Active fermentation over a week and no S.G change?

[New_Guy_Brad]

Alright ill start with my one mango wine got stuck at 1.030 and after many attempts it wouldn't get going again, so my solution was to ferment down a high alcohol sugar wine to dry to blend with the mango and then add a f-pack.

Heres my "recipe"
size-1gal
sugar- 7 cups (S.G-1.141)
Yeast Nutrient- 1tsp
Acid Blend- tsp
Pectic enzyme-.5tsp
k-meta-1/16tsp.
Yeast- K1-1116

I mixed it all up then let it sit 24 hours and then pitched the yeast with a starting S.G of 1.041. Within a day from that i could see little fermenting going on bubbles coming up to the surface and popping. The next day there was even more bubbles and now there's like constant bubbles. The bubbles seem to be very very small but are still visable.

**Here's The Problem** over 7 days now with what looks like fermenting going on the S.G has not changed at all, and is still at 1.141. What am i seeing going on here with the bubbling? Is it something other than fermenting or??? I'm just lost cause the S.G i check every day has not changed but clearly its bubbling and looks like fermentation...

 

[oldwhiskers]

The OG 1.141 is very high to start. If in fact it is fermenting, it will be at a slow rate. I would suggest adding some energizer to this to help the yeast out.

 

[Duster]

did you invert your sugar? it could be that your sugar is desolving in the wine at about the same rate the yeast is consuming it.
other than that, when you are checking your SG are you pulling a small sample out and degassing it before checking? sometimes the trapped CO2 can give a false SG reading.

 

[winemaker_3352]

What do you see that makes you think it is an active fermentation??

Because with no SG change - there is no fermentation occurring.

Do you see bubbles - smell CO2 - pulp cap??

 

[New_Guy_Brad]

The OG 1.141 is very high to start. If in fact it is fermenting, it will be at a slow rate. I would suggest adding some energizer to this to help the yeast out.

It has 1tsp of super ferment in it which is a mix of nutrient and energizer is that not enough? Yes i set it high to get a high abv to mix with the stuck one with a low abv to balance it out.

did you invert your sugar?

when you are checking your SG are you pulling a small sample out and degassing it before checking? sometimes the trapped CO2 can give a false SG reading.

Im not sure what you mean by invert but what i did was boil water remove from heat then add the sugar and stir until it was dissolved.

What do you see that makes you think it is an active fermentation??

Because with no SG change - there is no fermentation occurring.

Do you see bubbles - smell CO2 - pulp cap??

Yes as i put in my first post there is lots of bubbles constantly but there very small bubbles. Yes smells just like all my other wines ive made when fermenting.

This is why im confused it has all the signs of fermenting with absolutely no S.G change

 

[Sirs]

you might could get more yeast and make a starter and slowly add your mixture to the starter sounds to me like it's not fermenting.... take maybe a 1/2 cup of your mixture and a 1/2 cup of plain water to make your starter and go from there slowly adding till you got a really good active ferment going. That's what I'd do

 

[New_Guy_Brad]

you might could get more yeast and make a starter and slowly add your mixture to the starter sounds to me like it's not fermenting.... take maybe a 1/2 cup of your mixture and a 1/2 cup of plain water to make your starter and go from there slowly adding till you got a really good active ferment going. That's what I'd do

But whats all the bubbles coming to the surface and popping then? There constant and looks exactly how my one mead looked when it was fermenting.

 

[Sirs]

you said you added the sugar to the boiling water and stirred till dissolved right?? once dissolved did the water turn clear again?? if not then the sugar probably didn't get dissolved completely if that happened then it could explain why the sg hasn't apparently changed, other than that I'm not sure.

 

[New_Guy_Brad]

you said you added the sugar to the boiling water and stirred till dissolved right?? once dissolved did the water turn clear again?? if not then the sugar probably didn't get dissolved completely if that happened then it could explain why the sg hasn't apparently changed, other than that I'm not sure.

Yep i always stir until its clear.

That's why i'm so puzzled, its clearly bubbling away and yet no S.G change at all...

 

[saramc]

It sounds like you are trying to ferment SIMPLE SYRUP, not invert sugar syrup.
When you made your syrup did you add any citric acid/ascorbic acid/cream of tartar/lemon juice as you made the syrup (that is what constitutes an invert syrup)?

 

[New_Guy_Brad]

It sounds like you are trying to ferment SIMPLE SYRUP, not invert sugar syrup.
When you made your syrup did you add any citric acid/ascorbic acid/cream of tartar/lemon juice as you made the syrup (that is what constitutes an invert syrup)?

Not when i was dissolving the sugar no. I did add 1tsp of acid blend to it right after it was dissolved, does that have any of those in it?

Whats the advantage of adding that stuff when dissolving the sugar? I have always just dissolved sugar in hot water then mixed everything up.

 

[tcavan01]

Why the k-meta and pectic enzyme? Does your water have wild yeasts in it? What pectin needs to be broken down in your water? Your starting sg was way too high. Good plan poor execution.

 

[saramc]

I do not know if the addition of just acid blend will be enough to "invert". The pursose of adding the acid to your "table sugar" is that it breaks down the bonds allowing the yeast to ferment, without the bonds being broken the fermentation does not occur. When making a simple syrup and adding it to a fruit/grape wine you are fine, but just trying to ferment table sugar alone.....

What about making a low ACV mango and blending?

 

[oldwhiskers]

Inverted sugar: "A mixture of equal parts of glucose and fructose resulting from the hydrolysis of sucrose. It is found naturally in fruits and honey and produced artificially for use in the food industry."

Inverting it converts it into sugars that are more easily/quickly consumed by the yeast. Yeast can consume normal table sugar in must but it takes them longer to consume it.

Inverted or invert[1] sugar syrup is a mixture of glucose and fructose; it is obtained by splitting sucrose into these two components. Compared with its precursor, sucrose, inverted sugar is sweeter and its products tend to remain more moist and are less prone to crystallization. Inverted sugar is therefore valued by bakers, who refer to the syrup as trimoline or invert syrup.[2]
In technical terms, sucrose is a disaccharide, which means that it is a molecule derived from two simple sugars (monosaccharides). In the case of sucrose, these monosaccharide building blocks are fructose and glucose. The splitting of sucrose is a hydrolysis reaction. The hydrolysis can be induced simply by heating an aqueous solution of sucrose, but more commonly, catalysts are added to accelerate the conversion. The biological catalysts that are added are called sucrases (in animals) and invertases (in plants). Sucrases and invertases are types of glycoside hydrolase enzymes. Acid, such as lemon juice or cream of tartar, also accelerates the conversion of sucrose to invert.

 

[New_Guy_Brad]

Is there a way for me to invert the sugar now while its already fermenting? Like can i add some lemon juice now to help it? If so how much lemon juice should i add?

 

[tonyandkory]

Saramc is correct you have to have the sugars at a boil with an acid to break the molecular chains but that really should not make a great difference in if its fermenting... just maybe how fast with that high Sg

I had a wine I thought was still fermenting even though the gravity read .990 ... it ended up being co2 and needed degassing.