Sour or just not sweet enough?

[gumpole]

Hi I'm on my second batch of wine which i have racked for a second time. First time off the Must and into a 5lt bucket with 600g of sugar. Second time off the lees as the bubbler had stopped bubbling. The S.G. at this point was below 1. It tasted a bit sour! I added some more sugar thinking it might start fermenting again but nothing. Should I keep adding more sugar. Or has it gone bad? Any advise appreciated.

 

[beano]

What was your starting SG before beginning fermentation? Below 1.000 it might be finished.

 

[NorCal]

Hi I'm on my second batch of wine which i have racked for a second time. First time off the Must and into a 5lt bucket with 600g of sugar. Second time off the lees as the bubbler had stopped bubbling. The S.G. at this point was below 1. It tasted a bit sour! I added some more sugar thinking it might start fermenting again but nothing. Should I keep adding more sugar. Or has it gone bad? Any advise appreciated.

The must below 1 and isn't sweet means the yeast did its job (consumed the sugar, turned it to alcohol). What you are tasting is the acid that was in the must that was being masked by the sugar, before the yeast consumed it all. You can now add sorbate (to prevent refermentation) and add sugar to balance out the acid to make it more pleasurable to drink or reduce the amount of acid using other methods.

 

[gumpole]

What was your starting SG before beginning fermentation? Below 1.000 it might be finished.

Beano ISG was 22 and I added 650g sugar to get ABV of 12-13% thanks for reply

 

[gumpole]

The must below 1 and isn't sweet means the yeast did its job (consumed the sugar, turned it to alcohol). What you are tasting is the acid that was in the must that was being masked by the sugar, before the yeast consumed it all. You can now add sorbate (to prevent refermentation) and add sugar to balance out the acid to make it more pleasurable to drink or reduce the amount of acid using other methods.

NorCal thanks. So there is a good chance that it's not gone off. I'll try and tweak the sweetness.