wine not fermenting in 4 days!!!!!

[wineforever]

Ya I have lids for both I was just letting it ferment so I had them off. I will check the sg today and see what it is. If it’s over or under 1.0 what does that tell me.

 

[Chuck E]

Ya I have lids for both I was just letting it ferment so I had them off. I will check the sg today and see what it is. If it’s over or under 1.0 what does that tell me.

Under 1.0 tells you that fermentation is completed. You have a lot of space between the lid and the wine. You are going to need to minimize the amount of oxygen contacting the wine. I do not know how you can accomplish this.

 

[wineforever]

With these tanks you can put the lid anywhere, even if half of it was full I could put the lid half way and leave it there about a inch above the wine. I’m very surprised not everyone uses these tanks

 

[Chuck E]

With these tanks you can put the lid anywhere, even if half of it was full I could put the lid half way and leave it there about a inch above the wine. I’m very surprised not everyone uses these tanks

You need to get the lids on as close to the wine as possible. When racking, siphon or pump the wine out, leaving the bottom inch of sludge in the tank. This wine is only a few months old, I think you would be wise to let it settle for several more months before bottling.

 

[wineforever]

I usually rack twice in two months and filter it with the polishing pads and it comes out looking good, the only problem is the wine diamonds at the bottom that appear after storing it in the fridge.

I read somewhere that I should filter the wine before cold stabilizing it. Does anybody have any information on this?

I would like to cold stabilize first and then filter last before bottling

 

[stickman]

My opinion would be to allow the wine to settle for a while, then cold stabilize, then filter, this way the tartrate crystals dropping out will help compact and form a crust over the lees, you'll have less plugging problems with your filtration.

 

[wineforever]

Ya that’s what I’m going to do. I would like to rack it for longer but if I want to cold stabilize it might get too cold in my garage in a month so I’m a little scared to do that.

How long does everyone rack it for? I was told and what I did last year was rack it twice each time wait a month. And at the end of the second month filter/bottle. And my white wine turned out very clear.

 

[CDrew]

With regards to temps and what part of the country, where are you? There's a lot of record lows out there. It may make your cold stabilization no big deal.

Racking is a progressive thing. You are trying to clean up the wine. Thus, the immediate rack off the less, then a rack after MLF (3-4) weeks, then a rack before bottling. You need to keep up with SO2 levels as you go. It should go more than 2 months before bottling. More like 6-12 months.

How come your post says "white wine" but some of your pictures look like red wine? Do you have one of each?

And is it still in primary after 2 months? It should have been racked a couple of times by now, and certainly it should be airlocked by now. I think I'd worry more about Oxygen exposure and leave the wine diamonds to another time. They likely are not a problem.

Confusing posts, maybe you could clear up a few details.

Anyway, 300L of wine is a huge amount to start with. Good luck.

 

[wineforever]

thank you very much for your response, i will try my best to clarify what is going on and what i am trying to do.

i live in southern ontario where we are setting record lows but i have an insulated garage which never really sees under 0 degrees. ive been waiting for this cold front to go away and for the next little while its saying it should be +5 and around there for the next couple weeks.

with regards to racking, the owner of the wine store told me to do the first rack 1 month in after fermentation and 1 month after the first rack so two months total and then bottle. i did this last year and my wine turned out really good but i never cold stabilized it. im not sure what the so2 levels are or how i even measure them???

i should of clarified this im making white wine in both ss tanks but one of them i put a case of red in it to turn it into a rose color and took all the red grapes out with the skins just to get the color but it is a pino grigeo (dont know how to spell it) they are both white but one just had a case of red in it crushed and not pressed just for the color.

im using my ss tanks and the pictures that i posted were when it was fermenting so the lid wasn't put on the tank as soon as the fermentation was done i put both the lids on and pressurized them to make sure no air gets in. im really afraid of oxygen thats why i rack once a month for two months and then bottle, i really dont want to rack a bunch of times within two months. ive been making wine for 3 years now and every year has turned out good but every year i want to improve so this year i decided to get rid of the crystals.

the first year was just learning and it came out great the second i wanted to make it clear so i bought a filter and now i want to get rid of the diamonds. ive made one ss tank full the past two years which is 150l but this year i doubled it to 300l and i going to age it a lot longer. for the next few years im going to make 300l and just age all my whites for a couple years before drinking.

i know this is a long post but i just want to make sure i do eveything right before putting it out in the cold becasue ive never done it before, maybe im thinking too much about just putting it in the cold for 3 weeks but hey you never know. like i said in a earlier post im going to put the bottles in the fridge eventualy so i will cold stabilize them then but i would liek to get rid of the crystals so i dont think this is too big of a deal im guessing.

