Too much sugar??

[DavidvBrady]

Ah right. Both mine are five gallon where I'm only brewing two so still room for oxidisation. Will transfer anyway to get off the lees. Is the lees the sediment?


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[sour_grapes]

Is the lees the sediment?

Yup! It is indeed.

 

[DavidvBrady]

I'll be doing another measure this evening before and after the top up. Hopefully it hasn't stalled. Will keep yiz posted. I'm hoping this post will at least help other newbies as well


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[DavidvBrady]

So, I just done a reading and it has gone from 1.070 to 1.031.

After the water top up it's dropped further to 1.021

Won't this give me a fake alcohol reading as it will look like more of the sugar has been converted to alcohol than actually has been.

Also I noticed that there was a lot less foam and bubbles on top tonight. Could this be a sign of a stuck fermentation?

I know I'll not know until tomorrow when I do another reading.

Just wondering if it does get stuck, do I simply add some more yeast or do I need to get a particular restarter to wake up the yeast?


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[wineforfun]

Not directly germane to your question, but I don't think you have quite figured out how to take a SG reading. Near the top of the thin glass part, there should be a number marked 1.000. Below that, there are dashed lines, then the number 10, more dashed lines, the number 20, etc, so it looks like this:

1.000
-
-
-
-
10
-
-
-
-
20
-
-
etc.
(skipping ahead)

-
-
80
-
-
-
-
90
-
-
-
-
1.100
-
-
-
-
10
-
-
-
-
20
etc.



If the wine were at the first "10" mark in the above example, the SG would be 1.010. If it were at the second "10" mark, the SG would be 1.110. (Please always quote your SG to 3 decimal places, and use the leading "1" if appropriate.)

Was your wine at the second "10" mark in my diagram?

Excellent diagram.

 

[sour_grapes]

After the water top up it's dropped further to 1.021

Won't this give me a fake alcohol reading as it will look like more of the sugar has been converted to alcohol than actually has been.

Yes. I addressed that earlier when I suggested that you might use a Pearson's square calculation to figure out what your original SG would have been if you added the water at the outset.

Let's not worry about a stuck fermentation unless your SG stalls.

 

[DavidvBrady]

Sorry and thanks.

It looks like the addition of water last night has kicked off a nice fermentation as the airlock has been bubbling away all night and this morning.

Either that or that I wrapped it in a think blanket to make sure it was dark for the yeast


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[DavidvBrady]

Should my brew be starting to smell? It's kinda weird smell where I have it, slightly eggy??


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[sour_grapes]

Eggy as in rotten eggs? This could be H2S from stressed yeast. (At SG=1.021m it is probably too late to add any yeast nutrients, but you may want to look into that for later.)

If the smell is not too bad, I would ignore it for now. A little can dissipate on its own. When your fermentation is done, we can see how bad it is. Fixes include splash racking and adding a product called Redulees to bind the H2S.

 

[DavidvBrady]

Cool, I can't smell it today so hopefully it's nothing to worry about. I'll do a reading again later


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[DavidvBrady]

Might it have been temperature? I got home and it was 28.

It's back down to 24 now


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[grapeman]

This really was a poor kit for you to begin with as the instructions seem to be pretty bad and that seems to have confused you about the processes. Normally all the water is added at the beginning so that you can get an accurate specific gravity reading. That is helpful for telling the alcohol level later. It also ensures that the yeast can kick off in a healthy environment- too high can prevent it from fermenting well without stressing and producing smelly components. Racking to a carboy can take place anytime from about 1.030 down to dry, depending on your preferences. The higher it is, the more it can foam in the carboy. If it was me, I would rack this one when it gets to about 1.010. That brings us to another problem I can see for you - the odd amount you have made. You say you doubled the batch. Does that mean you got two five bottle kits, or just doubled the water and not the juice? With two gallons you should rack into 2 one gallon jugs and have some left over that could go into a third or a couple wine bottles (all fitted with airlocks). You could do it into a three gallon carboy, but will need to rack it again soon after it finishes fermenting or there will be too much headspace.

 

[DavidvBrady]

Damn,

I bought a 5 gallon equipment set but a friend bout me a six bottle kit, I bought another thinking 6 bottles will get lost in the container brewing.

I got home today and the smell is definitely gone.

My instructions said that I need to leave to ferment for a week after I added the second lot of water. That leaves another five days.

My reading a few moments ago shows 0.999 and I'm estimating alcohol at 13.1%.

Is this a correct reading it's borderline at the top of the yellow and white

The fermentation looks dead now as there is no bubbles or foam at all. Should I wait the remaining five days or read again tomorrow and if stopped then stabilise and clear?

Having tasted it, it feels watery/thin which I'm sure would improve with age but can definitely taste the wine and feel the alcohol.

What's the verdict from you experienced lot.


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[DavidvBrady]

Also should I throw in some campden tablets to prevent oxidisation


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[grapeman]

Leave it for a few more days to see if it drops closer to 0.990-maybe a touch higher. Adding the water at that point is definetly not the recommended procedure normally. No wonder it is thin. Those 5 bottle kits are at the low end of the quality scale so you can't expect a great wine. Don't add campden yet and when you do don't exceed one tablet per gallon. Be sure to crush very well before adding or you could get floating particles.

 

[DavidvBrady]

Nice one, thanks for the advice, I'd of been non the wiser until I got my next kit from the proper home brew store


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[DavidvBrady]

Just had a thought, instead of transferring to my secondary 23 ltr fermenter when the SG reaches your recommendation for my 9 ltr batch.

Should I buy two 5ltr bottles of spring water and sterilise these and transfer my wine to them. Less air in them then.


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[grapeman]

Basically that is what I suggested - we use gallons but if you can get a 5 liter jug then those would have less headspace than the 23 liter one.

 

[DavidvBrady]

Sorry should have made my question clearer, will a still spring water bottle have any adverse effects on my wine like to the taste or anything. I'm not sure whether the container needs to be any special kind of plastic.


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[grapeman]

A secondary container should either be glass or a special plastic, like Better Bottles. Regular plastic does not properly exclude enough oxygen.