hello from Indonesia

[PadmaKidul]

Hi,
We are knew to wine making and have started off with a trying to make a simple jackfruit wine. We don't have access to all the various tablets and gadgets that are sold on lots of wine making websites. We do have quality yeast and camden tablets, and airlocks.
Our first batch of wine started off great, primary fermentation seemed to be going well, after a week we removed the pulp (I'm worried we stirred it up too much) and transferred the juice into a big bottle jug and put on the airlock. Bubbling is slow. What should bubbling be like? I imagined lots of bubbles. We have no instrument to check anything.
It did ferment for a week in the plastic bucket, with us stirring every day.
Now its been 2 weeks in the glass with airlock. Is fermentation done?
It's still real cloudy.
Not sure what to do?
Thanks for any tips or comments. We will certainly try again. Still lots of yeast and camden tablets, and even more initiative.

 

[Julie]

Hi PadmaKidul

Welcome to winemaking talk. You should see if you can get a hydrometer, this piece of equipment it very essential to wine making. I'm not sure on how to check fermentation without a hydrometer, hopefully someone else will pitch in. I would probably watch to see if there is any bubbling going on. There is a good chance that fermentation is completed. If you cannot get a hydrometer, winemaking is going to be very difficult for you.

Hopefully someone else can give you some better help.

 

[Redtrk]

Hello and welcome. There are many here who will help you along.

 

[Runningwolf]

Welcome to the forum. Like Julie said winemaking is going to be difficult without a hydrometer. Not that it is impossible though as some people do it succesfully like they did it in the old days.

 

[winemaker_3352]

Welcome aboard!!!

 

[Goodfella]

Welcome to the forum

 

[abefroman]

Hi,
We are knew to wine making and have started off with a trying to make a simple jackfruit wine. We don't have access to all the various tablets and gadgets that are sold on lots of wine making websites. We do have quality yeast and camden tablets, and airlocks.
Our first batch of wine started off great, primary fermentation seemed to be going well, after a week we removed the pulp (I'm worried we stirred it up too much) and transferred the juice into a big bottle jug and put on the airlock. Bubbling is slow. What should bubbling be like? I imagined lots of bubbles. We have no instrument to check anything.
It did ferment for a week in the plastic bucket, with us stirring every day.
Now its been 2 weeks in the glass with airlock. Is fermentation done?
It's still real cloudy.
Not sure what to do?
Thanks for any tips or comments. We will certainly try again. Still lots of yeast and camden tablets, and even more initiative.

Welcome!!

Bubbling slow is ok. If the bubbles have stopped/almost stopped, then it should be done.

Do you have sorbate? And do you plan to back sweeten it or add a Flavor pac?

As far as the cloudyness, that will usually go away on its own as the wine clears.

Transfer it to another glass jug using a tube/siphon (don't pour it), or if you only have one jug, use a tube to put it back in the primary, and then clean your jug and use the tube to put it back in your jug.

HTH

 

[PadmaKidul]

So happy to have found this forum...

Well, we're doing it like they did in the old days, cause there's no hydrometer in these parts. Also don't know what sorbate is (sounds like a preservative) and if we could get some?
I've heard back sweeten mentioned and don't know what that is? Thinking it means to add more sugar that will not be turned into alcohol by the yeast?
Should we add camden tablets after we siphon it? When would we add more sugar? How long do we leave it in the glass jug for this time? Is that also with the airlock? When do we bottle it?

Sorry so many questions.

We also make hard cider using apple juice, sugar, yeast and Oztops... thinking what we have so far is like that. We drink the cider after 10 days to 2 weeks. This jackfruit brew we want to smoothen with age.

 

[Julie]

Are you looking to make a sweet wine? Sorbate is used when you make a sweet wine, once the wine has finished fermentation you add sulfite (camden tablet) and sorbate. The sorbate prevents any yeast from mulitplying.

Well since you don't have a hydrometer, leave the wine sit for about a month from the time you started, then rack and add the camden tablet, degass at this point. I would probably just check to see when it needed racking, I would rack every month as needed and add a camden tablet every third month.

 

[Minnesotamaker]

Welcome, and it sounds like you're well on your way to being a great wine maker. I'll try to answer some of your questions.

Back sweeten: this term usually means that sugar (or other sweetener like honey) is used to flavor the wine after it is done fermenting. One caution, adding sugar to wine that hasn't been stabiized can cause the yeast to become active again which will convert the new sugar into alcohol.

Sorbate: Shortened name for what most home winemakers use [Potassium Sorbate]. The sorbate stops yeast for reproducing. It does not kill yeast. When sorbate is added, any yeast in the solution will be the last generation of yeast. They will live out their normal life cycle without reproducing and fermentation ceases. Sugar can now be added as there will be no yeast to consume the sugar.

If you'd like to sweeten your wine but you don't have any sorbate, you can do a several things.
1) you can make a very high alcohol wine; a wine where the alcohol level goes so high that yeast can no longer survive in it. This is usually somewhere between 14-21% alcohol depending on what yeast you're using. This can sometimes take a long time as the last surviving yeast that are the strongest continue on very slowly due to the difficult environment.
2) you can sterile filter using equipment capable of this; most home winemakers don't have this capability although some commercial wineries go this route
3) you can refrigerate. If you add sugar to the finished wine and then keep it cold, the yeast will not reactivate. This option might work if you plan to consume the wine in a short period of time, but long term storage can be a problem.
4) you can add sweetening at the time of consumption. You can pour a glass and then sweeten to the desired level.

As for campden, the rule of thumb is to add one campden tablet per gallon at every other racking.

You normally will leave your wine in the jug with the airlock until it has cleared. You then can rack the clear wine off the sediment and bottle it.