First attempt at wine

[CowboyRam]

I started my very first wine Tuesday;1 gallon of orange wine( little cutie oranges). This afternoon I added the yeast; now I just sprinkled the yeast in fermenter. Then tonight I read the yeast packet and it said to dissolve in a 1/4 cup of water. Am I going to have any problems?

The recipe that I am using said to rack to the secondary once the S.G. gets to 1.040. From everything I have read to rack once S.G. gets to 1.000 or lower. So when should I rack to secondary?

 

[vernsgal]

Hi cowboy I like your "don't squat..." made me laugh.
Sprinkling the yeast on top is fine. Make sure tomorrow and thereafter to give it a good stir.

I prefer to rack when it gets below 1.000. I rack earlier if it's a slow ferment (well over a week)

 

[CowboyRam]

Ok thanks, will do.

 

[CowboyRam]

Ok, my Orange wine in down to a SG of 1.025. I think that I am going to rack to the secondary tomorrow. Should I be adding anything at this time? Should I also check the SG everyday? How long until I rack again?

 

[vernsgal]

Cowboy you could rack now but I would wait until it goes below 1.000. If you rack now at 1.025 there's nothing you need to add, it's still fermenting.

 

[BernardSmith]

Don't be afraid to taste your wine. Not sure if everyone on this forum will agree with me but tasting your wine at all different points in the process is a great way to learn more about the processes themselves not from the science side but the art side of wine making. Certainly, there is nothing bad or horrible you will taste at any point in the process and no "risk" to your health.
If you have a baster that you could sanitize you can use that to draw out a small amount to taste. You might find that this wine will be far more bitter than you expect - remember that you are fermenting all the sugar and so you are going to be left with all citric acid that now will be unbalanced against the sweetness you may expect from an orange. I obviously don't know anything about the recipe you are using and that might suggest that after it has finished fermenting and cleared that you stabilize it and add some more sweetness to it or it may suggest that you reduce the acidity by adding a chemical "base" (potassium carbonate, perhaps). If you have pH papers you might try to see if you can determine the pH level or if you have a pH meter you can check that way... but your tongue and taste-buds will tell you if the orange wine is pleasantly acidic or too acidic.

 

[vernsgal]

I totally agree with Bernard. Taste it. the best reason I also know for tasting your wine is that when it reaches a level(SG) that you like the taste of, you have an idea of where to backsweeten to. ( if you don't like dry wines)

 

[CowboyRam]

So far at this point it fairly sweet. I may of added a little too much sugar for the sweetness of the little cutie oranges. You can really taste the oranges, almost a tangy taste. I had a starting SG of 1.110

4 lbs. of oranges
6 pts. water
6 cups sugar
1 tsp. yeast nutrient
1 crushed campden tablet
1/4 tsp tannin
1 packet Red Star Montrachet Yeast

 

[PAFruitWines]

I'm on my first batch too CR. 1 gal orange pineapple. Just racked to 1 gal jug at 1.012 and I don't think I will get an airlock on tonight. Still bubbling pretty heavy. Maybe it will settle in a couple hours?

 

[PAFruitWines]

Don't mean to hijack

 

[CowboyRam]

My recipe said to rack at SG of 1.04. I will check the SG tomorrow again; at the rate it has been dropping it will probably be at 1.00 by tomorrow afternoon.

 

[PAFruitWines]

My recipe said the same thing. Advice here was to wait till 1.01 or lower. Didn't look that active in the bucket but very active in a bottle.

 

[RCGoodin]

Here's my 2 cents from what I've observed reading reviews over the last two years.

If you're at the end of the primary fermentation, but you're not sure, you should take an sg reading everyday. Once the sg has remained the same for 3 days, it is usually done fermenting and then you rack to a secondary vessel. I mainly do kit wines and they always say the sg should be below 1.000, but your instructions may want it higher.

The 24 gallons of white that I'm currently working are all at .996-.998. I just cleared them. I will rack again and then add my extras that I want out of the wine.

Good luck and welcome to this forum. There are plenty of experts here that will help you.

 

[vernsgal]

Don't mean to hijack

no worries.This is why I suggest waiting til ferment is at least below 1.000. If it's really going just drop a towel over carboy and forget the bung for now

 

[Stressbaby]

So far at this point it fairly sweet. I may of added a little too much sugar for the sweetness of the little cutie oranges. You can really taste the oranges, almost a tangy taste. I had a starting SG of 1.110

4 lbs. of oranges
6 pts. water
6 cups sugar
1 tsp. yeast nutrient
1 crushed campden tablet
1/4 tsp tannin
1 packet Red Star Montrachet Yeast

Cowboy,
Do you have any way of checking the pH? My experience is that cuties (clementines) are deceptively low on acid. They have less acid than typical oranges. So my concern would not be that you will have to reduce the acid, but rather that you may want to add some acid to this wine.

 

[CowboyRam]

No I don't have any way to test the pH at this time.

 

[BernardSmith]

Cowboy,
Do you have any way of checking the pH? My experience is that cuties (clementines) are deceptively low on acid. They have less acid than typical oranges. So my concern would not be that you will have to reduce the acid, but rather that you may want to add some acid to this wine.

Wow! I have never heard of clementines being called "cuties" or oranges. They may indeed be far less acidic than regular oranges. I read the word "orange" and remembered how tart my orange wine was.

 

[BernardSmith]

So far at this point it fairly sweet. I may of added a little too much sugar for the sweetness of the little cutie oranges. You can really taste the oranges, almost a tangy taste. I had a starting SG of 1.110

4 lbs. of oranges
6 pts. water
6 cups sugar
1 tsp. yeast nutrient
1 crushed campden tablet
1/4 tsp tannin
1 packet Red Star Montrachet Yeast

The amount of sugar in the must before you add the yeast will not have any impact on the sweetness of your wine assuming the yeast can tolerate the level of alcohol that amount of sugar will produce. In other words, your must (the liquid before it ferments and becomes wine)contained about 3 lbs of fermentable sugar. Your yeast is going to convert all that sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide. When the fermentation has ceased there will be no sugar left. No sugar left means that the wine will not be sweet.

Of course if the yeast could not tolerate that quantity of alcohol in the gallon and it stopped fermenting because it was too stressed by the amount of alcohol then your wine would still have some sugar and it would taste sweeter because of the sugars remaining, but I think most wine makers typically don't use the limits of the tolerance of the yeast to determine the sweetness of their wines. They ferment the wine dry and then sweeten the wine - a process that IMO gives you far more control over the finished product than leaving to luck and probability the actual tolerance of this or that batch of yeast.

 

[CowboyRam]

I can still see bubbles, so I guess it is still fermenting. The SG is at 1.008 today.

 

[CowboyRam]

I checked the SG today and it is at .990. The alcohol smell is very strong; if I understand the formula for calculating alcohol content I calculate it at 21%. I don't think this is going to be drinkable. Should I pour this down the drain and start over?