Questions about my first batch of wine

[nhinshaw]

Hello all,
I just picked up a 5.3 gallon of Regina juice and I'm attempting to make my first batch of wine from it.

First off: when I got the juice there was a fair amount of carbonation leading my to believe that it had already kicked started it's fermentation. I got the juice into a big mouth and took my hydrometer reading, it's hanging out at 1.020 which makes me nervous. Can I still make wine from this juice or are it's sugars spent?

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[heatherd]

@nhinshaw You can still make wine, and the sugars are not spent. You'll keep fermenting until your hydrometer reads around 0.990.

My suggestion would be to add 1/4 teaspoon of potassium metabisulfite to kill wild yeast. Wait 24 hours, then pitch the yeast you want to use.

I see that you are new to the forum and this is your first post, so welcome!

Do you need any instructions for making wine or do you have what you need already?

 

[nhinshaw]

Thanks @heatherd! I've been so excited to start making wine (and give myself the bonus challenge of going at it without a kit) that my heart sank a little as my hydrometer stopped spinning.

I'm sure I'll be back with more questions, for now I'm off to kill some wild yeast.

 

[stickman]

I haven't used Regina juice before, but I noticed that the instructions on the website say only to put the juice into a carboy and that fermentation will start in 48hrs. They may have inoculated with yeast already. You might want to hold off on adding sulfite if that's the case.

 

[hounddawg]

WELCOME TO WMT
Dawg

 

[Tnuscan]

Hello all,
I just picked up a 5.3 gallon of Regina juice and I'm attempting to make my first batch of wine from it.

First off: when I got the juice there was a fair amount of carbonation leading my to believe that it had already kicked started it's fermentation. I got the juice into a big mouth and took my hydrometer reading, it's hanging out at 1.020 which makes me nervous. Can I still make wine from this juice or are it's sugars spent?

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

When you say " it's hanging out at 1.020 which makes me nervous.", do you mean it's stuck @ 1.020 ???

 

[salcoco]

I would just add the yeast. do not use k-meta at this time. the cultured yeast will overtake any wild yeast. if already,inoculated you will do no harm.
any chance you can check with supplier as to use of yeast prior to shipment.

 

[nhinshaw]

Hello All, thanks for the replies and welcomes.


It's seeming more and more like the juice came inoculated. I added the potassium metabisulfite yesterday afternoon but it's had little to no result so I'm guessing the engine behind this fermentation isn't wild yeast.

I would just add the yeast. do not use k-meta at this time. the cultured yeast will overtake any wild yeast. if already,inoculated you will do no harm.
any chance you can check with supplier as to use of yeast prior to shipment.

I can reach out to the supplier to to inquire about whether they added yeast (it wasn't mentioned anywhere on the pail). If there's no harm in adding the yeast I really want to use I might just pitch that this afternoon. There's no risk of having too much yeast present this late in fermentation?

When you say " it's hanging out at 1.020 which makes me nervous.", do you mean it's stuck @ 1.020 ???

Sorry, I just meant the specific gravity when I got my hands on the wine was 1.020, it's very much not stuck and vigorously fermenting...I've just not really done anything to it.

Thanks again for the help everyone, excited to be fumbling my way through this first batch (and more to come!).

 

[Tnuscan]

@nhinshaw If you added K-Meta @ 1.020 it will probally stop fermenting. If it does, you may think it has finnished. It will still have sugars and I don't feel this is what you want.

You may give it a few extra days, or you may wish to re-start the fermentation so it will/can finish.

It could finish regardless if you did't add much K-Meta...???