Cranberry wine wont ferment

[jkrug]

I threw my yeast 2 nights ago and still no action. SG is 1.100. Any thoughts on what i can do to JumpStart this? See my recipe below.


6 lbs / 900 grams cranberries (fresh or frozen)
1 lb / 450 grams raisins
3 lbs / 1,350 grams granulated sugar (about 6 3/4 cups)
1/4 teaspoon pectic enzyme
1 1/4 teaspoon acid blend
Wine yeast - used Red Star Pasteur Red
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient / energiser
1 campden tablet
8 pints / 1 gallon cooled, boiled water


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[BernardSmith]

Were the cranberries treated with any preservatives? What is the temperature of your "winery"? How old is the yeast? Under what conditions was it stored?
Not sure I understand your recipe - 6lbs of anything is not 900 gms But no matter. Were the cranberries frozen or fresh? What was the temperature of the water when you added (pitched) the yeast? Did you rehydrate the yeast or simply pitch it? And then my last question: are you certain you added nutrient and not, say, sorbate

 

[jensmith]

Way to many cranberries per galleon. No acid needed. So now the must is a supper acid mix no yeast will like. Campton should be added 24h before the yeast. Did you add at the same time?
To fix this add another galleon of water. More peptic enzyme, suger, and nutriant to match what you already added. ( you are doubeling the recipie to match your double the cranberries you have already added) Do not add any acid blend!!!! You may need to make this a three galleon batch to dilute the acid down to fermentable and drinkable proportions. Apple juice can be used in place of water. ( pure juice, no preservatives!) testing for acid amounts would be helpfull. If it does not start up in two days time repitch your yeast. You can repitch now if you want to, but I would wait.
Cranberries are stuborn about fermenting, prone to stuck ferments, and are very slow to ferment. But very worth the hassel!! Usually 3-4 pounds per galleon is all that is needed for a fully flavored wine.
Good luck with the waiting and wine

 

[jkrug]

No preservatives were mentioned on pkg. Temp is about 62. Yeast is about 6 mos to a yr. Sitting out not fridge. I froze them. I pitched it. Didn't take temp of water. I would say room temperature. Thanks for the response.

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[jamesngalveston]

62 is a little cold for pasteur red, works best around 75, imo.
get the must temp up, and then pitch yeast again when it gets warmer.

 

[FTC Wines]

I totally agree with the above posts. Just transferred my cranberry wine into carboy @ SG 1.008. Started at 1.124, a little/lot high so it cut it with 100% cranberry juice to bring it down to 1.100, still a little high so I topped off when racking into secondary. It took 12 days in primary at71* so I would move yours to a warmer place say 71/74* after diluting as mentioned above. I used only 2 - 12 oz bags of cranberries, washed well and aprox 75 oz of 100% cranberry juice( ocean spray) per gal. Yeast was ec1118,Roy

 

[jkrug]

I don't have anymore pasture red, would it make a difference if I pitched a strain of lavlin? Would you it need a higher temp to get started?

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[Deezil]

Cranberries naturally contain a form of benzoate, a preservative / fermentation-inhibitor.

Warm it up, and stir it until your arm falls off and your covered in must (but keep more in the bucket than on you) - you really wanna whip that up, to froth almost..

It could still get going with the yeast you've already added..

You may want to add 1-2 quarts of water though too, to drop the SG some and to make sure that after fermentation, when you clear the wine and rack off the sediment, that you still have a whole-gallon left.

 

[derunner]

How much wine is 6lbs of cranberries going to make? I ask because I also have 6 lbs of cranberries in the freezer and need to figure out what to do with them?

 

[Deezil]

Good for 1.5 gallons starting, to finish with a gallon when cleared

 

[jkrug]

Thanks for everyones input and help on this. Used a little bit of each persons advice it seemed like. Increased the batch from 3 gals to 5, added all chems again minus acid, made a yeast starter, moved the bucket upstairs to a warmer climate(wife was not thrilled). Looked it may have been going last night but didn't wanna jink it and did not take a reading. Got up this morn saw even more action took a reading and it fell from 1.085 to 1.060. Thanks again for all the help. Could not have done it w/o WMT advice.

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[jensmith]

Glads its working now! Thats my favarite method of advise taking. Bits form several people
Enjoy!

 

[will.kvc]

Were the cranberries treated with any preservatives? What is the temperature of your "winery"? How old is the yeast? Under what conditions was it stored?
Not sure I understand your recipe - 6lbs of anything is not 900 gms But no matter. Were the cranberries frozen or fresh? What was the temperature of the water when you added (pitched) the yeast? Did you rehydrate the yeast or simply pitch it? And then my last question: are you certain you added nutrient and not, say, sorbate

 

[Rice_Guy]

Calculations on how to formulate cranberry

How much wine is 6lbs of cranberries going to make? I ask because I also have 6 lbs of cranberries in the freezer and need to figure out what to do.

* Starting berry; example juice TA 2.7%/ pH 3.2 or whole berry TA 2.5% weight/ pH 3.2.
* therefore a pound bag has 11.3 gm acid or a pint has 12.3 gm. You want 23 to 33 grams TA per 4 liter (gallon) which means two pounds gets you in the range of what makes a normal flavor gallon of wine.

* what flavors do you Like besides cranberry? @jkrug put in raisins. Or my version this year “Squash/cranberry/orange concentrate “ The squash provides neutral body, with low TA and high pH. Orange rounds out identified aroma notes and provided 2.2% TA and 4.3 pH
* I try blends/ ratios in a pie first, since I don’t want to tie up a carboy for a year