SG won't go down

[MoneyGuy]

Hi, I'm new here. This is my first post.

My batch is now on Day 47. It was supposed to reach SG of .995 three weeks ago but it seems to have plateaued at 1.00. My house is cool. Will applying heat to the wine bring the SG down? What should I do? It's a Petit Verdot.

 

[deboard]

I'm sure the experts will be by soon, but I know they will ask you for the starting SG of this batch. So if you know it I'd go ahead and add it.

 

[MoneyGuy]

Unfortunately, I started this batch the day before leaving on a trip to Jamaica and in the rush to pack and all I forgot to record the SG. I've moved the carboy over to a warmer area and may apply heat to the carboy in an effort to get the SG down. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[mmadmikes1]

What kind of Kit is this? Have you tasted it? Did you add slabilizers already?I would guess it is sweet as all get up. Did you rack to a secondary? so many questions.
With no other info I would rack to another carboy and let it splash alittle to get any yeast in the wine a little air and see if it restarts. If it was mine??? more info please. Damn if you already racked to secondary you may have not got live good yeast from bottom and if thats the case you may need to do a yeast starter and re pitch the new culture(Ex was wrong, I got lots of culture)If you can give more info ,you will get some good advise

 

[MoneyGuy]

It was started on Jan. 18 then we went to Jamaica. It's a Sommelier Reserve Petit Verdot big, dry red wine. the SG was dropping until about a week and a half ago when it hit 1.0 and seems to have stopped there. It's been racked once only. I moved it near a heat source this morning and the SG seems to have dropped a tiny bit but the SG has actually fluctuated a bit, going up and down marginally over the last week or so. I haven't tasted it or added any stabilizer. I'm wondering if putting a heat belt on the carboy will move it along. Reracking may be a possibility but I'm not sure what that will do. I'm almost a novice at this/. Is there an additive that will move this along?

 

[MoneyGuy]

Update: I put the heat strip on my carboy about three hours and the SG has dropped to the point where it's supposed to be for racking. Mission accomplished.

 

[Wade E]

This has stopped fermenting by now for sure so the only thing that is going on is that you are getting different readings either because there is still gas in the wine (most likely) and this gas s suspending your hydrometer differently each time or because you are new to this and reading the hydro you are just looking at this at different angles. If you warm up the wine and read what it says you also have to adjust for the different temp. Hydrometer are either made to be read at 60* or at 68* depending on which one you have, do you have the little pce of paper that was inside the tube that your hydrometer came in. That pce of paper tells you what this hydro was calibrated to. Here is a link to a chart for a hydro that is calibrated to 60* below. Even at the sg you have your wine is fine and considered dry at this point by I do usually like to see these drop a little more. The cheaper kits usually seem to stop a little early, is this a 7.5 or 10 liter kit?

View attachment Hydrometer Temperature Chart.doc

 

[MoneyGuy]

Okay, I added some more yeast and the specific gravity is at 1.0 and isn't moving lower. I figure I have a fairly dry wine and I'll bottle it now. Any comments?

 

[Torch404]

How's it taste? Are you thinking about sweeting it?

 

[Wade E]

I think its gone down as far as its going to. Give it some sulfite and srbate and let it clear now.

 

[rawlus]

fermentation temp is really important. seem to be alot of threads lately of winter wines not fully fermenting because the basement got too cold and stunted the yeast. keep these wines warm people! 70* at least is ideal. this is why it is also good to check SG regularly, so you know when its stalled before a month passes...

the wine will prob still be alright and might make good topping up wine later on for other kits.