wine fermentation problems

Hi, I'm making a pineapple/orange juice wine (combining 2 recipes). The problem I have is that the fermentation has seemed to pause after 3 days, and has been paused now for 2 days. The liquid is moving around on its own (swirling), but I checked today and yesterday and the spec. grav. don't seam to be moving. Whats with the swirling and how do I get it to start up again. this is a 6 gallon batch, I had added 1 1/2 tsp of energizer when I started it, is that enough or does it need something else. Pleeeeaaase help, thanks in advance.

My 1st guess would be a low PH. Pineapple & orange juice have a lot of acid(s) in them & if your PH goes too low, the yeast won't ferment. If you have a PH test kit, take a reading & adjust PH as needed. It would help to know your recipe too. Regards, GF.

I agree with gratus. Your likely problem is an acidic must - not an ideal environment for your yeast. Per Jack Keller:

Calcium carbonate reacts preferentially with tartaric rather than malic acid, so one should not try to reduce acidity more thab 0.3 to 0.4% through its use. A dose of 2.5 grams per gallon of wine lowers TA about 0.1%. After its use, the wine should be bulk aged at least 6 months to allow calcium malate, a byproduct of calcium carbonate use, to precipitate from the wine. The wine should then be cold stabilized to ensure tartrate crystals do not precipitate out after bottling.

Potassium bicarbonate is used to deacidify a wine with a low pH (below 3.5), but should not be used to reduce acidity more than 0.3%. A dose of 3.4 grams per gallon of wine lowers acidity by about 0.1%. After use, the wine should be cold stabilized, as up to 30% of the potential acid reduction occurs during cold stabilization. It will cause a greater rise in pH than calcium carbonate for an equivalent reduction in acidity.

Finally, potassium bitartrate (a.k.a. Cream of Tartar) is used as a catalyst to help promote cold stabilization. It promotes the formation of tartrate crystals and is used at the rate of 2 to 5 grams per gallon, followed by vigorous stirring. Its use results in better and quicker stabilization, and these benefits will occur at slightly higher temperatures than without it.

I also agree with above but with the swirling around I also believe that you are getting false readings due to lots of C02 in your wine suspending you hydrometer. extract a sample and stir it up good to get the gas out and take a reading on that. I cant say if that amount of energizer is enough since you didnt state the volume of this batch. What was the starting sg, what is the temp. You should keep the temp in the lower to mid 70's and stir it up at least every other day to get 02 into your wine until the sg reaches about 1.015 and then either stir everything up and rack to carboy or let it finish fermenting in the bucket but transfer immediately when finished fermenting.