longest ferment ever

[hobbyiswine]

I started a 6 gal batch of lemon and a 6 gal batch of lime pee on 12/26. I started a hand squeezed grapefruit on 12/29. The grapefruit is clear and could be bottled tomorrow. The two batches of pee are still in secondary at 1.019 SG down from an original SG of 1.085.

When I mixed up both batches and went out of town for a few days. I left the heat on so the house did not get below 64. I came home to a slow but active fermentation. It took almost 2 weeks from pitching the yeast to get down to 1.030 when i racked to secondary. 4 days ago SG was at 1.020 so i vacuum pumped out some CO2 and mixed up another starter of EC1118 that i split between the two batches. I checked it again today and the SG looks almost unchanged. I am confused because there are bubbles coming up and the airlock still bubbles every minute or so. This is the slowest ferment ever. Besides the initial temp in the 60s i followed my normal recipe. Any suggestions on how i can speed these along?

 

[Arne]

Warm em up, into the upper 70's. Stir the heck out of em. Good luck. Arne.

 

[tjbryner]

I'd get the temp up to the mid or high 70's, Mix some good oxygen in, add some nutrient and energizer, and then leave the air lock of till your at the 1.000 mark or even completely dry. Then I'd put it under airlock.

 

[Deezil]

I'd warm it up like suggested but 1.020 is a little low to be adding any more nutrient/energizer.. Dont want leftover nutrients hanging around for spoilage organisms to feed off of

 

[hobbyiswine]

I gave it a good mix and wrapped the carboys in some blankets. I also will keep the heater on when I am not home and we are going to get some warmer weather this next week so that will help with the power bill. I haven't added any nutrients besides the little bit i mixed in with my second yeast starter earlier in the week.

What has had me confused about these batches is the activity i see in the carboy combined with the slow drop of the SG. It "looks" like a normal ferment. Lots of little bubbles and the surface of the wine in the carboy is swirling about but the SG hasn't been dropping as quickly as I would think it should be. I even checked my hydrometer to make sure it was working properly and it is.

 

[Minnesotamaker]

Any suggestions on how i can speed these along?

Tell the wife to quit adding sugar when you're not looking.
The keys tend to be warmth and oxygen. If you have an extra primary laying around, try pouring it back and forth a couple times between the primaries and that often helps. Pouring will drive off some of the CO2, so you might not see airlock activity for a few days until CO2 levels build up again.

 

[winemaker_3352]

What are you making??

A long slow ferment in the 60's is not always bad.

I ferment my whites at 54* for about 2 weeks - and it does make a huge difference in the flavor and aromas...

 

[hobbyiswine]

Making Lemon pee and a lime pee. 6g batches. Stocking up for summer I got a small space heater today. My wine room doesnt have the best temperature control. The wines are stilling bubbling away and I popped off the airlock to give a quick sniff to smell if they were ok and all seems well. Just slow.

 

[frenzy92]

Was curious what you all thought a "normal" fermentation time would be. This is my first batch of pee (making the Dragon's Blood variation) and we are on about day 5 of fermentation. I haven't checked the SG yet since beginning fermentation, was looking at doing that tonight. The fermentation has just now started to slow down somewhat.

Looking forward to trying this stuff!!!

 

[hobbyiswine]

Frenzy i would say "normal" would be about one week in primary, rack to carboy and one more week to finish dry. My batches this time look like it will be 5 weeks before ferment is over. I had a batch go dry in about 8 days so the timing varies.

 

[frenzy92]

Thanks! We are about at a week right now and looks like it's about ready, so I'm glad to hear that's not unusual at least.

 

[hobbyiswine]

Update on my batches...

Its has been five days since i started this thread. SG on both batches is about 1.014. Not much progress if any. The temp has been at about 79. Airlock increased bubbles from about once per minute to once every 10 seconds. The SG reading is not much less than the 1.019 i had almost a week ago especially since i increased the temp and that made the SG a couple thousandths lower just by increasing temp. I stirred it, hit it with the vacuum pump, threw more yeast at it. What else can i do to get this thing to finish?

 

[hobbyiswine]

I started another batch of fresh grapefruit two days ago. Today the SG was almost to 1.000 which makes it the fastest ferment ever for me. I just racked it to secondary so i figured what the heck...i put half the slurry from the primary in each carboy of pee that i am having problems with. The yeast is KV1-1116. Maybe that will get the pee to finish dry?

 

[winemaker_3352]

Normal fermentation time - that is hard to pin down. It can be anywhere from days to weeks depending on the yeast used, nutrients added in, temp etc.

The batch that is running slow - is it still in the primary or secondary??

If you racked to secondary to soon you might have left behind some yeast and there is not enough in the secondary to finish it off.

Adding the slurry in should help this out as the slurry will contain yeast in it..

 

[hobbyiswine]

It is in the secondary. Now that you mention it I think switching to secondary at 1.030 was probably a bit early. After putting the slurry in yesterday it is back to poking along and pushing some bubbles. Hope it will keep cookin.