Bad juice???

After making two batches of Merlot from mail order concentrate kits (drinking the first and loving it) I decided to try a local grape supplier and bypass the kit. Instead of getting fresh grapes I got two five gallon buckets of Merlot juice and two packets of yeast and headed home. When I went to pitch the yeast I found that one bucket had nice juice (SG 1.030) and the other looked like the stuff left at the bottom of the fermentor (kind of purple milkish in color) and had some skin residue (SG 1.014). Being the supplier was over a half hour a way I pitched the yeast rather then return it. Both are currently bubbling away.

Anyone have any ideas what I can expect from the second batch??

Not much if those are the correct SG's.

Yeah, those SGs are *very* low. If that's correct you need to add some sugar to that fermentation or you are going to get beer-Utah-sells-on-Sunday levels of ABV%.

I realized that now that both of those SGs are way low. I was really only worried about the lowest but the two kits I made in the past had a SG around 1.070. So now these have been fermenting for about 4 days now. Can I add regular sugar to them at this point??

And is there a way to calculate how much sugar I need to add to a 5 gallon batch to raise the beginning Specific Gravity??

vanceromance said:

And is there a way to calculate how much sugar I need to add to a 5 gallon batch to raise the beginning Specific Gravity??

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I wonder if they were already fermenting when you got them- those OGs do NOT make any sense at all. I'd call the company right away and ask what the OG was for them.

If they were fermenting already am I OK?? Add sugar?? Dump them??

vanceromance said:

If they were fermenting already am I OK?? Add sugar?? Dump them??

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I wouldn't add sugar, until I knew what the OG was of the grapes. You can call the grower- they'll tell you (in brix) what it should have been.

I can't get them today because it is Sunday but assuming that the OG was good at about 1.070 and had starting fermenting on its own should I keep it going?? This supplier sells lots of grapes and juice so I am assuming that the original gravity had to be OK.

vanceromance said:

I can't get them today because it is Sunday but assuming that the OG was good at about 1.070 and had starting fermenting on its own should I keep it going?? This supplier sells lots of grapes and juice so I am assuming that the original gravity had to be OK.

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Yes.

I would be surprised if the OG was as low as 1.070. Most wine grapes will give you 23 brix or so, at least. That would be more like 1.100.

What do you think my chances are of getting a decent wine if it had starting fermenting on its own?? I'm going to keep it going now anyway but wondering what are the chances it will come out OK. I love the first kit I made and was hoping that using fresh juice from a local supplier would be even better.

Well that's how they did it back in the day... natural yeasties on the fruit did all the work. Well that or the old water to wine trick. But decidedly no packets

True. I'll guess I'll have to wait and see.

Time is going to be your best friend, I'll bet.