At a loss

[cris01us]

I've started a batch of typical "cheapo wine" and could use some direction. My first main mistake is that I forgot to get the potential gravity measure so now I can't really calculate my current ABV. My recipe is:
-8 cups sugar
-2 cans frozen concentrate
-7 quarts (1.75gal) water
-1 pack Lalvin k1-v1116 yeast
I didn't boil the water, just stirred the water/sugar/concentrate together, added the yeast (after pinching it), put it in a 3 gallon carboy and put the bubbler on top. Two weeks later I cracked it open to take measure (that's when I remembered I forgot to take the initial measurement), and that initial smell was awful, but it got better. The hydrometer said specific gravity is 1.01, but I have nothing to compare that to. The yeast I'm using is pretty rugged 50-90° and goes up to 18%, and it was clearly still bubbling, but only once every 26 seconds.
Should I just let it go, stop the fermintation, or add yeast nutrient? How will I ever know what the alcohol content is? Could I just rack it and chill it in the basement, then rack it again in a month?

 

[Mallerstang]

Can you tell us what the awful smell was like, and if you cleaned and sterilized your equipment or not? What's the temperature where you have the carboy?

I've had a couple of fruit wines with weird smells during fermentation (hydrogen sulfide in a blackberry and acetone in a strawberry) that recovered with some aeration, so don't be too quick to give up on a batch.

Also, I have some formulae for figuring out how much sugar to add - if you can tell me what is in the concentrate so we know how much water and sugar is in there, I should be able to calculate your approximate starting SG. It's not exact but better than nothing imo.

 

[cris01us]

So when I took the bubbler off there was a funky-fart'ish odor but when I pulled out a sample for the hydrometer measurement it seemed to go away. I sanitized everything before I started, washing with dish soap and a little bleach, then rising then washing again with metabisulfate then rising some more....then rising some more. I've screwed up a batch pretty good a while back by not thoroughly cleaning so I'm fairly paranoid about it now. I keep the carboy between the kitchen and pantry (well away from an oven or fridge) and have it sitting on a towel and wrapped in another towel. We keep our house between 68-70 right now so I'm fairly confident that's about where its at for the carboy.

I used Welch's 100% Grape Juice concentrate. The label lists ascorbic acid, filtered water, citric acid, and of course grape juice concentrate. After measuring it and looking it over I gave the whole thing a gentle swirl, put the bubbler back on and timed the bubbles a few hours later. Today it was one bubble every 20 seconds and you can clearly make out little Champaign like bubbles coming up. At this point I'm thinking I'll let it go until it bubbles at one bubble every 30 seconds or more, then I'll rack it and let it sit for a few weeks in a cool place. I've though about racking it a couple of times and putting some Brandy in it to kill off what I don't want and to fortify it at the same time? I've never tried anything like that but I figure if all else fails it might be a way to salvage it. Surprisingly enough instead of a dark color it has a reddish-pinkish hue to it. I did not expect that!

I appreciate your feedback and if I can figure out the SG that would be great. From what I researched yesterday it seems like if it gets down to 1 or less it's ok to start the racking process and eventually bottle?

 

[bernardsmith]

hi cris01us and welcome. You CAN calculate the starting gravity. How many pounds of sugar were in those 8 cups?
One pound of sugar adds 40 points of gravity to water when the total volume of both water and sugar is 1 gallon. One cup of sugar might weigh 7.1 oz - so convert the TOTAL amount of sugar to lbs and that gives you 56.8 oz (about 3.5 lbs) The juice will tell you how much sugar is in the concentrate (let me call that ??) so you add that total to the first total and you have the total amount of sugar. You then multiply that amount by .040 . You then measure the TOTAL volume of liquid in US gallons and you divide the amount of sugar by that number. Let me assume that your total volume is 1 gallon so we have 3.5 * .040 + whatever is in the juice * .040 = 1.140 + ?? /1 = the starting gravity... We are then talking about a very high starting gravity for a wine... (you want most wines to start at around 1.090)...

 

[Mallerstang]

So when I took the bubbler off there was a funky-fart'ish odor...

Right, that awful smell - it's probably hydrogen sulfide. When the yeasties get stressed for whatever reason (it's not easy being them) they sometimes fart a lot. Not unlike some people I know, lol. It might go away, and if not you could splash rack it - there's lots of info online about that if you look it up. My blackberry batch was pretty bad - the whole house smelled like a pulp mill.

Your starting SG by my calculation is approximately 1.091, which is right where it should be. I'd be interested to know if anyone else gets the same or a different number. You can expect it to end up below 1 - mine usually get down to 0.990 - 0.992.

 

[cris01us]

Ah, well that seems like all good news. I wonder how in the world you calculated that (the formula)? Once the bubbles get to more than 30 seconds between them I think I'll take another measurement and see where we are at. I truly appreciate everyone's input! Thanks again!

 

[cris01us]

So I checked the wine today and was bubbling a one bubble about every 60 seconds. I took a measurement and the gravity was around .998. Since it's been going for 3 weeks now, I decided to just cut my losses and move on (according to my math it's around 13%ABV). A couple of things I'd appreciate some input on. 1. I don't have a smaller container to rack it into so I've elected to put in back in the carboy (don't worry I transferred it to other containers, sanitized the carboy, then racked it back in) - will the empty one gallon gap at the top really make a big difference? 2. I think I would like to fortify my wine - how much brandy should I add to 1.5 gal of wine? I started to filter the wine through some natural coffee filters then realized - crap I am oxidizing my wine - I stopped and just transferred the rest.
By the way it smelled and tasted fairly good already. It started a little sweet and finished with a dry after taste. I think the fortifying, along with 2 or 3 more racks, will help clear it and improve the taste!?

 

[Yooper]

Yes, headspace makes a HUGE impact on the wine, as does having it go through a coffee filter. The time starts ticking right away on oxidation. I'd use some sulfites and either get it into a new appropriate vessel ASAP or bottle ASAP but realize you can't erase the oxidation that has already occurred.

 

[cris01us]

What if I add some brandy and just bottle it and stow it in a cool dark place!? How much brandy should I add and should I back sweeten to save on flavor? I'm thinking I may have screwed up this batch a bit but that maybe if I - sweeten, fortify, and bottle, and stow today I can salvage it?

 

[passedpawn]

What if I add some brandy and just bottle it and stow it in a cool dark place!? How much brandy should I add and should I back sweeten to save on flavor? I'm thinking I may have screwed up this batch a bit but that maybe if I - sweeten, fortify, and bottle, and stow today I can salvage it?

Brandy? Don't throw good money after bad. Let it finish, learn from it, improve next time. It's not uncommon to have failures when you start any hobby, including this one.

Cheap wine kits will make a very acceptable wine and in my experience are foolproof if you can follow instructions. $60 might seem like a lot, but for a kit that makes 30 bottles of mediocre wine is a bargain, with very little risk (I'm assuming wine is what you're looking for, not positive). Sometimes expense is the best economy, and I'd say that's true in your situation.