Blackcurrant fruit juice wine not fermenting

[Dodgy74]

Started this wine two weeks ago with 3 x 1.5 litres quad strength Apple and Blackcurrant juice and 2 litres 30% Blackcurrant juice came out to 1.047 sg added 1.5 lbs sugar which raised it to 1.120 sg added some Youngs Super strength yeast but no fermentation. Bought Gervin GV4 21% yeast fermentation very slow only one bubble every 5 mins. Thinging abv to high diluted down to 1.092 still slow fermentation. Now added a Gerviin GV7 restart yeast went for one day at one bubble every 5 mins has now reversed witth no activity. Could it be the preservatives killing off the yeast, have made a Blackberry Mead in the past with no problems any help appreciated.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Could it be the preservatives killing off the yeast, have made a Blackberry Mead in the past with no problems any help appreciated.

Do you know if any of the juice had preservatives in it if yes you can almost guarantee its slowly killing the yeast, i made Ribena wine when i first started i boiled it to get rid of the preservative (as per instructions) but it didn't work and it took weeks to ferment, it didn't get below .1000 so ended up cleaning the drains.

 

[user 39926]

Preservatives would be my guess too, you could try making a starter up, use apple juice - get something really lively up and pitch. Potentially be prepared to do it a couple of times - I've seen some posts where it's been theorised that it's possible to exhaust any preservative by overloading like this.

Don't know if there's any truth, but if you're going to ditch the brew, might be worth a shot.

 

[Dodgy74]

Thats what I'm thinking as well but I did make an excellent Blackcurrant Mead with no problems, my thoughts are its the Blackcurrant and Apple I used. Have pitched in some Go-Ferm twice and before it was reversing in the bubbler and restarting now it's bubbling once every three and a half mins

 

[MashBag]

Run a reverse starter.

Get a small simple sugar wine fermenting 1L & use Lalvin K1-V1116 yeast.
Add 500 mlBC (½ of the volume k1-v)
Wait for it to get going.
Then double the volume with more BC.
Wait for it to get going.
Repeat. Until all of the BC is in the starter.
Sorted.

 

[Dodgy74]

I'll give it a go but have tried Gervin GV4 21% yeast and GV7 restarter.

 

[MashBag]

But did you use the process I mentioned.. That's the key bit.