Fermentation premature question ? help

kazoo20 · Mar 19, 2011

Hello, I am trying to make my first batch of wine. It is a fruit wine Red Zinfandel. The instructions said upon my first reading my SG should been between 1.055-1.065, mine was 1.056. Temp states around 77 deg. is best mine has been 79 or 80. Instructions say after 5 days take gravity test, if its between 1.020-1.000 rack to secondary carboy. I took 3 readings and got 0.992 twice and 0.996 once. Its not suppose to be that until stage 3 when the wine is done. My question is what does this all mean really ? I followed all instructions and my temperature did not fluctuate its been constant. Why would my fermentation be going faster then usual ? Whats this mean for my wine now ?? I racked it to my 2nd carboy now, I sure hope this don't mean my wine is ruined. The gravity of my wine right now after 5 days is what its suppose to be in the end when its done. Im confused here, help ?

winemaker_3352 · Mar 19, 2011

Welcome aboard!!!

You will be fine - depending on a lot of things - wines can finish fermenting at different rates.

Warmer temps - faster fermentations. Some yeasts are more vigorous as well.

At .992 your fermentation is complete. If you are planning on sweetening be sure to add k-meta and sorbate in. If not sweetening - k-meta will be fine.

Be sure to keep the SO2 levels up during bulk aging.

Luc · Mar 20, 2011

Wine is a living creature so sometimes they are happy in their environment (the must) and fermentation is a lot faster as on other times. A lot of things that influence that and therefore mostly not completely manageable by us mere humans.

So if the wine is between .990 and .995 it is indeed finished and has done that earlier as predicted. No worries.

I once had an apple wine finishing within 4 days !!!

What is bothering me though is the statement that the first SG reading was at 1.056. That is low and shall gain only about 6.8% alcohol.

I hope the initial alcohol was higher or that you had to aad sugar or something like that. Or maybe that you were supposed to do the first measuring when fermentation already was on its way.

Luc

Wade E · Mar 20, 2011

This most likely is a Mist style kit in which these kits have low abv's and are made to be drunk early. They typically do finish fermenting early due to the low starting gravity as these instructions are pretty generic and are used for all their kits with little modifications and most have higher starting gravities. That being said even the kits with higher starting gravities usually finish fermenting earlier then stated, they state it like this because more people would be concerned if their fermentation took longer then stated then shorter and the phone would be ringing off the hook!

wvbrewer · Mar 20, 2011

I don'nt see any problems. Those kits are designed to be fool proff as long as you follow the directions. You did ferment a little warmer then what was called for, so it will finnish a little early. Go ahead and follow the remaining instructions for your kit. I am sure it will turn out fine.