Added too much of sugar

[Bharat Amarnani]

1 liter Wine from grape juice with added sugar :
Start date : 16/04/21
Yeast type : Bread
Additives : None
OG : 1.060
SG : 1.110 after adding 130 grams of sugar
As on 28/04/21 the SG is 1.085 it has become like too sweet
Can i restart the fermentation adding a pinch of DAP

 

[Tim3]

Hi Bharat - You need a different yeast, not necessarily nutrient even though it will help. Bread yeast can only ferment up to 6 or 8%. Wine yeast can get up to 17% dependent on the strain. For your purposes I’d probably recommend EC1118. It should be able to ferment your wine dry.

 

[winemanden]

Hi Bharat - You need a different yeast, not necessarily nutrient even though it will help. Bread yeast can only ferment up to 6 or 8%. Wine yeast can get up to 17% dependent on the strain. For your purposes I’d probably recommend EC1118. It should be able to ferment your wine dry.

I agree that using wine yeast is best, but it's not strictly true that bread yeast only ferments up to 8%. When I started making wines just a few years after WW2, the only yeast easily available in the UK was bakers yeast. By feeding the yeast we were able to bring it up to 14/ 15%.
I know it's showing my age, all those years, drinking black tea, and all those wines. I think it must be tannin that is preserving me.

 

[spaz61]

I get about 10% -10.25% using grape juice, sugar, and bread yeast. It's called Sweet Red Wine. It's the closest I can get to my grampa's old **** red without mashing the grapes myself.
I have seen some videos about using just grape juice and bread yeast. I have not tried this myself.

 

[BernardSmith]

Hi, Bharat Amarnan, and welcome. It's not clear to me what exactly the problem is. OK, your wine is at 1.085 but is the gravity still falling or has it stalled? If it is still falling (even if falling slowly, then you might add some nutrient. Not DAP as I am not certain that the yeast can absorb DAP with as much alcohol in the wine. I would simply proof a teaspoon of bread yeast in a little sweetened water, then boil this and add that to the wine when it has cooled. The boiled yeast cells will provide good nutrient for the yeast. Indeed, I believe , but cannot guarantee, that you could simply add an 1/8 t of nutritional yeast to your wine.
If the problem is that the wine has stalled and gravity is not falling then you might create a new starter and slowly , slowly add the problem batch to the starter doubling the volume of the starter each time you add from the stalled batch. You add more when you see that the starter has been VERY actively fermenting what you added.
A third option is to whip air into the problem batch.
And a fourth option might be to dilute the problem batch with some more UNSWEETENED grape juice. If you have a liter at 1.085 and you can add a liter which is likely to be at say, 1.060 (your figures above) then this mixed batch will have a gravity of 1.072. It's not a lot less but it may be enough less to kick start the yeast. Good luck. And tell us how your wine progresses.

 

[winemaker81]

@Bharat Amarnan, follow @Tim3's advice and purchase wine yeast. While EC-1118 is probably the best choice for what you're doing, ANY wine yeast is better than bread yeast. There are thousands of yeasts in the world, all of which do their own thing. Wine yeasts make wine, and you'll get your best results from them. Don't stress about this -- I started with bread yeast as did dozens of WMT members.

Nutrient is a good idea. Grapes are the best choice for winemaking due to their self-contained sugar, acid, and nutrient, but sometimes Mother Nature needs help.

Yeast is a living organism that does its own thing. Most of the time, fermentation completes in 5 to 8 days. Sometimes it doesn't. Be patient and accept there are things beyond human control. We can influence, but ultimately, we have to accept, e.g., don't stress if fermentation takes a couple of weeks.

 

[Bharat Amarnani]

Hi Bharat - You need a different yeast, not necessarily nutrient even though it will help. Bread yeast can only ferment up to 6 or 8%. Wine yeast can get up to 17% dependent on the strain. For your purposes I’d probably recommend EC1118. It should be able to ferment your wine dry.