 

[CDrew]

^^Good post^^!

With that kind of cold, you have your cold stabilization covered! Let the wine get to 35F ish, then rack off the stuff that falls out. Dang, you have some cold temps! It got to 25F here once and people thought the world was ending.

Racking is a clarity thing. Rack off the gross lees right away, but everything else is art. I kind of do what fits my schedule. But the rack off the gross lees has to happen, Then you can rack a month later and maybe 3-6 months after that. Once I'm off the gross lees, I only rack about 2 more times before bottling a year later. Bottling at 2 months sounds like not enough time, but I'm learning too, like you. I have a Rose I'm going to bottle at 6 months or so, assuming it clarifies to my satisfaction.

 

[wineforever]

You should buy a filter that fits the amount that you make. I bought a small one from buon vino (which I’m selling now) and was forced to buy a bigger on due to the amount of wine I’m making. The pump had to be bigger to accommodate my 150l at the time. Filtering makes it look amazing, like it came from the store, as long as those damn diamonds don’t show up

 

[wineforever]

I’m wondering how do you guys go about cleaning your ss tanks once your done with the wine? The side of my tank is filled with what I think is yeast. I tried power washing it but it’s not working too well.

Here is a pic of my latest accomplishments.

Both wines aren’t filtered yet, I’m going to filter after 3 weeks in my garage

The one is peach color because a little of the rose went into the wrong ss tank, but it looks beautiful.

 

[user 36973]

I’m wondering how do you guys go about cleaning your ss tanks once your done with the wine? The side of my tank is filled with what I think is yeast. I tried power washing it but it’s not working too well.

As with carboys, you'll want to immediately clean out the tank after you rack so it doesn't dry and become harder to remove.

As tempting as it is, you do NOT want to power wash the tank. That can lead to small scores in the metal that will then become even more difficult to clean and scrub off tartrates.

For small tank like that you can get your whole arm in there and scrub it with a brush or a non-abrasive pad. I use a caustic cleaner (sodium hydroxide), water rinse and sanitize with citric+Sulfites. Many use the PBW type products and star san also.

Be sure to pay special attention to the valve when cleaning to get all surfaces. Ball valves are notoriously frustrating to clean and that's why butterfly valves are used commercially.

 

[wineforever]

Ok thank you very much for the response, I’ll try with a brush and see what happens. The problem is is that the power washer couldn’t even do it, so I might soak it with water and soap first and then scrub.

 

[wineforever]

This was the final result. I’d like to thank everyone who gave me advice. The wine came out perfect this year.

I have one last question. I went from cold stabilizing to bottling. Does anybody think that might be bad going from cold to a little warmer temperature? I know I’m nit picking but should there be a specific pressure in the bottle?

 

[Johnd]

The cork will allow any pressure differential to equalize. As long as you allowed the bottles to stand for a few days after corking in their new "warmer" environment, the pressure in the bottles should have been equalized, the excess pressure (if any) comes through the cork. If you lay them down right away with pressure in the bottles, sometimes a little wine could be pushed through the cork, since the wine is up against the cork.

 

[wineforever]

I didn’t let them stand for a few days I put them on my racks right away. Would you suggest I take everything down and let them sit for a few days or should I just leave them alone?

 

[Johnd]

I didn’t let them stand for a few days I put them on my racks right away. Would you suggest I take everything down and let them sit for a few days or should I just leave them alone?

Looks like a lot of wine and a lot of work, they'll probably be just fine. Keep an eye on them and if you start noticing some seepage on the outside of the corks, you can decide whether or not it's worth the effort.

 

[wineforever]

Ok thanks for the reply

 

[mainshipfred]

By default the last wine I bottled was left at room temperature prior to bottling. First of all the labels when applied to a filled bottle of wine that was cellar temperature caused condensation on the bottle and made the label a little wrinkly. At room temperature this didn't happen. Secondly and for no scientific reason I kind of like the idea of having the wine contract in the bottle once it does go back in the cellar. BTW, I do let the bottles stand for about a week before setting them on their sides.