Still fermenting.......

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CJJ BERRY

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Hi

Looking for some help as I feel something may of gone wrong.

I made at the end Sept 2012 an elderberry wine which I followed the recipe from First Steps in Winemaking. It had a vicious ferment which turned my cupboard and some of my clothes purple! Quite amusing. Since then it has pretty much kept up pressure on the airlock and is pushing air through, not that regularly now and some times the airlock levels but then moves again.

The SG says it isn't ready and I'm quite perplexed as to how long it will actually take. I'm quite patient however I would like to taste the fruits of my labour.

Anyone help? Shall I just kill the ferment?

Thanks

Ps
I have also got a pineapple and a blackberry wine doing the same which are slightly younger but non the less started in 2012
 
Here we go Chippy Tea

Blackberry .30 Eldest

Elderberry .205

Pineapple .805 Youngest

Thanks
 
Hi CJJB,
What SG's did you start them at? maybe the yeast has been overpowered by alcohol, I've never heard of a brew take that long to ferment out, that doesn't mean to say it doesn't happen.

You may need to experiment a little by adding a high alcohol tolerant yeast, champagne for instance maybe initially to one of the brews and if that kick starts it then try it again on others.

Other thing it could be is the acid balance is off. For some fruit wines you need to add tannin, it can be in the form of stewed tea or tannin powder. It could be that your yeast may need some yeast nutrient, did you add some at the start?

You may need to give the brews a gentle stir, you don't want to aeriate the brew but just to get the yeast moving, that may be enough to get them going.

Good luck with your endeavors.
 
Hey LR

Unfortunately I forgot to take these readings. We did decant into clean demi john around June 2013, would this effect the yeast?
 
CJJB,
It might have - how did you transfer the wine? you need to do this with as little disturbance to the wine and yeast as possible so you do not get air into the wine. Aeration at that stage can damage a wine by oxidizing it
 
LR

We decanted via syphon tube straight into new demi john, still tastes okay, just a little sweet. Whats the best way in the future?
I have taken a bits out to take sg's, would you float sg in the actual demi john?

Whose recipe do you use?
 
When you syphoned it into the DJ did you splash it in or did you put the syphon tube right to the bottom of the DJ and let the wine swirl into the DJ (less air gets in this way)?

I always take the wine out of the DJ into a hydrometer jar to take the reading, you need to get down on a level with the meniscus of the wine/hydrometer so you get a good reading. It is necessary to sterilize the Gravity Jar before putting wine into it rather than floating in the wine. However, there are others who float their hydrometers in the wine and leave it there for the duration, this is ok for an indication that things are working but not very good for accuracy see above reference to meniscus.

You'd probably need a couple of hydrometers to support this approach so you can do other jobs at the same time.

At this stage I'd be inclined to make up a starter with a champagne yeast and pitch that to see if it will kick the wine up the backside and get it working. You could possibly split this starter between a couple of your brews. I'd also get a long spoon or paddle and swish the wine around to get it roused up not stirred to aerate.
 
A starter is easy to get going - use boiled/cooled water and take some of the wine into a litre bottle mixed so the sg is about 1.020 and put the yeast into that - don't fill the bottle to the top, you also might need to add some sugar but not if you can get the SG sorted with wine and water.

Cover the neck with some cling film and put it into the airing cupboard for a couple of days. You should see bubbles rising to the surface indicating that the starter is going. You can then proceed to make a larger starter by adding more wine and and possibly sugar - don't need to worry about the SG so much at this stage but you maybe would need to transferring the whole to a DJ with an airlock.

At this stage you now have a good going starter which you can split between your DJ's.
 
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