I bought one of those heat belts and just having a heck of time keeping a good temp. I checked it yesterday and it was 80. Any suggestions on using the heat belt. It gets it too warm. I had thougth about a yeast Nutrient. I might try that.
WineXpert Chocolate Rasberry Port
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What are the temps in the room and what stge of fermentation are you at? When the fermentation starts to get going good it will create its own heat sometimes raising the temp on the must by itself alone by around 5-6 degrees. I typically only use my brew belt at the very beginning and the very end to make sure it gets going well and finishes to dryness. During the middle I usually shut it off. Another trick is to lower the belt on the carboy or bucket very low and this seems to cool things down a bit and if in very cold temps raise it up towards the top of the wine as its only really heating the very top of the wine so will heat it more. Another trick is to stick shims around the carboy like wooden dowels to keep the belt a little further away from the carboy or bucket.
wines just fine
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The fall 2009 batch is in!
I got a call a couple of days ago saying I could pick up my order.
I hope to get this one started soon.
I got a call a couple of days ago saying I could pick up my order.
I hope to get this one started soon.
Well stuck again. Need to stabilize. Only 1.035 and needs to be 1.020 or less. I am heating it up again. Should I stir it too? We tried it last night. It taste ok but it is getting a little bubbly. Leaving a little tingle on your tongue????
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I would check the sg a few days in a row to see if ittruly has stopped fermenting and if it has then degas. In my opinion the best tool is the drill mounted stirrer. In addiyion to that I always followed that by vacuum pump which was a handheld Mity Vac designed to pull air out of brake systems. I now have an electric version of this. You can do it just with the drill mounted stirrer but you will Hvae to take your time. Others use a big spoon but I never found this to work to well and most new winemakers end up bottling their wine with excess C02 this way.
I just pitched the yeasr today on my kit.....From reading the posts, it seems a lot of people have issues with the Ferm. possibly getting stuck after the chaptalisation step....Wade, you recomended maybe adding it in smaller doses, and before the 1.015 SG.....Anyway you could expand on this, as it makes sence that doing this would not stress the yeast.....
Maybe split into halfs, or even thirds, and add sooner than 1.015???
Ideas....
I would like mine to end up drier if possible....
Maybe split into halfs, or even thirds, and add sooner than 1.015???
Ideas....
I would like mine to end up drier if possible....
St Allie
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You could try thirds.. mine stalled after moving to secondary.. If I did it again.. I'd increment the sugar in smaller additions and also let it ferment out completely in the primary.
good luck and keep updating us.. it would be great to finally have one of these kits ferment out properly.
Allie
good luck and keep updating us.. it would be great to finally have one of these kits ferment out properly.
Allie
Id probably try finishing in primary or stirring the entire batch up really good and then rack to carboy, this way would give you the protection you need and rack all over so that you wouldnt be leaving viable yeast behind. If I were to do this kit again I would do 1/3rds with the cap. and start adding pretty shrtly after it got going really good.
wines just fine
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I'm wondering if they did some tweeking on this kit.
I got one of this year's kits and so far everything is going just the way they say it should.
I got one of this year's kits and so far everything is going just the way they say it should.
Good point....I'm just wondering, what is the reason for letting it ferment down, then adding the extra sugar......Just less steps....What I'm getting at, is there anything wrong with adding it in thirds during the active fermentation, besides more work for myself???
Seems like it couldn't hurt.....
Seems like it couldn't hurt.....
St Allie
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it's called 'chapitalisation' when you add extra sugar later in the fermentation.. and the purpose is to push the yeast gently into making a higher abv finished wine.. in this case it's a 'port' wine.. so a higher finished abv is the aim. Tom mentions the f'pac which also comes with the kit and is added after fermentation is complete.. sorry if we were unclear on that point..
Allie
Here is a post from Tim Vandergrift who is the Technical Supervisor from W.E. about this kit.
"Keys to getting a port kit to ferment down all the way are 1) Temperature and 2) stirring.
While the instructions say '65-75F', we have to put that big a spread in to cover off everyone's situation. If we make the spec tighter, we get an awful lot of calls about people who just can't keep their house or even their fermentation area at a more specific temperature.
But the fact of the matter is, if you ensure that the port kit is 75F or even slightly warmer (not as high as 80, though) before you pitch the yeast to it, it will have a much more vigorous start than a kit pitched any cooler, and the vigour of a fermentation at the start is a very good indicator of the thoroughness it will display at the end.
For some folks this means putting the kit on a heat register, wrapping a brew-belt around the box before use, or even immersing the bag in a sink of hot water. However you manage it, it makes a big difference.
