Hello from Pennsylvania

[dannyb]

I new to the forum.
I have been making wine for several years but not with any sophistication. I haven't done measurements on a routine basis and because of that I find myself in a situation for which I am seeking advise/remedy/your thoughts.

I made juice from grapes and I do not see signs of fermentation, no CO2 air bubbles. It is 2 weeks since I pressed the must into juice. The grapes had been crushed into must and sat for 2 weeks before I pressed.
While in the must stage, the cap was not as big or dried out as I've seen in earlier years. I tended to the cap on a daily basis.
I measured the specific gravity of the juice and it is 1.00 (BAL 0). I did not do this when I should have, right after crushing.
The juice is somewhat sweet but does not have the alcohol taste.
So, it looks like fermentation has already happened because of the specific gravity reading although I did not see it happening. Regardless, it is too soon for fermentation to be done.

 

[djrockinsteve]

First welcome to the forum. You said fermentation has finished yet you have no alcohol taste. Not knowing a gravity per ferm. would have helped. Does it smell odd?

Fermentation can be slow but without more details it's shooting in the dark.

 

[robie]

Welcome to the forum.

So, the juice is 4 weeks old. I would imagine it has long since fermented on its native yeast. At a Brix of 0, there should not be any discernible sweetness left frm sugar. If it still tastes sweet, it could be that it has high acid and high alcohol level. Alcohol in that situation makes the wine taste sweet.

At four weeks old, it easily could have fermented to dry already.

What variety of grapes? As already asked, does it smell OK?

 

[Flem]

Welcome to the forum, Danny. We need another PA'er.

 

[Julie]

Hi Danny,

What type of grapes did you use? Did you add any sugar or were you just going with what natural sugar was there? If you did not add any additional sugar and the sg was low this would explain the "no alcohol" taste, and if the acid is right where it needs to be for that grape it could possibly let the wine have a sweet taste. I read an article once where it said that if you have your wine balanced correctly a dry wine will taste sweet.

Welcome to winemakingtalk

 

[Redtrk]

Welcome from Cinci!

 

[Runningwolf]

Welcome aboard. Glad to have you here, feel free to ask questions or offer comments.

 

[Wade E]

Did you use a wine yeast or let it naturally ferment off of wild yeast. Letting this happen naturally has its risks like not knowing what the yeasts abv tolerances are. Another thing is temps. Cooler temps will make a wine ferment much slower and thus be much much less active to the point where fermentation is very hard to see without using the hydrometer. If you are below 75* I highly recommend raising the temp to 75* and also add some yeast energizer to help this finish fermenting. Even if you are happy with this sg raising the temp to get the gas out and also to make sure the yeast is done and just didnt stop due to too cool of temps is the way to go. Degassing of the wine doesnt work well at cold temps at all and if this yeast isnt truly done you could have bottles that may start to ferment at a later date when things warm back up somehow.

 

[Brian]

Welcome to a great forum! Lots of great folks here and always happ to have another PAer..

 

[harleydmn]

Hey Brian,

Just south of York in Seven Valleys. Are there any wine clubs near us?

George

 

[Brian]

Hey George. Actually there is. We have one that meets at Mr Steves in York the 3rd wed of each month at 7PM. It is pretty cool we just started about 5-6 months ago and we get together and try each others wines and talk. It is really a wine lovers club because some of them do not make wine but quite a few of us do. Do you frequent Mr Steve's? He is hosting Tim Vandergrift (wine expert) this Thurs night. You should go to his page and sing up for it if you haven't.

 

[SpecificGravity]

I am also an amateur winemaker from Pennsylvania. Are there wine clubs around here?

 

[harleydmn]

Thats where I get all my supplies. I got to work this Thurs. evening but maybe I can make it to the club meeting. I just started, got my first batch clearing an another just starting to ferment

 

[Brian]

Well you came to the right place. There is alot of information here and a great bunch of people. Steve is great and he is very customer oriented. I can PM you my email that way I can keep you up to date on the meetings and such.

 

[dannyb]

Has anyone made wine with Amarone juice? I am doing a 2nd batch. The first was with a kit. It was a very good end result. This time, I am following the same instructions whereby I add corn sugar . I understand that this grape does not produce much sugar and therefore the need to add the sugar.