Help Please

[Judd100]

Hi All,

Quite new to this so started with a 6 then 30 bottle kit. Then thought I would have a go at making one from supermarket juice.

8 ltrs of Sainsburys RGJ
250 ml of VinClasse RGJ concentrate
2kg White Sugar
SG 1070
Yeast Nutrient
Re-hydrated EC1118

4 days later, FG 990 and no more bubbles but still froth. So thinking I was being clever I added more sugar to bring the gravity up to 1030, however there was no more CO2 and the gravity had only gone down to 1020, the froth was not as abundant as before. Sunday ( 2 days ago ) I added a fresh batch of re-hydrated EC1118. Today the gravity is still, roughly1020, no froth but an oily sheen on the surface. It smells ok and tastes ok but rather sweet, probably too sweet for me , being diabetic. I have crushed 2 campden tablets and added them to the mix, thinking I might throw more EC1118 into it in 48 hours time. Then it occurred to me that it might be a good idea to ask for help. I have attached a photo of what it looks like now, a couple of hours after adding the campden tablets, any advice would be most appreciated.

Cheers Rob.

 

[salcoco]

insure temp is 70degF give it a good stir. if this doesn't start begin a stuck fermentation procedure. take some EC1118 in separate container with about 100ml of warm water and some sugar. wait until it is foaming then add one cup of wine to it once foaming add two cups, once foaming and four cups continue doubling volume each time foaming commences until all added. should then ferment to finsh

 

[winemaker81]

The wine fermented to dry, then you hit it with a lot of sugar. Although EC-1118 should be able to handle the situation, yeast can be finicky and the blast of sugar may have stunted it. @salcoco's advice is spot on, although I'd let the starter set overnight to let the yeast colony grow more.

I've done this -- hit a batch with too much sugar at once, and never got the fermentation restarted. If this proves the case, you can start a second batch with an OG around 1.080. When that wine reaches 1.010, add half a litre of the first batch, and each time the SG drops to 1.010, add more.

For future reference, add all the sugar up front, as this generally ferments more easily. If making a high ABV wine, step feed in small increments, bumping the SG only by 0.010 at a time, e.g., from 1.000 to 1.010.

 

[sour_grapes]

And don't add more campden tablets (k-meta) before trying to restart fermentation!

 

[Rice_Guy]

first welcome to WineMakingTalk
what you did
*10 kg grape must at 9.5% alcohol, ,,, low for a wine but pretty good, a four day ferment would mean you are about 20~25 C
* ferment dry , ,,, foam is normal with fruit pulp and usually settles with the lees
* add roughly a kilo of sugar which should get you to 12.5 to 13% alcohol, ,,, again not too bad since 1118 should do 18% alcohol
* next time when you are at 1.015 add your sugar plus some air/ nutrient to help the yeast, ,,,
,,, or step feed the yeast at about 1.005~ 1.015 adding 200gm of sugar and waiting for it to ferment back to 1.005, ,,,, ie the yeast are active/ not entering senescence
* it stopped at 1.020 so you added about 90 ppm metabisulphite, ,,, this is high and would be used to kill off any microbes/yeast

* this fermentation ,,,, mix air/ or rack to remove some free SO2
,,, since your fermentation is young you might get it going by adding air and a 25% dose of nutrients
,,, since you want a low sugar I would try @salcoco post of restarting by mixing an active culture in, plus some yeast nutrients

You are dealing with a living system, it might stay stressed.

 

[Judd100]

Thank you all for your kind advice. I will keep the thread updated as to how it turns out.

Cheers,

Rob.