Beet Wine Must turned super thick.

[JPAT]

My must seems to have turned to jelly. I started a batch of beet wine from juice left over from canning this years crop on 10/20. Had slightly over 5 gallons juice water with a beginning SG of 1.005. Started with 10 lbs sugar dissolved in 1 gallon juice with lemon zest, cinnamon, ginger, black tea and cloves, on a real light simmer for 10 minutes. Cooled juice slightly and added to remaining 4 gallons juice, added two more lbs dissolved sugar to bring SG to 1.102. Brought must temp to 70F, added nutrient and EC-1118. Let it sit for 24 hours and stirred, everything looked fine, but very little foaming at that time. Next morning came down to check it, stirred things up and find it looking like unset jelly. SG now 1.110. I am not sure if I should thin it out with more water or just wait and see what happens. Any suggestions of what/why/how to fix would be very welcome.

 

[JPAT]

Update on the jelly wine: This is becoming a bit of an obsession with me. I am determined to do all possible to reverse the jelly effect, but am open to advice of those out there much wiser than this fool here. Clearly (I suspect) my first mistake was simmering the sugar and spices for so long - I have never done that before and I have never had jelly before. Another factor could be there were just too many beets for the volume started (not sure exactly how many lbs, but finished up making 17 pints beet pickles and had a healthy portion for dinner twice).

I decided to split the pot, using the original (#1) as the experimental pail, and #2 as the sand-by. I read pectic enzyme can reduce the jelly effect, so went for it (Ref: https://www.reddit.com/r/winemaking...e_this_jelly_could_be_turned/#bottom-comments ) This is what has since been done:

10/23/18

1. Added appx 5-6 cups water to #1 (VERY thick jelly on bottom) SG 1.100

2. Stirred #1 heavily

3. Did NOT stir #2. Minor yeast activity in both prior to #1 stir/addition

10/24/18.

1. Minor yeast activity in both at 9:00 am.

2. 8 pm: Added 2 tsp hydrated pectic enzyme to #1 Did not stir #2

10/25

1. Stirred #1. Very thick still. Added 1 gallon water. SG 1.075

2. Added dissolved sugar in 2 c water – SG 1.075???

3. Added 2 ½ tsp pectic enzyme to #1

4. Stirred #2, Thick. Some bubbling on top.

I am actually amazed I even get a reading on the hydrometer, but suspect the most resent readings are being hindered by the heavy viscosity, although I would suspect them to read higher, not lower at this point.

Comments or suggestions are welcome. Should I keep playing or just dump the whole mess on my front porch on the 31st with a hatchet embedded in the middle for a bit of Halloween fun?

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Definitely sounds like set pectins, though if you used powdered cinnamon, that could also be a contributing factor. Powdered cinnamon tends to make a sort of mucilaginous mess in fermentations. I've heard of people making wine from jelly, so you can actually save your set pectin beet wine. Have a look at this, you might find it useful:
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request231.asp
Good luck! Regards, GF.