Agave wine...not fermenting?

[tom_gamer]

So I went to Costco the other day and found Agave syrup on sale. I figured I could make a gallon and see if its good.

I boiled it with some water, cooled off, pitch champagne yeast..and nothing. I also added some fermax or what ever its called. The ferm temp has been in the low 70s.

Anybody have any experience with Agave?

Thinking of getting another packet of yeast and pitching it. It's been about 5 days and no action. Haven't checked the gravity because I didn't want to get anything nasty into mixture.

 

[casebrew]

Try a 'starter' on the next package of yeast. Get it going in sugar water first.

Also, read the ingredients carefully- is there anything added that might inhibit 'spoilage'. like the way yeast spoils sweet things into alcohol?

 

[Atek]

Uh... what was the recipe? How much syrup in the gallon, any idea on a gravity?

 

[tom_gamer]

Starter is a good idea. I'll have to try it. I don't remember on top of my head what the gravity was, I'm sitting the theater about watch some 3D Star Wars! I do know it was pretty high. I made too much and had some and it was super sweet.

 

[kurtism]

i have agave syrup from costco. its organic and has no preservatives in it. i've thought of fermenting it but we use it as a sugar sub so i never have enough extra.

agave should not be boiled. it would have dissolved easily in hot tap water but that might not be why it is stuck. did you try oxygenating it?

 

[tom_gamer]

i have agave syrup from costco. its organic and has no preservatives in it. i've thought of fermenting it but we use it as a sugar sub so i never have enough extra.

agave should not be boiled. it would have dissolved easily in hot tap water but that might not be why it is stuck. did you try oxygenating it?

I got the same one. Maybe I shouldn't have boiled it, just a habit I guess. I shock it like crazy, shouldn't have been an issue. I repitched some yeast, went crazy, I had to put a blow off tube on it. Then it seemed to have stopped again. I'll just let it sit for a while.

I used both containers.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

I made an agave wine from store bought syrups a few years ago. I used about 50% "medium" and 50% "light" syrups. The OG was around 1.100. The finished product had an ABV of around 10% using Red Star Côte des Blancs yeast. It finished sweet and tasted like a fruity, white dessert wine.

A slight aside: I made the wine mostly to settle an argument about making tequila-like products without distillation. Store bought agave syrups will add NO appreciable tequila-like flavors to any wine, beer, cider, or mead. They are too refined. I'm not aware of any readily available fermentable product that will add such flavors

 

[dwitz]

I just can't get the fermentation to start! It's organic Agave syrup with tnothing else, I have now diluted to a lower density hoping that would help. Any new thoughts?

 

[bernardsmith]

Your yeast... are you certain that it was good? Did you open a new pack or use left overs from a pack you had already opened?

 

[jensmith]

Recipie please. Starting sg would be very helpfull as well as yeast type.


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[PatrickSweetman]

Another approach with troublesome juices is to get a starter culture going with apple juice, which will always work unless your yeast is dead. Then pour half of the starter into the Agave juice and replace the used starter with Agave. If your Agave juice is full of sorbate or is otherwise toxic then it will kill your yeast starter and you will know by the next day. Otherwise, if the yeast just needs to be equilibrated to the Agave then repeat the mixing process every day.

I once made pineapple wine from canned juice and had to do that. But there must have been sorbate or some other preservative in the juice because the resulting wine was revolting and it smelled and tasted nothing like pineapples. Wine made from fresh pineapples, currently fermenting, appears good.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Store bought agave syrups will add NO appreciable tequila-like flavors to any wine, beer, cider, or mead. They are too refined. I'm not aware of any readily available fermentable product that will add such flavors

Any updates on this?

 

[nickOra]

Hi I'm in the process, just fermenting some OJ I pressed to which added 2Q of this same "organic blue agave" syrup from costco; I ended up with one extra Gallon (of spring water + 1Q of the syrup + yeast) that I used as starter/dilutent for the OJ and to which I just put the airlock on top. The OJ+Water+Syrup is very active, but the Water+Syrup is not showing any activity. Came in to add to the discussion, and ask if the acidity might be the factor? or maybe costco used the word organic as branding, and misess to mention preservatives in the product label. thx