Need Help Fast

[RWS]

Hello! First time wine maker here. I got ten gallons of juice from crushed apples and pears. We added white sugar, nutriant powder, peptic enzyme powder, campden tablets, and anti-oxident powder per recipe and let sit one day. Then added 1 pack "Red Star" yeast and 1 pack "Lavine EC1118" yeast. We did not take the starting specific gravity, but we did stir daily. Seven days later we tested the must and to our surprise it had a specific gravity of .99 (less than 1.) What now?? We were going to rack into 5 gal carbuoys. Should we do this or should we do something else first?

Is fermentation done?

 

[matt256]

So not to take the attention away from RWS's question above that others might have an opinion on, but I had a question as well. I'm a little concerned with the wine I just bottled. wine expert pinot noir. I did an extra rack on top of what the kit called for. Bottled at about 2 months. the first sip out tasted great even though it is so young. we didn't get quite a full bottle at the end so we put a plastic temp cork and I took it to a friends place. not only did that plastic temp cork keep popping out but the wine tasted more bitter than it did when I first bottled. I'm concerned it wasn't fully degassed (even though I stirred quite vigorously for a half hour) when I added preservatives etc in the original secondary fermenter. Does this seem normal or should I expect a show of exploding wine bottles and/or wine that won't taste too great? thanks in advance!

 

[Bartman]

So not to take the attention away from RWS's question above that others might have an opinion on, but I had a question as well. I'm a little concerned with the wine I just bottled. wine expert pinot noir. I did an extra rack on top of what the kit called for. Bottled at about 2 months. the first sip out tasted great even though it is so young. we didn't get quite a full bottle at the end so we put a plastic temp cork and I took it to a friends place. not only did that plastic temp cork keep popping out but the wine tasted more bitter than it did when I first bottled. I'm concerned it wasn't fully degassed (even though I stirred quite vigorously for a half hour) when I added preservatives etc in the original secondary fermenter. Does this seem normal or should I expect a show of exploding wine bottles and/or wine that won't taste too great? thanks in advance!

Yeah, it sounds like you may have some trapped gas that will be trying to escape. The bitter taste is also an indicator of CO2 still in solution; it may not have tasted bitter because the portion you tasted had de-gassed before you drank it. This is one of the main reasons I bulk-age for at least 6 months whenever possible; the wine releases any trapped gas without me having to stir it vigorously or even think about whether it is de-gassed.
Unfortunately, the only solution I can offer is to uncork the bottles, put them back into your primary bucket, let it sit exposed for maybe 4-8 hours (max), stir it vigorously again for a half hour, taste it, and, if satisfactory, re-bottle. Or else, pour then bottles back into the secondary, put an airlock on it, and wait another month or two to bottle.