First batch going strong

[CSIJon]

Hello all, I am a few days into my first batch of real fruit wine. I used about 40#s of muscadines. The recipe advised reacing a SG of 1.090 or higher. My starting SG was 1.030. Based on winecalc, I added a gallon of water and 10#s of sugar and bringing my SG up to 1.10. On Monday 9/6 I added the yeast. I used RC-212. As of yesterday afternoon the yeast was going strong. I have stirred gently for the past two days. Today the must is bubbling nice. I have a few pics I will upload later. I will keep things updated.

 

[winemaker_3352]

What was the acid reading after adding a gallon of water?

 

[CSIJon]

It was a little lower than I wanted. It was .4. Is that going to be too low?

 

[winemaker_3352]

Yeah - does this make a white wine - if so - you probably want it to be between .70 - .75.

You can wait until after ferm and adjust then.

 

[CSIJon]

Ok really good to know. Would I do it the same way, and which acid would you recommend. Do I wait until it is completly done and stabilized?

 

[winemaker_3352]

You could use an acid blend which gives you 3 tartaric, malic, and citric. Read the blends though - every place is different on how the blend it.

Or you could blend your own - buy each acid and do:

3 parts - Tartaric
2 parts - Malic
1 parts - Citric

I.E

1 Teaspoon equals:
1/2 tsp Tartaric
3/8 tsp Malic
1/8 tsp Citric

 

[CSIJon]

Do I have to wait until the end of fermentation, as in stabilized and clearing?

 

[winemaker_3352]

Do I have to wait until the end of fermentation, as in stabilized and clearing?

Sorry - i forgot to address that

I am not sure if it matters - as i don't think the acid will kick off more fermentation. But since fermentation has already started - i would wait until you stabilized it - then do an acid reading and adjust then do clearing agent after.

 

[robie]

Just make sure after adding acid that you wait at least a month to bottle it.
It give it time to settle in.

 

[JasonH]

I've added acid during fermentation without any problems in the past, but there may be a good reason for avoiding it that I'm not aware of.

 

[CSIJon]

On day 7 the SG had dropped to 1.028 so I racked into glass carboy. Im sure this might be a typical question, but once racked, the wine level came to about an inch below the shoulder. Once fermentation is complete I need to top up. Does anyone have any suggestions for topping up Muscadine wine. I done have any additional juice, but I can go get some more. Would it be safe to top off with just plain juice or would I need to do something with it first?

 

[CSIJon]

So I believe I have a six gallon carboy with about 5 gallons of wine in it. I may go buy a three and split it up between that and a couple one gallons. I did read that some people are topping up with regular store bought grape juice, but would it be ok to top up with more muscadine juice from freshly pressed grapes.

 

[winemaker_3352]

You could go with a 3 gallon - and 2 - 1 gallon jugs - that way you can just top up with the muscadine wine.

 

[CSIJon]

I dont really know how easy it will be to find some muscadine wine. I will probably go with the smaller carboys. Will it be ok to top up with just freshly pressed muscadine juice?

 

[winemaker_3352]

I dont really know how easy it will be to find some muscadine wine. I will probably go with the smaller carboys. Will it be ok to top up with just freshly pressed muscadine juice?

Hmm - probably but you will need to measure SG and acidity again - as a gallon of that might affect your numbers.

 

[CSIJon]

Here's a little update. So its still bubbling away about every ten - twenty seconds. I checked the SG today and it is down to 1.020. I left a little wine in the test tube to sample, and...it was better than I thought. Yeah it still needs to settle, its still a little fizzy and needs to smooth out, but the flavor was really good. I actually drank the rest of the sample I left . I got me really excited. Now I can see how some many of you guys might have a hard time letting a bottle age for a while. Did I say I was really pleased with the flavor. I still need to bring up the acid level and will do that after done fermenting.