I too have fallen victim to Cranberry Wine...

[Sebrinak]

I keep reading how hard it is to get fresh cranberries to ferment, and I just keep hoping my batch will take off with each little fix I try. I started it a week and a half ago, a 5-gallon batch. I am not near my recipe right now so I cant list that out, but so far no action. I added more water to try and dilute it out a little, if I remember right my sg is sitting just under 1.1. It started around 1.13. I have also added a second pitch of rehydrated 1118, though I didn't reverse add, which would be my next attempt at getting this thing to bubble. I also moved my bucket to sit on top of my heater vent, I keep my house at 70 so this might or might not help. I do know that my recipe called for either energizer or nutrient at the time of mixing too, and I wonder if adding more nutrients now that time has passed could help. I don't really have any questions at the moment as there is info out there about this issue, but if someone else gets into this pickle, I don't want to not share.

 

[Raptor99]

I also have just started a batch of cranberry wine, and have had difficulty getting fermentation to begin. Before I share what I tried today, let me summarize:

There are several possible reasons that beginning fermentation could be difficult. Many of these do not apply to your situation, but I wanted to summarize what I have learned:

1. The yeast is not viable (dead, outdated)
2. The pH is too low (less than 3.0)
3. The SG is too high (I'm not sure what the upper limit is for 1118)
4. The temperate is too low
5. The juice contains preservatives
6. The yeast needs to be hydrated at the proper temperature

If you have already added some nutrients, then adding more won't fix this. Especially in the early stages of fermentation, too much DAP can actually poison the yeast, so this is definitely not the case of "the more, the better." Sometimes more nutrients can fix a stuck fermentation, if the yeast have run out of nutrients later on in the process.

In my case, since something was wrong, I wanted to give my yeast every advantage. So here is what I did yesterday:
* I adjusted my pH up to 3.11 using potassium bicarbonate (cranberries have a low pH)
* My OG is 1.08, so that is not a problem
* I got some new, fresh yeast
* I hydrated the yeast with GoFerm, carefully following the temperature guidelines on the package
* Put the starter jar in a warm water bath to keep it warm
* Once there were signs of beginning fermention (about 30 min.), I added a small amount of must (= about half of the volume of the hydration water) to the starting jar.
* I waited again until there were clear signs of fermentation, then added a little more must to my starting jar. I did this several times, until I had about 3/4 of a quart jar for my starter
* I let the starter work overnight, to produce millions of of yeast cells.
* This morning I added the starter to the must, without stirring. The yeast like to be in a colony at the beginning.
* I will begin twice-daily stirring tonight

I don't normally go through quite this much trouble, but since my first attempt didn't work, I want to get this fermenting. One advantage of creating a starter is that you can verify that your yeast is working before adding it to the must.

Tomorrow morning I will see if my must is fermenting!

 

[Sebrinak]

I also have just started a batch of cranberry wine, and have had difficulty getting fermentation to begin. Before I share what I tried today, let me summarize:

There are several possible reasons that beginning fermentation could be difficult. Many of these do not apply to your situation, but I wanted to summarize what I have learned:

1. The yeast is not viable (dead, outdated)
2. The pH is too low (less than 3.0)
3. The SG is too high (I'm not sure what the upper limit is for 1118)
4. The temperate is too low
5. The juice contains preservatives
6. The yeast needs to be hydrated at the proper temperature

If you have already added some nutrients, then adding more won't fix this. Especially in the early stages of fermentation, too much DAP can actually poison the yeast, so this is definitely not the case of "the more, the better." Sometimes more nutrients can fix a stuck fermentation, if the yeast have run out of nutrients later on in the process.

