C*cked it up again???

[disco_monkey79]

Hello,

I'm very new to winemaking, and my very first attempt is ginger wine. The ingredients (ginger, orange, sugar and yeast) started inthe bucket, and were transferred to a DJ. All was going great, and the airlock was bubbling every 2 seconds, to start with.

A lot of gunk settled at the bottom, so I racked in to a fresh DJ. Should I have done so this early, or should I have left it until the wine cleared? It was in the first DJ for 2 weeks, and I was concerned that the gunk may contaminate the wine.

My second, and far worse, crime, was when I topped up. I used a water/sugar syrup, but in my haste, I didn;t let it cool down, and I suspect the heat has murdered my poor yeast cells. The neighbours probably heard me swearing when I realised my mistake (seconds later).

24 hours later, there was zero sign of activity, so I added a 1/4 teaspoon more yeast, and still no sign of activity. Is this batch completely worthless, or is there anything else I can do to try to put it right?

Many thanks!

 

[Moley]

The hot sugar syrup may have killed off a few million yeasties but the majority will be fine.

It can often take a little while after racking for the yeasties to get over the trauma. Apart from that, have you checked the airlock and bung are making a good seal?

Most importantly, what's the SG ?

 

[disco_monkey79]

Many thanks for the reply.

With all the drama, I forgot to write down the hydrometer reading when all this happened, so I'll measure it again tonight, and again in a few days to see if there's any activity.

The brew has always been very sweet, as it was an unproven recipe I took from the interweb, and I started it before I had bought a hydrometer (when I first took a reading, a week or so after adding yeast, it was off the scale of my Wilkinsons jobbie).

Given the trauma of the move, and subsequent genocide of their cellular brethren, would a bit of yeast nutrient be in order for any potential survivors?

 

[Moley]

Give me the recipe and I'll calculate your OG, then we can compare that with whatever reading you take tonight, but there's no point in adding nutrient or doing anything else until we've got some numbers.

 

[disco_monkey79]

Many thanks for your help.

The current hydro reading is 1060.

The recipe is:
4 tablespoons dried ginger (do not use powdered ginger)
2 lb / 8 oz raisins
2 oranges
2 lemons
3 1/2 lbs / 1,600 grams sugar
Wine yeast
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient / energiser
8 pints / 1 gallon of water
1 campden tablet

The ingredients were simmered together, and transferred to the bucket. 24 hours later, the yeast was added. A week later, it was put through a sieve in to a DJ under airlock.

Initially, it was bubbling every 2 seconds. A fortnight later, it was bubbling every 17 seconds. On 17/10/10 I racked in to a fresh DJ and topped up with syrup (about 3 pints was needed - I'll be leaving it to sit longer in future, to maximise the liquid I can syphon off).

Since then, no airlock activity. I've madde sure the bung is a tight fit. I can't even see any mini bubbles near the top.

Is there anything I can do to get fermentation going again?

Thanks!

 

[Moley]

The recipe is:
2 lb / 8 oz raisins
3 1/2 lbs / 1,600 grams sugar

:shock: F**K!!!

Is that 2 lbs 8 oz raisins, as in 40 oz raisins?

Do you realise that raisins are two-thirds sugar?

I calculate your OG somewhere around 1.190

My yeasties will give a maximum gravity drop of around 130 points, that would leave you with the 1.060 you've got.

I'll give this some thought and get back to you later.

 

[disco_monkey79]

I didn't know that! I did wonder what the point of them was, as they seem to have imparted no taste to it (it tastes of ginger and orange).

But hey-ho, the Mrs used the raisins to make a cake, after we'd strained off the liquor. And very nice it was too.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Moley]

But hey-ho, the Mrs used the raisins to make a cake, after we'd strained off the liquor. And very nice it was too.

I bet it was nice, and rather boozy too.

If the raisins were still fairly intact then you wouldn't have got all of the sugar out of them, so your OG might only have been 1.170

They would give body or ‘vinosity’ to your wine.

Even so, you now have one gallon of sugary wine, of quite a high alcohol content. That needs to become a 2 gallon brew.

As you've already used grapes and citrus fruits, I think I would recommend that you start a WOW base, in a bucket, with one litre of white grape juice, one litre of orange juice, two litres of water, yeast and nutrient and just 100g of sugar to get things going nicely.

After 2 days add just one pint / 500ml of your sugary wine, then add a pint a day until it's all in, then get it back into 2 DJs under airlock.

 

[disco_monkey79]

Brill, thanks for the advice. Will try to pick up some more DJs tomorrow, and will crack on.

Can I clarify - I should mix up the new ingredients, and 2 days after putting those in the bucket I should add a pint of the original (and then a pint a day...)?

Apart from being far too sweet, the basic flavour of this recipe was quite nice. What sort of sugar content would you recommend? Cut out the raisins? Of halve the raisins and halve the sugar?

Thanks again

p.s. the cake was certainly boozy, and had a delightful faint gingery tang - we'll definitely be reusing fruit like that again!

 

[Moley]

Can I clarify - I should mix up the new ingredients, and 2 days after putting those in the bucket I should add a pint of the original (and then a pint a day...)?

Got it :thumb:
If you add your sugary wine too quickly, the current alcohol content is just going to kill the new yeasties, so you've got to get them used to the idea gradually.

Apart from being far too sweet, the basic flavour of this recipe was quite nice. What sort of sugar content would you recommend? Cut out the raisins? Of halve the raisins and halve the sugar?

Halve both, or perhaps 1.5 lbs raisins, 2 lbs sugar.

 

[disco_monkey79]

Superb, thanks again. Will try to correct this batch, and then have a crack at the recipe again with the amended sugar amounts.