Is it fermenting?

slbrides · Mar 23, 2008

Hello, first time wine kit maker here. My ultimate question is if we are doing it correctly?? We have the Vintners Reserve from Homebrewers (Shiraz).
Am in stage 2, wine is in the carboy with stopper and airlock, but there does not seem to be any action? It bubbled (the airlock) for a day or so. Now am into day 6 and there is nothing happening. Is it done early?
Does it hurt the process to open it up, stir it and test it?
I do believe temperature may be an issue. We are trying to warm up the room without heating the whole house. I will take some suggestions on how to warm it up!
Sorry if all of these topics are covered elsewhere on the board.
Thanks for your help!

grapeman · Mar 23, 2008

Welcome to the forum slbrides. If it stopped bubbling either it is done fermenting or it is too cold. Check the wine temperature if you can, if not what is the room temperature? If it is close to 70, that's warm enough(will usually work at down to 64-66). By all means, check the SG of the wine. If you have a clean turkey baster(preferably new) or wine thief sanitize either and test the wine SG. If it is .990-.994, it is probably done, but check for movement over a few days. If it is in a range above 1.000, it may be stalled from low temps. If the temperature is too low and you feel it is stalled because of high SG reading, warm it up. Anything SAFE can be used to get it to about 72-75. They make brew belts for this purpose. You can use an aquarium heating pad or place near a furnace if you have one.

Check your temps and Specific Gravity and let us know what they are and if needed we can give you more information on heating option. You can also use the search button at the top, type in brew belt or heater, set the time to any time and you should get lots of hits.

Wade E · Mar 23, 2008

Welcome Slbrides, Appleman is exactly right with the temp or its done. If you had it nice and warm then it will have finished faster. Glad to have you aboard and Happy Easter.

slbrides · Mar 26, 2008

Thanks guys for the help....but wait, I have more! So tonight the gravity seems to be where it should be. Tomorrow night I will take it again. Now the next step is to "stir vigorously"....how the heck are you doing that when it is in the carboy? And then does it "hurt" the wine if it has to stay in the carboy longer than the 14 days in the next step? Just so happens we will be out of town!
I love how the kit says as long as you read directions, you are good to go. To a point! How about they add in all the little tricks of the trade??
I guess you learn as you go along, but I like to know....
Hey, who brought the new chick??!!

grapeman · Mar 26, 2008

The stir vigorously is to degas it. You can use a big long plastic spoon to do it. Some use a cleaned and sanitized dowel. If you have one you can use a drill mounted stirring device. To help degas you can also use a vacumn device like a brake bleeder. Search "degas" here on the forum and you will get a ton of hints on how to do it.

A few extra days doesn't hurt a bit!

Have fun.

SmokinDawg · Mar 26, 2008

you can use a 3/8ths dowel to stir or george has a few you can put on a drill to stir. Also search brake bleeder on this site's search engine and you may want to purchase one of those too