Making a White Cranberry/ Peach wine. Advise please

[Donatelo]

White Cranberry- Peach
Original Specific Gravity is 1.040. Added 1 ½ cups of sugar to the 64 oz. of juice. This brought the SG up to 1.090. My debate is whether to make 64 oz. of wine or put another bottle of juice and sugar mix together to make a gallon of wine.
I have decided to make the full gallon.I added the juice and another ½ cup of sugar.
The process: Sterilized a gallon carboy. Added most of two 64 oz. bottles of white cranberry-Peach juice (Ocean Spray) 1 and ¾ cups of sugar, one crushed Campden tablet. Specific gravity is 1.078. This will give me an ABV of 12% if I can push it to .998 SG.

I have Premier Cuvee yeast, pectic enzyme, Fermax yeast nutrient, acid Blend and yeast energizer Do you think it needs any of these ingredients today , before I add the yeast tomorrow? Any additional advice?

 

[salcoco]

add yeast today? once fermentation start add yeast nutrient about 1 gram per gallon.

 

[Donatelo]

Thanks , salcoco. Fortunately, I do have a gram scale. Part of my reloading equipment.

 

[Donatelo]

I have been watching this wine for two months now and I have stirred to degas it several times for 5-10 minutes each time. It still has bubbles coming up the sides of the carboy. Taste is a little fizzy. It is not as clear as I would like and I did add finning agent.
Anyone out there got any advice as to why this keeps showing signs of gas ? Can I add more Potassium Sorbate?

 

[ceeaton]

I have been watching this wine for two months now and I have stirred to degas it several times for 5-10 minutes each time. It still has bubbles coming up the sides of the carboy. Taste is a little fizzy. It is not as clear as I would like and I did add finning agent.
Anyone out there got any advice as to why this keeps showing signs of gas ? Can I add more Potassium Sorbate?

Did it finish dry? What was the final gravity? Have you racked it yet from the initial container you fermented it in? Just give us an update on what you did to it so we can guess at the fizziness. Is it because it's still fermenting, is it just in a cool environment and needs more time to degass (only two months into it, pretty young at this point)? The more information you give, the better the information (and guesses) you'll get back!

 

[meadmaker1]

Remember the sorbate wont stop the yeast if its active. Only prevent it from starting again. but it will cause things to work in slow motion if added early.
At least from my experience this seems to be the case.
Rack it and push it to the back of the self,

 

[Donatelo]

Ok, here goes. It fermented out to dry. The SG is .998 and it is in a plastic carboy down in the cellar where the temp is 54 deg.
I added 2 oz. of apricot flavor to it on the 7th of March. I stirred the dog out of it for 10 mins at that time with a drill motor and whip.
I think the yeast is done. No bubbles in the airlock, so I'd say done.
Meadmaker , you might be right. But no action in the airlock.

 

[GaDawg]

Be careful when you stir. Don’t create a vortex and stir air back into your wine.

 

[Donatelo]

Thanks , GaDawg. I'll try to keep my hands off it for a while.

 

[meadmaker1]

I have three+ gallons of cranberry and a gallon+ batch of peach currently in secondary the cran berry started early november racked off gross at around 1 month. First week of February I racked again put clearest into three gallon and remainder in a half gallon bottle including all the fine lees. The half gallon has had bubbles climbing the sides ever sence but the large carboy sat two months with no action at all except to continue clearing, until last week, I shined a spot light into it and the tiny bubbles are going again. ? ? But they do little more than hold the water in the bubbler slightly out of ballace never see it actually bubble.
This may be a cranberry thing.
I concidered stabilization for sweetening but it seems I would have done so early.
Im wondering if vacuum racking took enough co2 out that it just took a while to saturate to the point of bubbling again???

The peach on the other hand was a canned peach experiment. Fermented quickly but clearing is another story. I expect a potential pectic haze due to canned fruit being heated to boiling but this stuff is dropping mud. Two gallons will drop a half gallon of fine lees after straining gross lees.
Both of these made from fruit not juice.

 

[Donatelo]

Mine was made from 100 % Welch's juice. your comment makes me wonder if you are right about the white cranberry. Maybe the fizzing is just particular to cranberry juice. Mine never pushes bubbles either. Hmmmm.
Dazed and confused.

 

[meadmaker1]

Cranberry number 2 is how my bottle bomb storey starts. Lol

 

[meadmaker1]

Number 3 can just sit there. I tasted number 1 a week ago at 2yrs old.
As a mead time was truley good to it, so I am in no hurry with current batch.

 

[Donatelo]

I did some research and found that a stalled fermentation could be the problem. I moved this carboy into my office, where it is warmer, and observed tiny bubbles. The airlock showed a slight rise in pressure (bubbled once every ten minutes).
To cure this they recommended a yeast nutrient and addition of yeast again.
Any comments to this?

 

[meadmaker1]

In comparison
Tempertures here have warmed a fair bit. And equally I suppose my wine room.
My bochet started up again as well.
I generally stagger nutrients but never add so close to the end.
I will continue using a calendar as my stop watch on this and let it tell me when its done.
Took a sip yesterday, two lbs of cranberries per gallon of original must (heated in water till they burst), and it has the bold cranberry taste im looking for.

 

[sour_grapes]

Any comments to this?

Yes. 0.998 is not really dry. There are some sugars that still could be consumed. At low temperatures, the process probably just slowed down a lot. If you now have it warmer, and let it ferment to dry (say, <0.994), then you will be able to get it degassed. (Degassing also goes much better at warmer temperatures.)

 

[Donatelo]

Thanks, Sour grapes. I was going to pitch some neutrient and add a little yeast , but I'll hold off on that . still learning to "wait and see."

 

[Donatelo]

This morning the airlock shows percolation every two minutes on this wine. Maybe it will pick up and finish. Time is what will tell. It is a waiting game. This could be malolactic fermentation or just a stalled ferment ?
Oh, well, I can always start my Peach Chardonnay kit that my wife bought me . She treats me nice.

 

[cmason1957]

If your temp is at 54 deg F and you have never introduced malolactic bacteria into your wine area, odds of it being a malolactic fermentation are really, really slim. The bacteria generally doesn't like it very cold, like much below 65 deg F. Also, malolactic fermentation doesn't really give off air bubbles much, certainly not at one every two minutes. More like one every day or so, it is very much less active than alcoholic fermentation.

 

[Donatelo]

At any rate, fermentation has started again, which is good. I was worried about this turning out nice.
It is now in my office where it is a little warmer. (73 F)and giving a bubble every 1 minutes 10 seconds now. I'll keep an eye on it , let it go to dry.. Thanks, Cmason, for bearing with me,