I think it's "Stuck" - Add Nutrient, Energizer, or...?

[Siddersquid]

Thanks for the reply. Will check og and sg when I get home. I started with nutrients, 1 tea spoon per gallon and have put the same amount in again 4 days later. Temp seems to fluctuate between 18°c and 22°c where they are at the moment.

 

[Wooden]

Thanks for the reply. Will check og and sg when I get home. I started with nutrients, 1 tea spoon per gallon and have put the same amount in again 4 days later. Temp seems to fluctuate between 18°c and 22°c where they are at the moment.

What yeast are you using, and is it a kit or a recipe?
What are you making (Red/White, Dry/Sweet, or something unusual like mine?)

Also, regarding the temp I am assuming that is the temp of the house not the temp of the wine. When the ferment gets going really crazy, it is an exothermic reaction, and the wine can get A LOT warmer than room temp. When this happens, the wine can kind of burn through nutrients a lot faster and could have run out and need more, but I think we would need to know a lot more to make a specific recommendation there. I recommend getting a "fermometer" if you don't already have one, they're just a couple bucks and help keep tabs on where it is at.

Again, kit/no kit, style of wine, OG (gravity before you fermented, or if you don't have this, a recipe), SG (gravity NOW), and Target FG. (Where you want it to finish, but most people go for fermenting it dry which is usually below 1.000).

What kind of yeast did you use? If kit yeast likely a champagne yeast type 99% of time, like Lalvin's EC-1118 but still helps to know exactly which one as different yeasts have different temperature and nutrient requirements and are impacted by this stuff differently.

-also, is it on the floor or on a table/chair? I made this mistake with my maple wine in this thread, it was on the floor and at 18C ambient temp (no fermometer for this bucket) it probably got colder than that, which was too cold from my yeast.

I would suggest starting your own separate thread for this as our situations may be quite different though both going through a stuck ferment. Mine was a atypical must, not kit based, and used yeast with different properties/needs from Champagne yeast or what is sold with most kits.

Give as much detail as you can.
The recipe (or at least which kit and style of wine you're making) and a synopsis of your procedure and any nutrients, yeast energizer, and/or chemicals/additives you have used. Gravity information, temps, etc are key.

There are some people on here that are really smart and can dissect what's going on, but without being there, they need the details

Cheers,
Wooden

 

[Wooden]

Update: Maple Wine

Update on my Maple Wine:

SG is at 1.011! Thanks to all who suggested stirring, energizer and warming it up! It is now definitely into wine territory, and I am enjoying a glass of green maple wine!

The acidity is a little more obvious now, but I think will be alright once it ages.

This is definitely different; it is interesting to taste what maple is like when it is separated from the sweetness. It's a tough taste to describe! Unlike anything I have ever had!

There's something kind of similar to "oakiness" here but it is a much stronger flavor (or present in greater quantities) and is a lot broader of a flavor spectrum. Rich notes of caramel and toffee dominate much if the palate.

I think I will let the yeast go to completion on this one, as I just feel that is what I should do, to let the yeast clean up after themselves, and stabilize/back sweeten if needed.

Would also be interesting to see what MLF would/would have done to this.

Time will tell, but for now I consider this experiment a success!

 

[heatherd]

Now onto the next wine!

 

[Siddersquid]

Thank you for your reply. Having been prompted to find my og I've realised it was ridiculously low and so I made a syrup with another 500g of sugar and poured it into the mix. Now it's bubbling away quite nicely ☺ Should make a 9.5% wine I hope!

 

[Wooden]

Thank you for your reply. Having been prompted to find my og I've realised it was ridiculously low and so I made a syrup with another 500g of sugar and poured it into the mix. Now it's bubbling away quite nicely ☺ Should make a 9.5% wine I hope!

I think you got OG mixed up with SG!

OG = Original Gravity (of the must before pitching yeast)
SG = Specific Gravity (of the must, at ANY time, but I use this term when I am mid-ferment
FG = Final Gravity (after the yeast is done)

If I understand correctly, you just measured your SG, NOT the OG!!!

If you added more syrup NOW, after your wine was already fermented part of the way, you are NOW going to have a mess on your hands!

I suspect your OG (Original Gravity, Pre-fermentation) was fine. You CANNOT measure your OG once fermentation has begun!

What you can do, however is take your original recipe and plug it into a calculator (several of these available online) or post it here and someone may be able to.

It sounds to me like you did not take the measurements before you pitched (BIG MISTAKE) and chances are it was probably fine if you used a kit and measured the appropriate amount of water.

Let's say you had a normal kit that produces an OG of 1.09 which would normally make a 12% wine.

You ferment it down to half that where it got stuck (say 1.045) but you didn't tell us this number so I have no idea).

And then you add some amount of sugars, say to get the Gravity up to 1.09 again.

Well, in effect what you are doing is creating a wine with an OG of 1.135 and 17% Alcohol Potential! Few wine yeasts are made to ferment a must this high, except under the most ideal conditions (which most home winemakers are unable to provide), and the chance of a stuck fermentation are VERY GREAT at this point.

This effect is much worse, if say, you had already fermented down to 1.02, or worse yet if you had already fermented to dry!!!

Unless you really had an OG reading (pre-yeast) that was really low, you are either gonna end up with the mother of all stuck fermentations, or have a wine so hot and dry and way too high ABV you might wish it had gotten stuck!)

Good luck. Next time please use your hydrometer and write stuff down, especially OG, temp, etc. and be prepared to share details IF you intend to ask us for help. (hey, it's an excuse to make more wine!) Also please create a new thread where we can discuss your problems separately as they may not pertain to the OP's issues.
Cheers!

 

[Siddersquid]

Thank you. I did mean OG, I calculated it from the initial measurements that I put in. I was following a recipe bit had a a smaller amount of figs and made my sugar proportional to this and not the water. I will probably end up with something without much flavour. It's all part of learning, I appreciate your comments.

 

[Wooden]

Thank you. I did mean OG, I calculated it from the initial measurements that I put in. I was following a recipe bit had a a smaller amount of figs and made my sugar proportional to this and not the water. I will probably end up with something without much flavour. It's all part of learning, I appreciate your comments.

Ok. Thanks for clearing that up. I got worried for you that you would end up with some kind of fig hard liquor since you said you "measured the OG". Calculated. Got it! Let us know how it turns out! Sounds interesting and Good Luck!

 

[Siddersquid]

Thanks mate! It smells pretty good now I must say.