what did i do wrong

hello i recently had to commit a cardinal sin much to my chagrin. i had to dump a 5 gallon batch of cherry wine made from store bought juice because i couldn't stop the fermentation. here's the story from the beginning. first the recipe 8-64 oz bottles of ocean spray cherry juice cocktail 1 gallon spring water 10 lbs sugar 4 T nutrient and red star cuvee yeast mixed together in glass carboy at first all was excellent great thumping low foam then after about 4 days it stopped i concluded that its close proximity to the a/c and cold air had caused a stuck ferment then due to work (curse of the homebrewer) having a crazy.schedule i was unable to tend it as needed so i got a pack of red star montrachat and 2 lbs sugar and added in an attempt to refire the must which was successful and after another 10 days or so it had passed the latent spark stage and was almost finished so i added 5 campden tablets in order to kill the ferment which didn't work then i added potassium sulfate which also failed to kill the ferment then as a last ditch i put it in the fridge to cold shock it and guess what.......YUP you guessed it still kicking even to the point one gallon blew its lid in the fridge trying all i knew to do i ended up dumping it (sniff sniff) what should i do next time if this happens again is there another additive i can use

Did you degas it? Are you sure it was fermenting and not just releasing CO2? Did u take hydrometer readings?

i did neither i usually take a pre ferm hydrometer reading but no post as i prefer a very dry wine and i have never degassed any and have really no experience at it what is the easiest way to do it for future reference also one thing i forgot to mention was i aerated with a blow wand the first few days after refiring would that make a significant difference im still kinda green around the edges at this

csacannoneer said:

i did neither i usually take a pre ferm hydrometer reading but no post as i prefer a very dry wine and i have never degassed any and have really no experience at it what is the easiest way to do it for future reference also one thing i forgot to mention was i aerated with a blow wand the first few days after refiring would that make a significant difference im still kinda green around the edges at this

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You can buy a degassing rod from any LHBS. It shouldn't be much and you can attach it to the end of a power drill and degas it before you bottle.

When you take a hydrometer reading and it is constant at a certain point like 1.000 or .996 etc. for a certain time that will tell you that it is done fermenting. If it is still releasing bubbles through the airlock when you know it's done fermenting that is the CO2 as stated by someone above.

thanks noe ill most certainly keep that in mind for future reference it killed my soul to watch $20 of materials go down the drain

Next time let the yeast do their thing & leave it alone till it's done. It would likely have done just fine if you had done so this time. It's tough sometimes to let it be, but a lot of the time, that's really all that's required.
Regards, GF.

i was kinda pushed for time due to only having one carboy and wanting to get my very first batch of edwort's infamous apfelwein started for a halloween finished aging.date but now that i have an almost infinite source of data and information here on hbf ill know next time thanks cheers and long ashes

You CANNOT stop a very active fermentation under normal circumstances. Campden won't do it, sorbate won't do it and a refrigerator won't do it.

To "stop" a fermentation, you would need to pasteurize or freeze or sterile filter.

Tons of people every day post about not being able to ferment and you just slapped them in the face by throwing an active ferment out. Bummer...

the ferment was NOT vigorous it was at about.the strength of your average glass of soda i had actually shut one down at this strength before by using the fridge and it worked perfectly

of course it didn't stop it.
12 lbs of sugar and nutrient in 5 gallons. 4 days wasn't a stuck ferment, it was high CO2 levels that needed to be degassed. 14 days total is a short time.The only thing thats going to stop it is yeast die-off from alcohol intolerance. about 14% for the yeast you mentioned.

it was originally 10 lbs and i figured due to being directly under the ac unit on a hard cold cement floor it stuck

you should really consider brewing beer, it sounds like you are impatient, you do not need to tend to wine that much anyways just rack it after primary and leave it alone for a few weeks. Wine takes time to

A. Stop fermenting
B. Clarify
C. Degass
D. Age if needed

If you can't wait for these things to happen you should not be making wine.

I'm confused as to why you dumped it? Its next to impossible to stop a fermentation (short of pasteurizing) before all the fermentable sugar is gone. If you wanted it on the sweet side you should have just let it finish fermenting, racked it off the lees, stabilized with sulfite and sorbate, then backsweetened it.

i have comsidered making beer but ive been making wine for over a year with excellent results and never had this problem arise i did everything by the book so to say but one thing i didnt mention that occured which leads me to believe that it had gassed up was after it had ceased i moved the carboy and it refired itsself and i guess i should have left it be at that point but i didnt