In my case, since something was wrong, I wanted to give my yeast every advantage. So here is what I did yesterday:
* I adjusted my pH up to 3.11 using potassium bicarbonate (cranberries have a low pH)
* My OG is 1.08, so that is not a problem
* I got some new, fresh yeast
* I hydrated the yeast with GoFerm, carefully following the temperature guidelines on the package
* Put the starter jar in a warm water bath to keep it warm
* Once there were signs of beginning fermention (about 30 min.), I added a small amount of must (= about half of the volume of the hydration water) to the starting jar.
* I waited again until there were clear signs of fermentation, then added a little more must to my starting jar. I did this several times, until I had about 3/4 of a quart jar for my starter
* I let the starter work overnight, to produce millions of of yeast cells.
* This morning I added the starter to the must, without stirring. The yeast like to be in a colony at the beginning.
* I will begin twice-daily stirring tonight

I don't normally go through quite this much trouble, but since my first attempt didn't work, I want to get this fermenting. One advantage of creating a starter is that you can verify that your yeast is working before adding it to the must.

Tomorrow morning I will see if my must is fermenting!

I too have started this "reverse pitch" process tonight. I don't have ph strips, coming tomorrow. My gravity is at 1.09, thats after adding about a gallon of water, was up at 1.13 before that. I wet pitch all my yeast so I know it was working when I put it in. Think it's just a case of fresh berries being finicky. I absolutely love cranberry wine and really want my homemade one to work! I love all the learning that happens with making wine.

 

[lukebuz]

The advice about making a super-duper starter are the key. Start it 2 days in advance, in a little sugar water. When it's good and foamy, add a bit of must. Repeat. Repeat. Have a monster starter, and it'll go!

 

[Sebrinak]

It worked! That reverse pitch thing got it going. Had to split it into 2 buckets to avoid Any over night explosion. Lol

 

[Jacob_Marley]

Cranberry juice naturally contains quite a bit of benzoic acid, which is a cousin of the preservative Sodium Benzoate. This can make it more difficult to get a ferment started and prevent it from stalling.
The preservative effects of the benzoic acid are stronger at low pH and less at higher pH. (in other words, higher pH ... ie. less acidic ... makes it easier to ferment.) So I make sure to adjust the pH to at least approx pH 3.6 - this is particularly because I use 71B-1122 for yeast (rather than something more bullet-proof) . Anything pH 3.0 or under and I risk stalling. As a slight additional protection from a pH drop during ferment, the potassium in the potassium bicarb I adjust with, provides some extra buffering protection.

I also make sure to primary ferment in an open top bucket and use both DAP and an energizer during the first 1/3 rd of the primary ferment.

I make cranberry wine from straight cranberries rather than store-bought cranberry juice.
Cranberries also have a fair amount of pectin in them so I always treat the must with pectinase before pitching the yeast.

Cranberries have a good amount of natural tannin ... and particularly because you macerate/ferment on the skins (with the crushed cranberries in the must) ... no additional tannin is needed or desired ... and particularly because of the way store-bought grape tannin molecularly changes to being more astringent as the wine is aged.

I freeze and thaw them, bring them to room temp and crush/cuisinart them, add water to the crushed berries (about 4 gallons water to 20 lbs cranberries), add pectic enzyme and let sit overnight. Then, adjust the pH & chaptalize to about 1.080.

To pitch: I rehydrate the yeast properly in straight water *first* ... and then make a starter of about 8oz grape juice and a tablespoon of sugar and the rehydrated yeast ... shake ... and then over a few hours add 3 or so 5oz doses of the cranberry slurry into to the starter jar, shaking after each and keeping in a warm place. Then I pitch-in the starter and we're off to the races.

I stabilize, fine and backsweeten. The wine has very strong cranberry flavor and brilliant color.
It is extremely important to age cranberry wine ... the flavor change from aging is extraordinary. I bottle in about 6 months and then try to not drink it for another full year

 

[Raptor99]

My procedure is very similar to @Jacob_Marley.

For cranberry wine, I adjust the pH to around 3.3. I use K1-V1116, which is good for dark berries and is very tolerant of adverse conditions (such as low pH and preservatives such as benzoic acid.

Making a yeast starter is very helpful for hard to ferment musts. I rehydrate with GoFerm instead of grape juice and sugar, then gradually add in some of the must a little at a time. In my 2020 batch I was able to start fermentation at pH 2.8 using this method.