Welcome dear all i am a new home brewer
I am very fortunate that some of the wine expert have replied to my problem. My current batch i have checked SG and added sugar accordingly (mistake learned from my last batch). The last batch with 1.085 G have reintroduced same bread yeast and a pinch of DAP(image attached) has started fermenting again.
Wanted to start with whatever i have and upgrade with each batch to reach towards making good wine. As all the products from America which are available in india are very expensive out here. There is no point buying the imported stuff here and later giving up making wine.

 

[BernardSmith]

Bharat, Let me make a friendly suggestion. You have so many delicious and delightful fruits that are native to India and which you must be able to buy locally at the height of their ripeness. If I were you I would be experimenting with those fruits. You might peel hard fruits and crush (break) soft fruits and perhaps use our USDA data to determine the likely sugar content of the fruit (and so add as much sugar as you want to reach the gravity you want to hit the ABV you seek). My approach is to try to add as little water as possible so you want about 6 -8 kg for a gallon of most fruit for about 1 gallon of expressed juice. BUT you are likely to be able to produce much better wines using quality ripe fruit than you are when making wine from grape juice that most likely was pressed from table grapes.

 

[Bharat Amarnani]

Hi Bharat - You need a different yeast, not necessarily nutrient even though it will help. Bread yeast can only ferment up to 6 or 8%. Wine yeast can get up to 17% dependent on the strain. For your purposes I’d probably recommend EC1118. It should be able to ferment your wine dry.

Welcome dear all i am a new home brewer
I am very fortunate that some of the wine expert have replied to my problem. My current batch i have checked SG and added sugar accordingly (mistake learned from my last batch). The last batch with 1.085 G have reintroduced same bread yeast and a pinch of DAP(image attached) has started fermenting again.
Wanted to start with whatever i have and upgrade with each batch to reach towards making good wine. As all the products from America which are available in india are very expensive out here. There is no point buying the imported stuff here and later giving up making wine.

Bharat, Let me make a friendly suggestion. You have so many delicious and delightful fruits that are native to India and which you must be able to buy locally at the height of their ripeness. If I were you I would be experimenting with those fruits. You might peel hard fruits and crush (break) soft fruits and perhaps our USDA data to determine the likely sugar content of the fruit (and so add as much sugar as you want to reach the gravity you want to hit the ABV you seek). My approach is to try to add as little water as possible so you want about 6 -8 kg for a gallon of most fruit for about 1 gallon of expressed juice. BUT you are likely to be able to produce much better wines using quality ripe fruit than you are when making wine from grape juice that most likely was pressed from table grapes.

Reason to change my focus to make wine from table grapes or other fruits is --
To create it in shortest time with minimal effort either with Option 1) Ready available tetra packed 1 liter fruit juices. Option 2 ) Honey based(which is in abundance here). Once i perfected art of making good wine with either of the 2 options then move gradually to fruits and with right additives from US
I am more keen starting with wild forest honey mixing it with other fruits would be somewhere close to my proprietary recipes--- what say

 

[Bharat Amarnani]

I agree that using wine yeast is best, but it's not strictly true that bread yeast only ferments up to 8%. When I started making wines just a few years after WW2, the only yeast easily available in the UK was bakers yeast. By feeding the yeast we were able to bring it up to 14/ 15%.
I know it's showing my age, all those years, drinking black tea, and all those wines. I think it must be tannin that is preserving me.

I would be very interested to know what would you feed the bakers yeast with during those days

 

[winemanden]

Plain white sugar. The old lady who showed me how, was an real old fashioned Country winemaker. Whenever she was going to make wine, she asked the village baker to bring her a couple of ounces of yeast. This she spread on a thick slice of toast which she floated on top of the must in a large earthenware bowl. She just went by taste, never heard of a hydrometer. When the must had been going a few days she would taste it and add a couple of ounces of sugar and stirred it in, doing this until the fermentation stopped and it was sweet enough for her taste. She made some excellent wines, all sweet and all fairly strong. I've no idea what the ABV was, but going on taste, I would say about 15%.
Bear in mind, this was after WW2, not long after rationing ended. After the shortages, most people had a craving for sweetness.

