Pineapple Wine- Take one!

[Kparsons]

I jumped into my first batch of wine making and really have no idea what I am doing. Here is what I started with:

6 pts. Pineapple Juice (3 quarts)
2 lbs of sugar dissolved in hot tap water (4 quarts)
packet of red star yeast sprinkled on top after 24 hours.

I mixed the juice, sugar and water and I went ahead and added a crushed campden tablet for safe measures even though it was juice and not fresh fruit.
After 24 hours I added the yeast, covered and stirred the must for 10 days.

Today I moved it to my carboy and this is where I got really confused. I took a hydrometer reading and my must/wine (not sure what to call it at this point) is reading a SG of.990. I was shocked. I was expecting it to be around 1.090-1.050 maybe, but not .990. Realizing now I needed a starting SG reading of 1.090 that I did not have.

Any advice on where to go from here? should I let the wine ferment for a few weeks then add sugar? or add some now? or do I just have a mess that I need to toss out and start all over?

Any help would be much appreciated!

 

[Downwards]

Sounds fine to me. This is really your Final Gravity, or the specific gravity of your wine at the end. After all you did ferment it for ten days first right? If you had checked the gravity at the beginning after mixing in your sugar, you would now use this number to figure how much alcohol you have in your pineapple wine. At this point I would just keep it under air lock till the wine clears and then rack it off the lees and give it a taste! Know that it will likely taste better after aging some. We loved the pineapple wine, a great pairing for the sushi restaurant!

 

[vernsgal]

.990 is what you want to finish with, but what was your starting SG?

 

[Kparsons]

]
@vernsgal

Unfortunately I did not measure my starting SG. This is lesson one for my wine journal. Always get a starting SG!

Any thoughts on what I should try next since I am brand new to making wine?

 

[Kparsons]

@downwards
Thanks for the input. I can't wait to see what I get.

 

[saramc]

If you have access to the same pineapple juice, you can take a SG reading & you can get an approximate on your OG (original gravity). This chart http://www.brsquared.org/wine/CalcInfo/FruitInf.htm says the average SG of pineapple is 1.052, in the event you wanted a 'guesstimate'.

We know that 2# granulated sugar equals 4.5 cups of sugar and each cup will raise SG of one gallon by approximately 0.020, so 1 gallon of this sugared water has SG of 1.090

So I would say a 2 gallon batch may have an OG of 1.071'ish and if it fermented down to 0.990 then your ACV is around 10.6%. That is pretty nice for a fruit wine, but if you want to kick up the ACV to the 12% range you will need to add 2 cups of granulated sugar sooner rather than later to the 2 gallon batch so you increase your OG by 0.020, to 1.091; you likely still have live yeast in your 2 week old must, so I would think they will pick right up and start fermenting again. Play it safe, simply add 1 cup, stirring before you add the sugar to prevent foamy volcano, take the new SG reading, place under airlock and check SG reading in 3 days to see if it is in fact fermenting & if so, go ahead and stir well and add the other cup of sugar, resecure airlock. Check weekly and if SG is at 1.000 or less go ahead and rack off the lees, top it up and rack every 2 months until clear and no longer dropping any more sediment. You will likely rack over 4-6 months until clear & lees free.


Other option, fortify with pineapple vodka when this batch is nice & clear and lees free.

 

[Duster]

If it has only been 24 hours since the yeast has been pitched then theres no way it cam be at .990 already. Are you sure your reading the hydrometer correctly?

 

[Downwards]

Duster, I'm pretty sure it was 10 days..

 

[BernardSmith]

Here's my take based on a host of assumptions. The USDA states that there is typically12 gms of sugar in 1/2 C of pineapple juice. Two cups = 1 pt and so there are 12 C in 6 pts and so there are 288 gms in the 6 pts. Assuming 50 gms raises the SG of 1 gallon by .005 , then 288 would raise the gravity of 1 gallon by a little less than .030 , but Kparsons says that 4 quarts of water (and sugar) were added so the volume is 1.25 gallons (10 quarts) which would result in an SG which was lower by 1/4 (I think) - or about 1.020 overall. The 2 lbs of sugar over 1.25 gallons would add 1.060 so Kparsons starting SG would likely have been close to 1.080 (pineapple plus sugar). that is equivalent to an ABV of about 10.4% and the drop to .090 from 1.000 would increase the ABV by another 1.3 so you are already close to about 11.5 % (more or less) .