adding sugar

[pr8girl]

Hi, we just opened our elderberry wine buckets after 2 weeks and it tastes dry and like vinegar, can we add more sugar and close it back up? I don't want to throw it out. thank you

 

[TB1]

Sounds like it's ready to transfer to a carboy and fit it with an airlock. Stabilizing and back sweetening will be a few months down the road after it has cleared right before you get ready to bottle.

 

[Tom]

Some people who dont drink wine confuse the alcohol to a vinegar taste. Dont be so fast to toss. Whats the starting gravity and what is it now. If fermented it should be dry. If thats the case then rack and add finnings. Later you will need to add simple syrup for sweetness.

 

[pr8girl]

This is our first so I should have said it has had an airlock for the 2 weeks, but we are transfering to carboys, and tasted it on the way, that's when we noticed the vinegar taste.

 

[cpfan]

Your wine is dry because the yeast has eaten all the sugar. Addi9ng more sugar will feed the yeast, and you will have a dry wine with higher alcohol. Keep doing it until the alcohol kills the yeast and then you'll have a sweey, very-high alcohol wine.

You need to learn the proper steps of wine-making. TB1 mentions stabilizing and sweetening. Stabilizing is the addition of potassium meta-bisulfite and potassium sorbate to a finishe dferment to prevent further fermentation. Sweetening is the addition of sugar to a stabilized wine to (you guessed it) sweeten the wine.

I would do those steps before adding the finings that Tom mentioned, which will help to clear the wine nicely.

Steve

 

[Tom]

I meant K-meta and sorbate not clearing agents. hic hic LOL !

 

[Manimal]

My concern here is that you refer to a "vinegar" taste. Are you describing it that way just because the acidity is pronounced, or does it actually have an acetic acid smell/flavour? If the wine is just too tart, you could definitely stabilize, clarify and sweeten to taste. However, if it actually tastes and smells like vinegar or nail polish remover, you probably have a high level of volatile acidity (acetic acid) which can be caused by oxidation or various spoilage yeasts/bacteria. Depending on temperature and other fermentation conditions, two weeks is plenty of time for the wine quickly ferment to dryness and possibly oxidize or fall prey to bacterial spoilage after sitting untopped and unstabilized for the remainder of the time. If that is the case, there isn't much that you can do about it.

 

[Becks the Elder]

Being a novice myself I may be way off but I was under the impression that wine must in the primary requires that it be regularly aerated. If the ingredients were added to the bucket and the lid and airlock added but oxygen was not regularly introduced would this not have had a detrimental effect on the batch?

Beyond this what was the recipe for the batch?

 

[bob1]

Lots of different thoughts on that some say you need lots of stiring some say not to much. I stick with twice a day punching cap. This is not really stiring but just pushing fruit down into must. After 1.040 fruit is removed and no more stiring as you are starting to get close to the danger zone for oxzidization. If you do a strickily juice ferment I stir lightly first 2 days and then stop. Someone will most likley disagree with this and say not to stir at all.

 

[smurfe]

Draw out a sample of the wine and add a little table sugar to it and give it a taste. If it taste better it is just the dryness. If it still has a vinegar taste there might be an issue. Remember to that young wine taste pretty raw and funky, particularly an Elderberry. It can taste very tannic which will give you a pucker sensation like vinegar.

 

[non-grapenut]

Being a novice myself I may be way off but I was under the impression that wine must in the primary requires that it be regularly aerated. If the ingredients were added to the bucket and the lid and airlock added but oxygen was not regularly introduced would this not have had a detrimental effect on the batch?

Beyond this what was the recipe for the batch?

More air just means faster fermentation, that's all.

 

[Becks the Elder]

I See... Thanks for that. I stand corrected.