 

[Bharat Amarnani]

Hi, Bharat Amarnan, and welcome. It's not clear to me what exactly the problem is. OK, your wine is at 1.085 but is the gravity still falling or has it stalled? If it is still falling (even if falling slowly, then you might add some nutrient. Not DAP as I am not certain that the yeast can absorb DAP with as much alcohol in the wine. I would simply proof a teaspoon of bread yeast in a little sweetened water, then boil this and add that to the wine when it has cooled. The boiled yeast cells will provide good nutrient for the yeast. Indeed, I believe , but cannot guarantee, that you could simply add an 1/8 t of nutritional yeast to your wine.
If the problem is that the wine has stalled and gravity is not falling then you might create a new starter and slowly , slowly add the problem batch to the starter doubling the volume of the starter each time you add from the stalled batch. You add more when you see that the starter has been VERY actively fermenting what you added.
A third option is to whip air into the problem batch.
And a fourth option might be to dilute the problem batch with some more UNSWEETENED grape juice. If you have a liter at 1.085 and you can add a liter which is likely to be at say, 1.060 (your figures above) then this mixed batch will have a gravity of 1.072. It's not a lot less but it may be enough less to kick start the yeast. Good luck. And tell us how your wine progresses.

The fermentation has kick started from current specific gravity of 1.085 let see how low it touches

 

[Bharat Amarnani]

Can some one please share a recipe with regards to below details

HONEY MEAD : Himalayan wild forest honey collected from mountain cliffs and trees by traditional harvesting methods. The wild honey made by indigenous bees like apis dorsata laborisa and Apis cerena. It has the goodness of wild flowers and wild pollinating trees of Himalayas like Sal, fig, rhododendron, deodar, wild flowers and wild berries. The goodness of wild honey is well known for being rich in antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti inflammatory properties. Rich in high pollen count the honey is NABL accredited lab tested for having 560000 pollen/10 grams high in energy and low in sugar. The earth and wild flower aroma is its distinct identity.

1.5 liters beverage jug link (Buy Cello Fit & Fresh J1 Jug, 1.5 Litres Online at Low Prices in India - Amazon.in) whether I can finish wine fermentation in this wide mouth bubbler it would be great?

How to arrive on number of grams of honey to put in this 1.5 liters jug? What should be the current specific gravity to start the fermentation?

What type of yeast would be the best for it? Initially available bread yeast should suffice or i invest in which wine yeast to get best results

Yeast nutrient (D.A.P) mandatory/optional?

Other ingredient or additives mandatory/optional?

 

[d v]

I'm a newbie at winemaking but have a lot of experience with meads, so happy to chime in here. Honey is extremely nutrient-deficient, so added nutrients are essential for most recipes. Ideally, I'd recommend using DAP, Fermaid O, and Fermaid K, as well as GoFerm. There's a lot of interesting math as to which ones to add and when to add them, but many people use online calculators like Batchbuildr and the Mead Made Right TOSNA calculator to more easily how much nutrients to add to their batch to ensure a reliable ferment.

For grams of honey, you can put as much or as little honey in as you like. Mead is highly variable and I've seen recipes that go from 5% ABV to 22% ABV. It's really up to your preference as to how alcoholic you want the resulting drink to be, and I'd highly recommend using the Gotmead Calculator, which can give an idea of how much honey to add to achieve your target ABV.

And absolutely, please invest in a wine yeast! In almost every circumstance, wine yeast will perform better. There are a number of different strains that can be used for different types of mead, but I've always had good luck with the Lalvin yeasts. EC-1118 and K1V-1116 are both very hardy and reliable strains, especially if they are kept well fed.

 

[Snafflebit]

I have watched videos of wild forest honey collection. Those people are brave!

 

[Bharat Amarnani]

The fermentation has kick started from current specific gravity of 1.085 let see how low it touches

12/05/21 today it has touched 1.080 it is releasing gases

 

[winemaker81]

12/05/21 today it has touched 1.080 it is releasing gases

I checked and found a store in Bangalore that sells a wine yeast that is supposedly adapted for the Indian climate. Given how variable the climate is in India, I question that, but at least it's a more-or-less local source for you.

https://www.arishtam.com/product/wine-yeast-india/
A packet is 100 rupees and I didn't check shipping. I have no idea if, in your economy, if this is expensive or not. Just trying to provide you with possible options as wine yeast is going to give you a better result.

