Elderberry wine - stopped fermenting

[milster]

I'm trying my first attempt at Elderberry wine (pretty new to this whole brewing lark to be honest) and I'm following a recipe I found online. It's a recipe to make 5 gallons. I extracted my juice, added sugar water, yeast, covered with a cloth and left. The recipe suggested 10 day or less. It started off like a trooper and completely stunk the house out (more to my excitement than my other half's!)

After 10 days or less you are then to add some more sugar water (5lb in 5pts), add airlock and leave again. I did this after 8 days but there is no action as yet. I'm worries that it has stopped fermenting.

I was thinking I might add some more yeast and some nutrient - is this advisable? Is it likely to start fermenting by itself after a few days? Any advice welcome

 

[Moley]

What sort of fermenter is your wine in now? Is it airtight?
The bubbles won't bother going through the airlock if they can get under the lid.

Do you have a hydrometer? If so, what does it say?

Put your ear against the fermenter, can you hear it fizzing?
Remove the lid and put your nose in, can you inhale without choking?

 

[milster]

It's in an airtight container. I took a hydrometer reading before putting the additional sugar water in and it was about 0.997 I think (got it wrote down at home) - I haven't taken a reading since

It doesn't seem to be fizzing and the smell isn't anything like it was for the first few days when it went nuts

 

[Moley]

.997 and then you added 5lbs sugar making the volume up to 5 gallons?
That should give you a new gravity around 1.035

Just because you think the fermenter is airtight doesn't mean it is. I've got a 5 gallon Young's fermenter, the O ring in the lid needs a light smear of Vaseline and even then I really had to screw the rubber bung tight into the lid to get it to seal.

Fermentation will slow down, and it might take a day or two to sort itself out again after you've strained, racked or otherwise messed with it. I assume you boiled your sugar to a syrup and then allowed it to cool before adding?

 

[milster]

Yeah, I let it cool right down so it shouldn't have killed the yeast. I'll give it a couple of days then to see if it starts going again and give the rim a rub with vaseline (so to speak!). If there's no joy in a couple of days do you think a small amount of yeast would get it going again?

Cheers for the help Moley

 

[Moley]

Check the gravity when you get home, then again after 24 hours.

If nothing's happening I'll talk you through re-start procedure, but I'd be surprised if that was necessary.

 

[milster]

Will do, thanks again Moley