Raspberry wine stalled!

[Alucard1983]

Greetings I come from a forum far far away called homebrewtalk. I have a problem. Hopfully someone can help.

this is a first for me i have a raspberry wine that is not going below 1.040. the recipe follows:

bread bag full of raspberrys
5 gallon Water
12 pounds of Sugar
2 1/2 tsp Acid Blend
2 1/2 tsp of Pectic Enzyme
5 tsp Nutrient
5 Crushed Campden Tablet
1 Package Lalvin 1116

Starting Specific Gravity (S.G.) 1.090 - 1.095

Temp of wine is 70-74

so i noticed last week that the airlock was not burping any more and the wine was clearing up. i was thinking ohh boy its clearing up and almost done..... WRONG!!!!

SO i took a reading 1.040 CRAP!!!!

there is no mold in my must or anything...

so what i did was stirred it up and added a tsp of yeast energizer thinking that would get it going. checked 4 days later nothing started up. SO i go out to my lhbs to get another pack of yeast Lalvin 1118 (AKA The Widowmaker) and rack my wine. re hydrate the yeast added the sucker. 3 days later still nothing and it is starting to clear again.

Any idea on how to get this wine from hell moving again? im quite stuck on this now

 

[mmadmikes1]

slash rack it, get it up to 78 degrees, Check PH, if it is to high , Over 4 , I have had problems. Yeast needs O2 in Primary fermentation and Campden is an anti oxidant.

 

[Alucard1983]

Well was also thinking.. I make beer so I have a stir plate and was thinking of piling out 300 ml of must and added 200ml of water. then add more yeast and letting it stir for 24 hr then adding more must. See if I can get up to 2000 ml then put it in the fridge then pull it out decant the old wine and adding it. What do you think? I I splash rack it should I add a camp den tablet?

 

[Alucard1983]

I wil also go I lhbs and see if I can get some litmus paper to test and get back to you on the ph lvl

 

[Deezil]

Splash rack it or stir the lights outta it to get some oxygen in there.. 1.040 is still pretty high so the yeast should use up most of the oxygen that you introduce - the wine shouldnt oxidize on you.

How well did you stir in the sugar? Have you tasted the must? 12lbs of sugar seems like a lot for a 5-gallon batch. How many pounds of raspberries did you use?

If you can spend like... 10 more bucks... Titret kits are somewhat more reliable than litmus papers.

 

[mmadmikes1]

Well was also thinking.. I make beer so I have a stir plate and was thinking of piling out 300 ml of must and added 200ml of water. then add more yeast and letting it stir for 24 hr then adding more must. See if I can get up to 2000 ml then put it in the fridge then pull it out decant the old wine and adding it. What do you think? I I splash rack it should I add a camp den tablet?

No do not add campden.

 

[Alucard1983]

If I remember I think was around 8-10 lb. it was at 1.093 . I don't weight I use my grandfathers recipe but tweaked it a little but it was one bread bag Of fruit. Current the must is Still sweet. And I did mix the sugar in very well. I make sure when I add sugar it is dissolved in semi hot water.

 

[Deezil]

Okay..

Was just checking at the chance that your initial SG reading was falsely low for one reason or another - was wondering if you already had 18%-ish ABV in the wine already... But probably not, if it still tastes sweet and you didnt mention a burn

And if it was only 8-10lbs of fruit, on top of 2 1/2tsp of acid blend... I dunno if the acidity would be the problem, but it could be.

You did mention it was under airlock though, and that'd be the biggest red-flag at this point. It might be starving for oxygen. Thats where the splash racking / stirring would come into play... I would do one or the other, then leave the airlock off for 24hrs.. At the end of the 24hrs, take another hydrometer reading and see if theres any progress - even just a couple points. If so, let 'er sit and get going again.

 

[Alucard1983]

Ok wen I get home I'll splash rack and stir the crap out of it then I'll put a piece of foil over the top To cover and leave it for a few days. I'm just starting to worry a bit about it going south on me.

 

[Deezil]

Got a t-shirt or a towel? Can rubberband it in place....

Or what i do, because we seldom have rubber bands, is drape the t-shirt, in my case, over the top. Then pull it tight from both sides, around the neck of the bucket/carboy and hold the parts i pulled together with a chip clip. The top will be a little looser than the sides, but it holds in place well, comes off easy and and easy to put back on

 

[Alucard1983]

So I just racked and shook the sh!t out of the hose causing a lot of air to go into it an using the other side to vigorsaly stir the crap out of the other end.... Covered the neck of the bottle with foil. If that don't add air I'll be a monkeys uncle. I will check it it 2 days and see what's up. I will get back to you guys. Tanks for the help so for this is. I've made about 20 batches fresh fruit wines and this is my first stalled batch.

 

[Alucard1983]

Well it looks like its dropped another point in 8 hours hopefully this will keep going.

 

[Alucard1983]

Well I guess it's not going any further.... I've tryed making a starter with the must and nothing the yeast dies.. I'm wondering it I took the must and then boiled it for 45 min to burn off the alchol... It should burn off 95% then I start over again and repitch the yeast. Maybe I got something wrong with the sugar content. at lease I can try it again and re top of with water lost from boiling. What you guys think I only need to keep it at 140 for 45 min to hour.

 

[Deezil]

It's at what? 1.039 ish?

 

[Alucard1983]

Ya 1.039. I have tryed everything even storing daily. When I did a starter of 400 ml must and 400 ml water and 1118 year it was able to go down all the way. Starter was 1.022 and went down to 1.000, 24 hr after pitching yeast into starter. I put yeast in must stirred well and then waited. 24 hr later yeast was at top in a big pile. Nothing has happen since. Must is still good.. No off taste but very sweet. Was thinking Sunday boiling all the must and add air. Pull some of for starter then add 5 camptom tablets and wait 24 hr then pith yeast starter.

 

[Deezil]

So you're saying you thinned it out by doubling the volume with water.. And it fermented to dry?

Did i understand that right?

 

[Alucard1983]

Yes the starter did ferment dry. I did starter to try to get it going again.

 

[Deezil]

Add 1/2 gallon of water tonight & let it sit. Get some sleep & check it in the morning. If there's still no action, hit it with another half gallon and leave it for the day. Still no action tomorrow night? Another half gallon. Repeat until it starts... Might be an acidity problem... Acid from the raspberries + the acid blend added.. Just an assumption.

But if you dilluted your starter and it fermented, there's hope!

You'll be thinning out a wine that might have already been light on fruit, but we can fix that when the sugar is gone. A monster F-Pack will be in order, but thats okay... We can cross that bridge when you get there

 

[Alucard1983]

Well this I all the raspberrys I have what if I get some gypsum or baking soda to lower the ph?

 

[Deezil]

I wouldnt go that route..

There's a white grape + raspberry concentrate made by Welch's that you can find in the freezer section of the grocery store, if push comes to shove.. But raspberry season is around the corner as well... There's options - raspberry jam/jelly/syrup if you cant find the cocentrate...