- Joined
- Feb 16, 2012
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In addition to brewing beer I also make quite a bit of wine (from kits mostly) for my non-beer drinking wife and friends. I've been doing this since the mid-70s and usually produce 5-10 wines each year. Wine kits are easy to make, and don't require a great amount of skill or equipment to produce some very palatable wines. I currently have four different varietals fermenting that were started within 4 days of each other under nearly identical processes and conditions last month. All are higher quality kits from reputable sources and haven't been sitting on a store shelf for several years waiting to be sold. All the included yeast sachets were well within their "use by" dates.
The most common dry yeast included in wine kits is Lavlin EC-1118 which I've used for years with very good results. Three of the wines I now have fermenting used EC-1118 and have reached Final Gravity in the range from 0.995-0.997 SG and are ready for clarification and stabilization before bulk aging. The outlier here is an Aussie Shiraz that came with Lavlin RC 212, which is listed as a Saccharomyces Cerevisiae and is recommended for both high gravity beers as well as red varietal wines.
Anyway, after three weeks in a sealed stainless fermenter the gravity has stalled out at 1.001~1.000 SG and hasn't really budged for the last 5 days. Initial gravity was 1.092 SG, and predicted terminal gravity should be at least 0.997~0.998 SG. RC 212 supposedly tolerates alcohol in the 12-14% range, and the initial fermentation started normally and was strong during the first 10 days. Temperature in the fermentation area was a stable 66F. I need to get the gravity down at least another 3-4 points but there's no sign that it's moving.
I had a wild idea to add a few milliliters of amyloglucodaise to the fermenter to see if it might kickstart the fermentation into completion but I'm not sure that enzyme would have anything to convert. My other alternative is to trudge to the LHBS and buy a couple packets of champaign yeast to see if it could restart and finish the job. Either path has some risk of failure, and I really don't want to blow my $150 investment.
Any thoughts?
Brooo Brother
The most common dry yeast included in wine kits is Lavlin EC-1118 which I've used for years with very good results. Three of the wines I now have fermenting used EC-1118 and have reached Final Gravity in the range from 0.995-0.997 SG and are ready for clarification and stabilization before bulk aging. The outlier here is an Aussie Shiraz that came with Lavlin RC 212, which is listed as a Saccharomyces Cerevisiae and is recommended for both high gravity beers as well as red varietal wines.
Anyway, after three weeks in a sealed stainless fermenter the gravity has stalled out at 1.001~1.000 SG and hasn't really budged for the last 5 days. Initial gravity was 1.092 SG, and predicted terminal gravity should be at least 0.997~0.998 SG. RC 212 supposedly tolerates alcohol in the 12-14% range, and the initial fermentation started normally and was strong during the first 10 days. Temperature in the fermentation area was a stable 66F. I need to get the gravity down at least another 3-4 points but there's no sign that it's moving.
I had a wild idea to add a few milliliters of amyloglucodaise to the fermenter to see if it might kickstart the fermentation into completion but I'm not sure that enzyme would have anything to convert. My other alternative is to trudge to the LHBS and buy a couple packets of champaign yeast to see if it could restart and finish the job. Either path has some risk of failure, and I really don't want to blow my $150 investment.
Any thoughts?
Brooo Brother