Stirring is another key. Yeast has a multi-stage life cycle. The growth, or anabolic phase relies on each individual yeast cell making enough fatty acid esters to bud off daughter cells. They can do this through one of two paths. First, they can use YAN (yeast available nitrogen) to sythesize FAE's and we boost the nutrient levels of YAN as much as we can without altering the flavour profile of the kits (nitrogen tastes bitter-salty).
Second, they can uptake oxygen to make it through another chemical path. If you stir you kit very, very hard--hard enough to whip air into it and oxygenate it--the incorporated air will boost yeast anabolism and speed fermentation towards completion.
That's all well and good for the future, but if you're stuck now, you have bunch of options. First, get your temperature up to 75F. In your post you mention having the belt on, but double-check the actual temperature. Most heat belts will drive a 6-US gallon carboy to 72F, but some are not as hot as others . . .
Second, give the port a very hard stir with a drill-mounted whip. Bring all of the yeast up off of the bottom and stir hard enough to get some air into it. Don't be shy, punish it, and keep it coming for at least two minutes.
Take a gravity reading after warming/stirring, and another one three days later. This should do the job, but if it doesn't you still have options. A starter won't work, because the alcohol content is far too high--any starter you try will simply die when you toss it in. Much better is to take another wine (a 6-gallon kit, any kind, as long as it doesn't have oak or elderflowers in it, and it uses the same kind of yeast that was in the port), get it going at 75F and lots of stirring, and when you rack it on day 5-7 from the primary, leave the yeast behind, and rack your port on top of the yeast bed.
The yeast will be fully conditioned to alcohol, and very hungry. That should knock it down within a few days, as long as it's all warm and gets a good stir.
If you have any questions, go ahead and shoot them through to tim (at) winexpert (dot) com, and we'll be happy to sort them out. The Cocolate Raspberry Port is a fabulous kit, and it gets even better with age. I know you'll enjoy it."
"Keys to getting a port kit to ferment down all the way are 1) Temperature and 2) stirring.
While the instructions say '65-75F', we have to put that big a spread in to cover off everyone's situation. If we make the spec tighter, we get an awful lot of calls about people who just can't keep their house or even their fermentation area at a more specific temperature.
But the fact of the matter is, if you ensure that the port kit is 75F or even slightly warmer (not as high as 80, though) before you pitch the yeast to it, it will have a much more vigorous start than a kit pitched any cooler, and the vigour of a fermentation at the start is a very good indicator of the thoroughness it will display at the end.
For some folks this means putting the kit on a heat register, wrapping a brew-belt around the box before use, or even immersing the bag in a sink of hot water. However you manage it, it makes a big difference.
Stirring is another key. Yeast has a multi-stage life cycle. The growth, or anabolic phase relies on each individual yeast cell making enough fatty acid esters to bud off daughter cells. They can do this through one of two paths. First, they can use YAN (yeast available nitrogen) to sythesize FAE's and we boost the nutrient levels of YAN as much as we can without altering the flavour profile of the kits (nitrogen tastes bitter-salty).
Second, they can uptake oxygen to make it through another chemical path. If you stir you kit very, very hard--hard enough to whip air into it and oxygenate it--the incorporated air will boost yeast anabolism and speed fermentation towards completion.
That's all well and good for the future, but if you're stuck now, you have bunch of options. First, get your temperature up to 75F. In your post you mention having the belt on, but double-check the actual temperature. Most heat belts will drive a 6-US gallon carboy to 72F, but some are not as hot as others . . .
Second, give the port a very hard stir with a drill-mounted whip. Bring all of the yeast up off of the bottom and stir hard enough to get some air into it. Don't be shy, punish it, and keep it coming for at least two minutes.
Take a gravity reading after warming/stirring, and another one three days later. This should do the job, but if it doesn't you still have options. A starter won't work, because the alcohol content is far too high--any starter you try will simply die when you toss it in. Much better is to take another wine (a 6-gallon kit, any kind, as long as it doesn't have oak or elderflowers in it, and it uses the same kind of yeast that was in the port), get it going at 75F and lots of stirring, and when you rack it on day 5-7 from the primary, leave the yeast behind, and rack your port on top of the yeast bed.
The yeast will be fully conditioned to alcohol, and very hungry. That should knock it down within a few days, as long as it's all warm and gets a good stir.
If you have any questions, go ahead and shoot them through to tim (at) winexpert (dot) com, and we'll be happy to sort them out. The Cocolate Raspberry Port is a fabulous kit, and it gets even better with age. I know you'll enjoy it."
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