Added fruit flavour bag too early!!!

[mj204]

It's been years since I have made wine, finally got back into it. I purchased the summer breeze fruit wine kit - strawberry white zinfandel. I was about 5 days in SG was 1.030 this morning, I'm reading and reading the instructions and could not find any mention of when to pour the fruit flavour bag in! So I decided to add it and re read the instructions again and it was at the very bottom for the last step before bottling! Got home from work and now there are no bubbles/foam now, wine is 'fizzing' and SG is 1.060-1.065. Have I ruined this batch?? is there anyway to save it??

 

[sour_grapes]

Welcome to WMT!

I have not made this kit, and I don't know what is in the fruit bag. However, I suspect that your yeast colony will successfully ferment the sugars that are now in the wine must. There may be stabilizers in the fruit bag that inhibit yeast reproduction, but they won't kill the existing yeast. Give it a few days and see if the SG continues to drop or not.

If it ferments, you will wind up with a non-sweet wine, which you can either enjoy as-is, or add more sugar to.

 

[Rice_Guy]

You did exactly what neighbor Todd did with a door prize from the vinters club. Well as sour suggested the sugar fermented out.
The purpose of doing the flavor pouch is to make a higher fruit flavor/ sweetened wine. At this point you have two choices * let it continue and have a pretty good dry wine or * move it someplace cool (a 50F garage?) and try to keep the fruit aromas in the wine then where it normally would get the second pouch back sweeten with sugar (or simple syrup)

Welcome to WMT If you look on the top menu there is a magnifying glass where you can find threads on any term. While I am at it, at some point look up the term “F pack”, some of us make our own, ,,, and that is what was in the second pouch.
Wine is extremely forgiving, the rules are broken every day and it usually tastes good.

 

[Arne]

Think Rice Guy is spot on. If it was me, I would use the first suggestion. You are basically starting out again, If you try and cool it down you can run into problems with it not wanting to finish fermenting. For your first try I would suggest letting it ferment dry, stabilize it with k-meta and potassium sorbate. Sweeten back with sugar. You probably won't like the way it tastes til you start adding a bit of sugar to it. When sweetening draw a sample and sweeten that til you like the taste, then figure the size of the sample, how much sugar you added to it and you will know how much sugar to add to the batch. Arne.

 

[winemaker81]

Your kit is generally called a "fun wine". It produces a product that is more or less a wine-based fruit punch. These kits come in at ~7 ABV, rather low and they don't have a long shelf life. I've made a few -- they are quite tasty.

Adding the F-Pack during fermentation kicked the ABV up to table wine levels, which may be a good thing. IMO it's good as it improves shelf life. I chaptalize these kits to 10%-11% and had one last 7 years.

As suggested, once fermented out, stabilize and sweeten to taste.

The important thing is that your kit is not ruined. It won't turn out quite like the vendor intended, but if you like the result? Great!

 

[Mcjeff]

When making these kits I always add extra grape juice and extra sugar to bring up the abv. I accidentally did the same thing you did in a similar kit. I let it ferment to dry and then did a bench trial adding different levels of sugar back to it. It turned out higher alcohol and as good as if not better than when I’ve made it previously. Enjoy it!

 

[7munkee]

This thread has gotten me thinking...I have some bland pineapple wine that has been sitting in the carboy aging for the last month or so and a 3 lb bag of dry cherries.

Can anyone think of a good reason to NOT add the cherries for a month or so before I bottle the wine?

 

[winemaker81]

Can anyone think of a good reason to NOT add the cherries for a month or so before I bottle the wine?

No. No reason at all!

How much pineapple wine? Depending on how much wine you have, you may get more of a cherry wine than a pineapple -- but if you're not happy with the pineapple, this is good. As long as the final result is pleasing, you've won.

Is the wine stabilized? If not, you'll get a renewed fermentation. I suggest rehydrating the cherries before adding, using as little water as possible. Move the wine to a primary fermenter, add the cherries, and let 'er rock.

One thing to keep in mind is that fruit wines can be stringent and/or bland if bone dry. Backsweetening the pineapple may change it completely. Try pouring 3 oz of the pineapple into a glass and add 1/4 tsp sugar, stir, and taste. Repeat a few times to see what you get.

 

[7munkee]

I have 5 gallons of stabilized pineapple wine and 3 lbs of cherries that are still soft, but dried.

I will take your advice and re-hydrate them and test a small quantity for sweetness.

I just wasn't sure it would change the taste ( which I do not like right now)

Thank you so much for the response.

 

[winemaker81]

Adding cherries will change the taste -- it's a question of how much. I guess 3 lbs dried cherries equates to ~10 lbs fresh, which isn't a lot for a 5 gallon batch. I'd restart the ferment with the cherries, then backsweeten with 100% cherry juice to get more flavor.

Please note that I'm making what I hope is an educated guess. Ferment, then taste before doing.

 

[KCCam]

I have 5 gallons of stabilized pineapple wine

By "stabilized" I assume you've included potassium sorbate. I think you might have trouble getting fermentation to re-start, I mean, that's the whole point of adding the sorbate. But the cherries should still impart their flavor by infusion. I used to make cherry liqueur with my sour cherries, infusing with Vodka and sugar. The liqueur was so-so, but man, the cherries sure tasted better after! Whatever you decide to try, you can maybe experiment with 1/2 gal or 1 gal so you don't ruin the whole batch if it doesn't work out. And as @winemaker81 suggests, there are literally an infinite number of ways to adjust your pineapple wine with various juices, concentrates, etc. I'm sure you've done bench trials, but don't rule out trying a little more sugar, or maybe citric acid or an acid blend to sharpen up something bland...
Just some rambling thoughts... but make sure to let us know what you try and how it turns out!

 

[7munkee]

I'm not really after fermentation with the cherries...I'm after a better tasting wine. This pineapple wine is very bland. I also have a lb bag of dried plums. Ill try a small bit of each.

 

[Arne]

Not recomending this but if I was in your shoes, I would just throw them in leave them sit for a couple of weeks and taste it. See if they should sit a bit longer or pull them out. This will most likely cloud your wine back up, so you will probably have to let it sit and clear again. Arne.

 

[winemaker81]

I'm not really after fermentation with the cherries...I'm after a better tasting wine. This pineapple wine is very bland. I also have a lb bag of dried plums. Ill try a small bit of each.

Stabilize the wine first, add the rehydrated cherries second. I'm with @Arne, toss 'em in an let it steep for a few weeks, although I'm guessing longer will be better. You'll need to store the excess wine while it's steeping.

It will be a PITA getting the cherries out of the carboy, but the wine needs to be in a closed container. After you remove them, you'll want to put the pulp in a straining bag and squeeze it out -- there will be a fair amount of wine and flavor in the pulp. You'll also need to clear the wine again, either a fining agent or time.

EDIT: I missed that the pineapple is stabilized.