New from Eugene, Oregon

[Karka]

Hello forum! I've just begun wine making after discovering what yeast can do. I was inspired by trying to make some homemade ginger ale with honey and bread yeast. The batch was so active it took 15 minutes to let all the CO2 settle down after opening the 2.5 liter. I decided to throw it into a jug, top it off, and put an airlock on it. Fermented it for about 2 weeks and brought it to a holiday party, which it was a hit. Smelled odd to me, but the flavor was great; somehow had a citrus on-taste to it. Never really took notes on it, but from hydrometer readings, it was only around 4%.

Now, I have ventured forth to making an apple wine--this time with some EC-1118. I probably added too much k-meta at first (about a teaspoon to the 3 gallons), since the first pitch of yeast did nothing; though it could have been the juice I was using in the starter. I solved this problem by making a starter with the must, to immunize the yeast to the high k-meta content. Gladly, that worked; and a vigorous, smelly, fermentation began.

Here's where I may have gone wrong, I jumped the gun a bit and decided to rack to secondaries at 1.045 (O.G.: 1.100). I have racked since then as well (at 2 weeks in secondary), which could be another reason it has slowed drastically (no activity from the airlock). But at least it is clearing slowly and yeast solids are still forming on the jugs.

That's where I'm at for now.

 

[mxsteve625]

Welcome Karka to the forum. Sounds like you'll be fine but someone with more experience will respond shortly. I think you definitley racked to soon.

 

[Minnesotamaker]

Racking a bit early wouldn't normally cause fermentation to stop. It's likely that the sugars in your batch have been consumed by the yeast and you're simply at the clearing stages. Racking to a secondary too soon can sometimes cause an active ferment to overflow a bottle due to the restrictive opening, but it shouldn't kill a ferment.

As for the K-meta amount, you are correct, that's a huge dosage. A standard addition would be more like 1/4 tsp for 5 gallons.

Good luck and have fun with the new hobby; the rest of us sure do.

 

[Wade E]

What is the sg now and what is the temp? Welcome to our forum and glad to have you here. Do need a little more info.

 

[Karka]

Right, let me go take a measurement. Maybe a little taste as well.

 

[Karka]

Alright, at 72 degrees F (wine), I get a reading of .994 (corrected to temp from fermsoft's hydrometer corrector).

 

[xcaret]

Karla I'm interested in making homemade ginger ale.. Are you an old hand at it ,or was it just an experiment? I dont want mine to have alchol in it ,just ginger ale..

 

[ibglowin]

Welcome aboard!

 

[Karka]

Karla I'm interested in making homemade ginger ale.. Are you an old hand at it ,or was it just an experiment? I dont want mine to have alchol in it ,just ginger ale..

First, I'd like to thank the admins for producing such a great forum. Thanks!

For ginger ale, I looked up a recipe on google. Haven't been doing it too long, so not the expert... I also found a pretty good recipe on the h2g2 website, but it is for an alcoholic one. The first one I found while I was experimenting with cheese making and such, which is this site: http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/cheese/ginger_ale_ag0.htm

h2g2 site to the beer is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A634664

The first one should satisfy what you wanted to do. The recipe calls for lemon, which I did not use the first time; and it turned out just to my liking. I did make one with lemon and it wasn't a taste I wanted in ginger ale.