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VinoD

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I am very new to this whole wine making experience. I am doing a 5 gallon batch of strawberry. Here's the recipe I'm doing (times 5 obviously).

• 4 to 5 pints strawberries
• 4 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
• 1 lemon, juice and rind
• 1 campden tablet
• 1/2 teaspoon pectic enzyme
• 1 package wine yeast
• 1 gallon water

Stir daily for five days.
Strain the must and squeeze out as much juice as you can from the fruit. Siphon into secondary fermentor and place airlock.

For a sweet wine, rack in three weeks. Add 1/2 cup sugar dissolved in 1 cup wine. Stir gently, and place back into secondary fermentor. Repeat process every six weeks until fermentation does not restart with the addition of sugar. Rack every three months until one year old.

Last Saturday, the 11th, was the 3 week rack back into the secondary with more sugar added. As of tonight, the airlock is releasing less than once every 5 minutes, if at all. I got tired watching to see if it would pop off.

Is this the expected or normal way things should be going?? The recipe says to rack and add sugar every 6 weeks until fermentation does not re-start. Seems like it's all done now, to me.

Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated.
 
I wouldn't depend on the airlock to tell me if the wine is finished. I would not bottle anything unless I knew for sure that it wouldn't lead to an explosive situation. Are you planning on stabilizing your wine?
 
That is exactly what I mean. Wouldn't want to have exploding bottles after all that work. :D

Check the sweetness to ensure it is where you want it, degas and stabilize and you should be ready to bottle.

Remember that wine sweetens in the bottle so don't go overboard if you plan on back sweetening. I speak from experience about over-sweetening before bottling and have one batch that could be a dessert on its own. :p
 
Nurmey said:
..... degas and stabilize and you should be ready to bottle.
Click to expand...

O.K. Here's where the newbie gets lost.

I'm not familiar with "degassing". I guess I'm wrong in assuming that if the airlock has stopped popping off the gas is all gone?? :confused: Does the wine need gas removed at less than atmospheric pressure?

Appreciate your help. ;)
 
VinoD said:
O.K. Here's where the newbie gets lost.

I'm not familiar with "degassing". I guess I'm wrong in assuming that if the airlock has stopped popping off the gas is all gone?? :confused: Does the wine need gas removed at less than atmospheric pressure?

Appreciate your help. ;)
Click to expand...

"Degas" means to actually manually help remove the gas from the wine. If you leave the wine to age in the carboy for a long period of time, then it's generally not necessary. But young wines, and wines at a relatively cool temperature "hold" onto co2. The co2 produced during fermentation just doesn't have enough pressure to it once fermentation is done to go out of the carboy. (It's like the airlock sort of holds it in there). So, if the wine isn't degassed, the wine will be lightly carbonated. That's not desireable, so it's recommended to degas the wine. This can be done through some stirring through the opening in the carboy, until no bubbles or foam appears. In a really gassy wine, sometimes it's necessary to even use a "wine whip" and a drill to stir it up.

If the wine is flat, and not bubbly when you take a hydrometer sample, then it's fine to bottle as it is. I don't like to degas my wines, because of the risk of oxidizing them. So I just let them sit a very long time before bottling.

If you do degas, make sure you add campden tablets (at the rate of 1 per gallon, crushed and dissolved) immediately after so you don't get any oxidation from the stirring.
 
Ummm...........I think I have another problem.

My inexperience let me neglect to stick the hydrometer in the batch. :cool:
Which I just did. I'm still at 1.006 with no visible fermentation going on. Did I "run out" of yeast??

What now??
 
If your hydrometer was at least clean you should be okay. There should be enough alcohol that it will not affect it.

No you did not "run out of yeast"; instead, you may have run out of fermentable sugars. Next, how long has the wine been at 1.006? Also, how long are you waiting before you plan on bottling? As Yooper mentioned, the longer it sits the better. I have a strawberry and lime wine that are going to bulk age 6-8 months before I bottle, then at least another 6 months of bottle aging. Not only will that solve the degassing issue, the wine should have fermented all the sugars it can.
 
barracudamagoo said:
If your hydrometer was at least clean you should be okay. There should be enough alcohol that it will not affect it.
Yes. Hydrometer was sanitized and put into a sample bit of the batch I had siphoned into a graduated cylinder.

barracudamagoo said:
No you did not "run out of yeast"; instead, you may have run out of fermentable sugars. Next, how long has the wine been at 1.006?
Click to expand...

That, I do not know. Like I said..........inexperience and just new to the hydrometer thing. after getting a reading on the initial mixture it
completely slipped my mind until yesterday.

barracudamagoo said:
Also, how long are you waiting before you plan on bottling?
Click to expand...

As long as I need to, I guess. I'm more interested in the end product being successful rather than how quickly I can be done with it. Whatever it takes.

Even though there's no obvious fermentation going on, should I keep taking hydrometer readings?? If so, how often??
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
VinoD said:
Yes. Hydrometer was sanitized and put into a sample bit of the batch I had siphoned into a graduated cylinder.
Click to expand...

I misunderstood your previous post; I thought you stuck the hydrometer into the entire batch. If you took a sample it should be fine. Remember to not put the sample back into the batch, either drink it or pour it down the drain.

VinoD said:
Even though there's no obvious fermentation going on, should I keep taking hydrometer readings?? If so, how often??
Click to expand...

I take a reading at the very beginning (OG), before I pitch the yeast. After the yeast has been pitched I will take a gravtiy reading each time I rack to a new fermentation vessel; this is approximately every 2 months.
 
Yeah...........I re-read what I typed and that's what it sounds like to me too. What I did was to siphon some into a sanitized cylinder and dropped the hydro (which I had sanitized, too) in that. I did, however, dump that back into the carboy.

I did take an initial reading on the pre-yeast must of 1.092. But that's where I forgot all about my hydrometer until yesterday. I missed a reading when I strained the must and then again when I racked it off the bottom yeast slime (my term :D).

Guess I should leave it sit a while and take another reading.

How long can I leave it sit in a, basically, stalled state before I have to add potassium sorbate and sulfite?
 
VinoD said:
How long can I leave it sit in a, basically, stalled state before I have to add potassium sorbate and sulfite?
Click to expand...

First of all, it's not in a stalled state. You don't know that it won't ferment lower, and you can check it whenever you want. Most people don't worry about it, and just check it "later". When the wine is crystal clear, and you rack it to another carboy to get it off the lees is a good time to check the SG.

I let my wines sit in a carboy for a long time. I have a rhubarb wine in a carboy that I made in May of 2008. It's clear, and it's finished, but it's fine where it is until I bottle it. Since I'm not sweetening it, I won't be adding sorbate. I do use sulfite at every other racking, though. Usually, I use one crushed campden tablet per gallon at every other racking, which keeps the sulfites in a good range to help preserve the wine and help prevent oxidation during racking.

I'd let the wine sit now, and see if the SG drops. If you get some thick lees, you can rack it whenever it needs it but you can wait 30-45 days at least between rackings.
 
Thanks to all for the extremely helpful replies. ;)

Will let the batch sit for a while and re-check the SG. What I have now looks beautiful and even tastes not too bad. Just that the hydrometer reading tossed me off balance in what I thought I knew should be taking place. I know I'm a lot better off fermenting with SG readings than I was my first year without them. But my ignorance last year was truly bliss. :eek:
 

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