When to worry about stalled ferment?

[Johnd]

@Glen I suppose you could do that if you like, but just for the record, this is not an endorsement of blind additions and modifications without proper information.

My suggestion is to get a pH meter, or take a sample to a place where you can have your pH read. Maybe at a pool store, your local water source supplier, or someplace like that would have a pH meter and would do that for you, or your local HBS.

 

[Glen]

I guess i should invest in a digital pH meter. I have seen some on amazon for $20 but doesnt give info on tolerance. Any advice on this?

 

[Johnd]

I guess i should invest in a digital pH meter. I have seen some on amazon for $20 but doesnt give info on tolerance. Any advice on this?

Invest in something that gives you a reasonable degree of accuracy, maybe something on the order of +/- .05 should be good enough info to keep your wines in the good range.

 

[wineforfun]

So, just read through this thread again and one thing I keep noticing is the lack of nutrients. I see on Day 3 you added some but none up front or any other days. If this is true, that very well could be your culprit.

Like Arne, I have no experience with that yeast. I did look it up and it has a decent range of fermenting temps. 53 - 77, with 16% ABV tolerance.

 

[Johnd]

So, just read through this thread again and one thing I keep noticing is the lack of nutrients. I see on Day 3 you added some but none up front or any other days. If this is true, that very well could be your culprit.

Like Arne, I have no experience with that yeast. I did look it up and it has a decent range of fermenting temps. 53 - 77, with 16% ABV tolerance.

I did the same rereading earlier, says he added Fermaid O on day 3, unless the addition calcs were off, the nutrients should have been sufficient.

 

[Glen]

I received the ph meter today. My pH was 2.7!! I added potassium bicarbonate and brought it up to 3.2. Still low but better. Restarted some more yeast.

Before i adjusted, out of my curiosity I took a pH strip and tested it too. Looked to be between 3-4. Tested again after it looked like a solid 4....

Didn't take TA, is that of any value at this point?

 

[Johnd]

I received the ph meter today. My pH was 2.7!! I added potassium bicarbonate and brought it up to 3.2. Still low but better. Restarted some more yeast.

Before i adjusted, out of my curiosity I took a pH strip and tested it too. Looked to be between 3-4. Tested again after it looked like a solid 4....

Didn't take TA, is that of any value at this point?

Now that your pH is up in a better range, see if you can get it going. TA would be good to know, test if you can, but the most important thing is to get your wine back on the fermentation trail. You can work on fine tuning pH and TA later.