One thought is to buy the sparkling yeast, which is supposedly a substitute for Lalvin EC-1118, which is one of the best all-purpose wine yeasts. If you are starting batches in close succession, it's possible to use the lees from one batch to inoculate another -- start with 1 cup warm water (85 F to 105 F), add 2 Tbsp sugar or honey, stir to dissolve. Add 1 teaspoon of lees from a previous batch, stir, cover with a towel, and let set up to 24 hours or until it foams up well. Then add to the new batch.

This allows you to stretch a package of yeast. While a lot of folks don't like this solution, when good yeast is not easily available, it works.

 

[Bharat Amarnani]

I checked and found a store in Bangalore that sells a wine yeast that is supposedly adapted for the Indian climate. Given how variable the climate is in India, I question that, but at least it's a more-or-less local source for you.

https://www.arishtam.com/product/wine-yeast-india/
A packet is 100 rupees and I didn't check shipping. I have no idea if, in your economy, if this is expensive or not. Just trying to provide you with possible options as wine yeast is going to give you a better result.

One thought is to buy the sparkling yeast, which is supposedly a substitute for Lalvin EC-1118, which is one of the best all-purpose wine yeasts. If you are starting batches in close succession, it's possible to use the lees from one batch to inoculate another -- start with 1 cup warm water (85 F to 105 F), add 2 Tbsp sugar or honey, stir to dissolve. Add 1 teaspoon of lees from a previous batch, stir, cover with a towel, and let set up to 24 hours or until it foams up well. Then add to the new batch.

This allows you to stretch a package of yeast. While a lot of folks don't like this solution, when good yeast is not easily available, it works.

Dude

I am so delighted that you found a local store in India for me. cheers.

these are the WINE INGREDIENTS i short listed to get from US 1 LB of each
Wine Yeast : Lalvin EC 1118
Fermax Yeast Nutrient
Pectinase enzyme
Acid Blend
Wine Tannin
Bentonite powder
Easy clean
American Oak powder
French Oak Powder.

Potassium sorbate, Potassium metabisulphite, Malic/tartaric/citric acids are cheaply available locally

To my surprise US is working out to be cheaper. Is yeast EC-1118 adaptable for Indian climate and are they correct yeast for making wine out of store bought tetra pack juice (Grape, apple, cranberry, orange, mixed fruit) as first want to perfect myself by making wine with ready juices . Also have i missed any other ingredients/additives

 

[G259]

EC-1118 is workhorse yeast, and will quickly ferment your juice. You can boil your bread yeast, and after it cools, it will become nutrient to the wine yeast. Later, you can use different yeasts, that will enhance different aspects of your wine, depending on the fruit used. One question: Are you using 100% juice, with no preservatives? If so, good. If not, you will have a tough time. Look for potassium sorbate in the ingredients.

edit: I didn't see the ingredients list, all good!

Note: This will not be a world class wine, but it will be wine, and will benefit from some aging, say 6-9 months.
Start another one NOW, then it might make it to 6 months!

 

[winemaker81]

I concur with @G259, EC-1118 is THE go-to yeast for a lot of things. It's high potency, it's dominant (will smother most other yeasts, especially wild yeasts), and produces good flavors in anything you ferment with it. Is it the best yeast for every batch? Nope, but if I had to pick *1* yeast to use, it's what I would pick.

@Bharat Amarnan, If you can, ferment the wine in an area where the temperature is in the 65 to 80 F / 18 to 27 C range. You'll get better flavors and smells. However, EC-1118 will ferment at higher temperatures so it will work.

I suggest you update your profile to add your state & country to the Location field. I go as far as adding the nearest large city, but it's not necessary. Sometimes geography plays a role in the help you get, especially for growing fruit, so having your rough location visible answers that question up front.

While most of our membership appears to reside in the USA and Canada, we have members from all over the world. In addition to wine making, I learn geography, climate, education availability, and more.