Cherry Wine Stuck, HELP! :(

[carly93]

Hi, about a month ago I transfered my cherry wine into a demijohn and was amazed at how quickly the bubbles were going in the airlock -super fast- anyway about a fortnight after that it stopped fermenting and I haven't seen a single bubble since.
There is about 2inch of sediment at the bottom and the wine has been kept at room temp on our kitchen side like all of our other wines.
Should I siphon the wine off the sediment into a clean demijohn or is there another way i can get it going again. I don't think it's finished fermenting because it was only doing it for about 2 weeks...

Thanks for any advice in advance :)
:thumb:

 

[calumscott]

The only way you'll know if it's done is to test it with your hydrometer.

I've just racked some elderflower and grapefruit and airlock activity stopped after about 6 days. It was down to 0.992!!

 

[carly93]

I've never really used my Hydrometer, how will I be able to tell from using it?
Thanks :)

 

[calumscott]

basically a wine, when it's done, will get down to a reading of 0.000 or less, sometimes a good bit less!

I'm no wine expert having only done a few, but I think the range you look for is 1.005 for sweet to 0.990 for extra brut (really dry). Someone with more knowledge and experience will be along very soon to confirm or amend that...

 

[carly93]

Ah, thank you! I think it would be best if i start using my hydrometer more regularly :)

 

[Chippy_Tea]

If you take a reading before you add the yeast and another when it's finished, you can work out how strong it is.

 

[carly93]

So I measured this with the hydrometer and got about 1050ish, but then i tasted the wine and it was AWFUL! could this be because I have left it on the sediment for too long after the ferment had stopped?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

1050 is no where near finished this is from the WOW guide -

As I’ve said before, a hydrometer takes out the guesswork. For a guide, 0.990 is dry, 0.995 is medium-dry, 1.000 is medium, 1.005 is medium-sweet and 1.010 is sweet.

As you can see 1050 is much too high.

I always leave my juice WOW variants until they have stopped bubbling then another 7 days before adding finings and vinclear, i have never had one stop above 1000.

What yeast did you use?

 

[carly93]

I just used Wilkos all purpose wine yeast, the same as what i use for all the other wines

 

[calumscott]

What was your recipe?

 

[carly93]

It was from C.J.J. Berry's First Steps In Winemaking:
2kg Red Cherries
1.3kg Sugar
1tsp Pectin enzyme
4.5l water
Yeast and nutrient.
Stone the cherries. Pour boiling water over the crushed berries. Add pectin enzyme when cool. After two days strain onto sugar and nutrient, add yeast and leave. after a day pour into a demijohn a continue ferment as usual.
I've not had a problem with any other recipes from this book

 

[oldbloke]

Whatever else you do, rack it to a new demijohn to get rid of that sediment, and when you do top it up to get the ABV down to something sensible.
With 1.3k sugar and the cherries the yeast may have given up due to the amount of alcohol, before finishing all the sugar. Dilute it a bit and it may get going again.
I've not done cherry but I can imagine it needing some aging time - when you say it tasted awful did you mean bitter?

 

[carly93]

Thanks I'll try racking it off and diluting it, yeah it was slightly bitter, it really hit me on the back of my throat...it doesn't smell bad though :S
Thanks for your help

 

[oldbloke]

OK bitterness is mostly due to tannin, a slight dilution when you top up after racking will help and a little aging will help much more. In 6 months it could be very good, even if the racking doesn't get the yeast going again

 

[carly93]

So i've racked it into another demijohn and added about a pint of water...and pretty much straight away it started bubbling...Yay!!!
although that was about an hour ago and now nothing is happening again
Any more tips??

Thanks

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I don't make wine from fruit just juice, i have never had one stop, read this thread you might find something that interests you - viewtopic.php?f=41&t=39846

 

[oldbloke]

It may have just de-gassed following the disturbance, might be interesting to see what the gravity is now.

 

[carly93]

Just an update on the cherry wine situation...
about 48 hours after i re-racked it into a clean demijohn it didn't start fermenting again. so i tried to get some outside opinions (family etc) on the taste...none of them would taste it after announcing in smelt of vinegar, so i poured it down the drain
This is our first wine that has gone bad,
thanks for everyones help though :)