Wine & heating & other problems

[APINTA]

Besides doing beer I am doing wine also I have got a few 4 1/2 Litre demijohns I have brought some bungs I also got a spare aquarium heater with temp control which I would think be great in keeping my wine at the right temp the thing is i can get the heater tube into the demijohn but the temp control at the top of the demijohn will not go into the neck of demijohn. How do I get over this is there a make of heater I can use that will fully go into the neck of it as others seem to have done this. One other thing I have done two white wines one was a "wine Buddy 7 days and one" California Connoisseur" "Pinot Grigio" which is a normal fermenting wine .Now both where ready for going the next stage I thought I picket up the 7 day wine and put in the potassium metabisulphite. BUT I picket up the wrong one I had put the stuff in the wrong Dermijohn ( I put it in the Pinot Grigo all I should of done is transfer the wine into a second demijohn and levae for 12 days to go though its second fermentation but now I have stopped it ARGHH what should I do now.:whistle: should I go on to stage 3 now ( never mind the 12 days waiting and now add first stage of the fining agent as I have already added the "POTASSIUM METABISULPHITE" before I should of done sorry about the long tale and the confusion

 

[IainM]

OK, for the heater what you can do is get a bucket or builders trug or similar, and use it as a water bath. That way you can put the heater into the water and control the temperature that way. In fact, this is probably a better way of doing it as you don't run the infection risk of having something directly in the wine, and you won't get a heat hot spot where the tip of the heater is.

For the metabisulfite, it depends. It will bubble out of solution eventually, but you might have added it in at a stage where its hard to restart the fermentation that was going on. You might want to taste it / trial some with a hydrometer. If it isn't too sweet, you might be able to just move on. Otherwise leave it with the bung off for a couple of days and see if it restarts by its own accord. If it doesn't, then you can always pitch some rehydrated yeast. Hope this helps.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

1] Unless your house is really cold you do not need a heat source, my kitchen is currently 16c and my wines are all fermenting and finishing perfectly, i have seen it get down to 15c and i have never had one fail.

2] The aquarium heater is best placed in a water bath with your demijohn or FV's sat in it (see picture below)

3] Throw some more yeast in it may start again, do you have a hydrometer?

 

[APINTA]

Thanks for the above down to wilco tomorrow or the £ shop now to sort the wine out Yes I do have a Hydrometer when I checked it on both of them it said they where ready to bottle and the taste was dry as I like it What size are your box depth wise

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I don't have the set up above i just posted the image to demonstrate what other members use.

I mentioned the hydrometer because you will have to take a reading before adding the yeast so you know if it is working when you check it a few days later.

 

[APINTA]

Arh Ok here where I am now I coked up stage two so instead of waiting tfor 12 days should I do stage 3 now as I have already done the first step in stage 3 see picture. When I started the wine it was 1050 it is now 1000 and one is just under that

 

[Chippy_Tea]

As Ian says give it a try, at .1000 it will be sweet if you like it move on to degassing.

 

[Tau]

If you added to the wine that's at 1.000 then that's the final sg, giving it a bit of an airing wont help infact will make it worse. At one it will be slightly sweet, but not classed as a sweet wine. There's nothing more you can do with potassium metabisulphite, degass and add finings as per instruction.

I'm going to query your original gravity reading of 1050 which is cider strength, not a wine reading, you sure you're reading the correct part of the hydrometer.

How to read a hydromter: http://winemakersacademy.com/hydrometer-making-wine/

 

[Applesnmore]

Have to say that I have had 2 cc kits that had an og of 1050.
Am happy with the reading.
One was a 30 bottle Shiraz. Bottled September, good drinking at Christmas. Certainly wasn't a 1050 og

Started a cc malbec and again got a 1050 reading.
Emptied concentrate into fv, rinsed out bag into fv and topped up. Now realise that I should use a paddle to thoroughly blend the liquid first rather than relying on the agitation of pouring additional water into the fv before taking a hydrometer reading.

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[Chippy_Tea]

Have you checked your hydrometer for accuracy, most kits I have made have been around .1080 I agree that .1050 seems low.

 

[Tau]

Have to say that I have had 2 cc kits that had an og of 1050.
Am happy with the reading.
One was a 30 bottle Shiraz. Bottled September, good drinking at Christmas. Certainly wasn't a 1050 og

Started a cc malbec and again got a 1050 reading.
Emptied concentrate into fv, rinsed out bag into fv and topped up. Now realise that I should use a paddle to thoroughly blend the liquid first rather than relying on the agitation of pouring additional water into the fv before taking a hydrometer reading.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

An og of 1050 to 0.990 will give an abv of 7.88%, to 1.00 an abv of 6.56% the kits you've described are 12% abv kits, have you forgot to add sugar? Or alternatively reading the wrong scale on the hydrometer most have 3 scales ?

 

[Applesnmore]

The kits are complete and require no added sugar.
As for the hydrometer, I have two. One is the multiple you describe the other a single scale and have had consistent readings.
I have done many kits/home made wines. My point is two fold :
I have had 2 that gave odd og's.
Secondly just pouring concentrate into the fv and adding the required amount of water without thoroughly mixing may be a cause of an odd reading. Just swirling a 21l fv may not blend sufficiently, may need to mix with a paddle to achieve a homogeneous mix.



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[Tau]

Just looked at the cc pinot grigio 30 bottle kit instructions and you're right no sugar needed, but og should be between 1.080 - 1.095 which sounds right, but if both hydrometers are giving the same reading and you had mixed well upon taking the initial reading then it maybe that there is a problem with the kit, not all pinot grapes have same sugar levels may have had a few bad batches. Unless concentrate it sank to bottom of fv and not mixed throughly. If you get that reading again after throughly mixing and washing out bag of concentrate, suggest a top up of sugar.

Kit instructions pdf: http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/California%20Connoisseur%2030%20bottle%20instructions.pdf

The wine buddy kits do require sugar, not sure if they were reading 1050 as well?

Adding packet 3 would not stop the wine but stun the yeast, now normally you wouldn't be able to restart a wine (by adding a starter yeast) if it had got to an sg of 1.000, if 1.050 really was the reading then if it degases naturally fermentation will restart after a few weeks in the fermenter. This still might occur if it was higher at 1.080-95 it all depends upon whether the alcohol level accustomed yeast is still alive. When the yeast is stunned with na or K metabisulphate some die and the time between being stunned and the k.mbs disapating yeast often die.

So correcting my earlier answer - leave in fermenter for a fortnight at least it might restart, check with hydrometer if it reduces from 1.000 to 0.990 or between showing that fermentation has continued. If after 3 weeks nothing has happened and sg is still 1.000, carry on with the next steps in the instructions. Hope this helps.