First wine is in primary

5 Gal. cranberry, quick n dirty store juice. fingers are crossed.

Good luck! Patience is the biggest factor.

I'm trying real hard not to babysit Its tough though. I was gonna load some ammo to distract myself, but my bench is right beside my ferm. room

I think I have a problem. Coming up on 24 hrs, and no bubbles! Now what?!

nukinfuts29 said:

Good luck! Patience is the biggest factor.

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I may have a problem. Coming up on 24 hrs and no bubbles. Now what!?

What was your recipe?

DoctorCAD said:

What was your recipe?

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And yeast

1 gal. juice
1 3/4 lb. sugar
2 1/2 tsp acid blend
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
1/2 tsp energizer
1 campden
yeast


I just multiplied everything x5, per the book. Except sugar, 8 3/4 lb. seemed crazy to me so I put 4. Book did not specify yeast type so I used cotes des blanc.

03fxsti said:

I may have a problem. Coming up on 24 hrs and no bubbles. Now what!?

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Double check your juice container to make sure you don't see the words "sorbate" or "benzoate"!

Yooper said:

Double check your juice container to make sure you don't see the words "sorbate" or "benzoate"!

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Nope they were good, I checked em double and triple checked em, only vit. C

03fxsti said:

Nope they were good, I checked em double and triple checked em, only vit. C

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Alright, then! Don't worry. But to make yourself feel better, grab a sanitized spoon and stir it up well.

I assume you added the campden 24 hours before the yeast, so it should get going pretty soon.

Edit- did you mean 2.5 teaspoons TOTAL of acid blend? and not per gallon, right?

No, 2.5 tsp per gallon. Is that bad? Also pitched yeast immediately. Did not wait 24 hours. Did I dick this up bad or what? The book said multiply all ingredients x5 EXCEPT yeast.

03fxsti said:

No, 2.5 tsp per gallon. Is that bad? Also pitched yeast immediately. Did not wait 24 hours. Did I dick this up bad or what? The book said multiply all ingredients x5 EXCEPT yeast.

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Well..........you always mix up all of the must except for the pectin enzyme and yeast. It won't hurt to add the pectic enzyme when you add the campden, it'll just render the pectic enzyme less effective. But since campden is a method to sanitize the must by killing microorganisms, it can stun wine yeast. I'd consider adding more tomorrow.

The acid blend is use for flavoring, to make wines more tart with more acid in them. 2.5 teaspoons is a LOT. That might make your wine exceedingly tart (which cranberry is, anyway), but it also might make the pH of the must very low and make it harder to ferment.

At this point, I'd just add more yeast if it doesn't start by tomorrow, and keep stirring the must today to aerate it a bit.

OK, I just gave it a good stir. If it doesn't take off by the time i get home from work tomorrow, I'll feed it some more yeast. I just reread the recipe, and it clearly says wait 24 hours to pitch. dangit I just was too geeked up about makin wine.

03fxsti said:

OK, I just gave it a good stir. If it doesn't take off by the time i get home from work tomorrow, I'll feed it some more yeast. I just reread the recipe, and it clearly says wait 24 hours to pitch. dangit I just was too geeked up about makin wine.

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It's ok! Wine yeast is pretty tolerant of sulfites (that's why we use them!) but a large dosage of it can stun the yeast a bit. That's why you wait. It's not a big deal- it should get going but if not, you can add some more yeast. At least it's cheap!

yea, what yooper said.

i only put campden tabs in (the day before) with actual fruit and a little more with handpicked (wild/natural/organic/etc..)

it should come around with another pack of yeasties

stay enthused. it only gets better with time

My Scary Cranberry is now in secondary and cruising right along. I had a little taste when I racked it off and it wasn't bad.

Just reread your op. I should've mentioned that 8.5 lbs of sugar for 5 gallons isn't unheard of. You just have to factor which yeast strain you are using (in this case next time) and whT the abv max is. I don't have my recipes handy but I know I have used more than that, for sure 10 lbs in a 5 gal batch, probably more.

Yeah, I think I'll use this batch as a kind of test batch, and adjust what I need to. After all, I have 10 months till Thanksgiving. Thanks for your help.