already overcooked you wine.
If you already don't have it download FermCalc - do google search. it'll really help you with all the calculation and conversions. and get a decent digital scale - relying on tsp's really ain't the way to go

Over cooked? Not sure what that means. The recipe calls for 6 teaspoons. I haven't even hit that yet. Still brings me to why fermentation has stopped. Looking online it says typical rule of thumb is 2-3lbs of sugar per gallon to hit 14%abv so my must really needs like 15+lbs of sugar to come close to 18%abv so it definitely hasn't hit max abv. Not sure why it's stopped though. This Skeeter pee has been a rough batch!

 

[montanarick]

Sorry - I was referring to nutrient addition. best advise then is to follow the recipe religiously if it's tried and true. good luck

 

[AJH89]

It seems as though both buckets have stopped well below the alcohol content that the yeast I'm using will yield. Dumped in 2 teaspoons of nutrients 48hours ago in each and still reading same SG on each. One at 10%abv and one at 12% abv estimated. Should I even bottle these? Or maybe just start over?

 

[AJH89]

So I ended up bottling the Skeeter pee! It cleared up no problem, not nearly as yellow as I thought it'd be, it's almost clear. Looks and taste like white wine. Anyone know how to figure out abv % without an initial SG? It took 12 cups of sugar during fermentation and fermented all the way down to 1.010 once it finally quit out on me. I tried to keep the fermentation going but it was done so I decided to clear, stabilize and bottle.

 

[Raptor99]

Anyone know how to figure out abv % without an initial SG?

If you have a refractometer you can measure the Brix as well. Then use the current SG and the current Brix with this calculator to determine the ABV: Homebrew Refractometer Calculator.