Sweet wine...a bit of a disaster!!!

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kieronez

kieronez

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I have tried to make a rose from a WILKINSON kit and followed the instructions to the letter. It did instruct me to use 3.5kg of sugar for 23 litres of wine, which thought was excessive. After a couple of weeks I bottled it this evening and tried it and it is extremely sweet.
Is this to be expected?
Should I leave it in the hope it will lose some of the sweetness?
Can I add some more yeast and begin fermentation again?

Any advice gratefully accepted!!!!

:sad:
 
Did you take a hydrometer reading before you added the stabiliser? This is what tells you how sweet/dry you're currently at. Sounds like your stopping your wines way too early.
 
BB is right you need to take a hydrometer reading over a couple of days when you think its finished to find out if it is.

3.5 Kg of sugar is not excessive for a 30 bottle kit, the WineBuddy Sav blanc kit i regularly make uses 4Kg and if left to ferment to 995 or below is not sweet.
 
I didn't take a hydrometer reading....maybe i'll invest. The kit said to leave it for 7 days which I did. Next time I will leave it longer. Is there anything I can do with this wine?
 
Unfortunately the stabiliser (potassium sorbate) prevents wine yeast from re-fermenting. However, bread yeast is less sensitive. You mix a heaped teaspoon of it with some sugar and orange juice, topped up with warm (not hot) water to half a litre. Once it's frothing well, add half a litre of your wine. If it's still fermenting well after about an hour, add a litre of your wine. Continue doubling the quantity. If this works, then you will need to add wine yeast and nutrient to complete the fermentation until the wine no longer tastes sweet. However I have found these Wilco kits tend to end up a bit sweet anyway. You will also need more finings to complete the job.
I have successfully used this method with some raspberry concentrate which contained potassium sorbate.
 
Tony.....Thanks for the advice.

I followed your instructions using bread yeast and some yeast nutrient etc. and eventually after leaving it by the radiator the yeast has gone crazy!!!
By the way when it's finished do I need to put some more powder in to kill the yeast and then finings again? I may try filtering it as well as the bread yeast appears a bit more chunky than the wine yeast?
 
Brilliant! Keep the temperature down to about 20. Yeast loves a warm start (30) but gets stuck if left that high. Bread yeast doesn't settle as firmly as wine yeast, but there should be no need to filter. Just use stabiliser and finings, both of which you can get at Wilco, once no more bubbles are seen to rise.
 
Wow, the wine is still fermenting! I have bought a gravity meter. What sort of gravity should I be expecting before bottling?
 
Anything above 1000 will be sweet. The issue here is when fermentation stops (no bubbles seen on the surface for 24 hours). 994 is about as low as it gets.
 
If you check it every other day the reading will eventually stay the same and then it's then finished.
 
Fermentation complete! Gravity well below 1.000. The wine is now very dry, one extreme to the other!! Thanks for everyone's comments and help
 

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