Candy cane wine - fermentation slooooow

[Terry Fletcher]

Hi,
This is my first post. I've been making beer for a few years and have recently been making wines. I have a batch of candy cane wine fermenting now. I got the recipe from a winemaking magazine. Fermentation has been real slow but it continues to ferment. Does anyone have any ideas on what I should do (if anything)? I'm pretty sure I put too much sugar in to start. The recipe called for 60 normal-sized candy canes and 7.5 lbs sugar. I have no idea what a "normal-sized" candy cane is so I substituted 10 huge candy canes and still added the 7.5 lbs of sugar. Anyway, here's the time line:
12-30-08 - Made the batch - pitched the yeast SG was a whopping 1.300
12-31-08 - fermentation was so slow that I added some yeast nutrient
1-1-09 - observed "faster" fermentation at about one bubble every 2-3 seconds. after a few days it slowed to one bubble every 5-7 seconds.
1-10-09 - After 12 days in the primary I decided to rack. I racked the 3 gallons from the primary bucket to three 1-gallon jugs. SG was still very high at 1.100

Now they are all bubbling but only about once a minute at best.

Should I just let it go or add some more nutrient? (or throw it out?).

By the way, I neglected to check the ingredients of the candy canes so perhaps there was something in them that interfered.

Thanks
Terry in Houston

 

[david_42]

Since 7.5 lbs of sugar in 3 gallons gives a SG of 1.115, something is wrong here.

 

[Terry Fletcher]

David,
Thanks for the reply.
I think it's the candy canes. They are about 1.5 inch in diameter and about a foot long. I used 10 of them. I'm sure they're pure sugar with peppermint flavoring.
Thanks

 

[etp777]

1.3 is an extremely high SG to start at. So almost guaranteed to end sweet. THat bien gsaid, for this wine, think that might be perfect. I would let it sit until it stops bubbling, then start checking the SG every day until it's stable at least three days in a row

Rack until clear, bottle, and ship me at least half a case.

 

[Yooper]

My hydrometer doesn't even go past about 1.170 or so. Are you 100% sure of that reading? If it's correct, you'd have a very sweet, very high ABV wine. Very much like syrup, I'd think. I don't have much advice to offer, unless you want to water it down to a more managable SG.

 

[Terry Fletcher]

Thanks for the replies.
Perhaps my first reading was false but it was really high. I suppose this kind of wine should be sweet, I don't know. The recipe didn't have to much detail as what to expect. There's a lot of layering of sediment in the bottles now and when it settles out completely I'll rack and take another reading. I suppose if it just keeps fermenting, albeit slow, I guess it's OK to just wait and watch. If this batch fails, I don't have a lot of money in it. I bought the candy canes at the dollar store

 

[EzMak24]

make sure u let us know how it turns out. often the mistakes are the best!

 

[Terry Fletcher]

OK. I'll report back. Right now it keeps bubbling but only about one bubble every two minute. All three bottles are bubbling. Thanks everybody.

 

[GooBrew]

Can I get a copy of this recipe? At the post X-mas candy cane prices I think a batch of candy cane is in the Budget

 

[Terry Fletcher]

Candy Cane Wine
Tom Breuer, Ottawa, Canada - January 2009 Winemaking Magazine
Ingredients
60 candy canes (or more) - regular size
7.5 lbs sugar
3 gallons water
Lalvin EC-1118 yeast


Bring about 1 gal water to boil
Add candy canes till dissolved
Boil another 45 - 60 minutes
Pour into remaining water
add sugar
rack after a week and again in two months

 

[Mr. Nice Guy]

Thanks for posting the recipe, it sounds interesting. What it it supposed to come out like, I might have to make a batch.

 

[GooBrew]

sounds like the boiling for 50 minutes is meant to boil off some stuff that's potentially bad for the brew. I wouldn't worry about the amount of cane since the recipe calls for 60 or more. I'm pretty pumped to try this!

 

[etp777]

Heh, he didn't exactly follow the recipe, as start of thread says, so you may not want to base your opinnoin off how his results turn out.

 

[BrewinJack]

this sounds more like hooch then wine... candy canes are pure sugar weighing about half an ounce a piece... dissolving 60 of them would give you well over 2lbs of sugar and then adding 7.5lbs more... that would give you close to 10lbs of just plain sugar in 3 gallons of water... and the artifical peperment would just about cause you to black out from the potentecy... if youve gone down from 1.300 to 1.100 then youve got a very very high ABV... are you sure your reading the hydro right??? i didnt even know they made any that went up that high, it would be like achohal potential of like 27% with an OG as high as 1.300... this is not adding up... you looking at about 3.12lbs per gallon here if im doing my math right... and that would easily put you more toward the 1.150 level and it would make since with what your reporting because at those level even champage yeast would have a hard time keeping up

Cheers

 

[Terry Fletcher]

How do you follow a recipe "exactly" that says 60 regular sized candy canes??
What size is "regular?" Also, the guy who wrote the recipe said he would use more candy canes next time. He didn't mention why....
(besides the big ol' candy canes were cheap at the dollar store).
I'm wondering if the boiling might also have been to eliminate whatever causes candy canes to harden?

 

[etp777]

Regular size candy can is approximately 6" lonng.

 

[Terry Fletcher]

RE: hydrometer: I think it's 1.130. That makes a lot more sense.This thing is hard to read. That being the case, this hooch could possibly go up to 17.5% alc potential.

 

[jakenordlund]

Hello, I couldnt help but be interested in this thread as I have made candy cane alcohol many times. In regards to the candy cane wine guy, your initial sugar dosage is much too high for that brand of yeast. Most yeasts will not take that osmotic shock, however Gert Strand's Turbo yeast will work the best in this application. With 2 pounds of candy canes and 7.5 pounds of sugar, you have 27% sugar. Start your yeast at no higher than 20% then feed more sugar after 48 hours for higher alcohol. Your best option would be to start with 5 pounds of sugar and nutrient, set your initial temperature at 98 degrees F. After 24-36 hours drop the temperature to 92 degrees F then add candy canes every day to keep the bubbling at a constant level. This feeding of the fermentor will allow the alcohol to reach a much higher level. I have made 21% alcohol vv with candy canes and using this method. I have also used candy canes only and no sugar, this resulted in very high peppermint taste with massive alcohol kick. This is will mostly end up as a sweet spirit, and not very wine like, but tasty. PS. The conversion from glucose, sucrose, or dextrose to alcohol is 51% If you have 27% sugar times 51% your alcohol potential is 13.77% alcohol

 

[Mr. Nice Guy]

reports on this wine?

 

[pizzaman]

reports on this wine?

I think everyone who made it either blacked out or went blind.

 

[Mr. Nice Guy]

Yeah I'm wondering...

I made some ginger beer with just ginger and sugar (raisins, lemon, other junk...) and now I know what people are talking about when they say Hooch! I bottled it, let's just hope it ages out to be better.

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

Any reports on this wine? I'm interested in how it turned out. I actually searched candy cane because I'm looking into putting some in a beer for x-mas presents. Stumbled across this and now I'm interested.

 

[truckjohn]

It really sounds like if you followed the rules for Mead making (Staged nutrient and sugar additions, etc.)... it would turn out better than just pitching yeast + Candy canes in water...

If it was me, the other thing I wouldn't do is start racking too soon... It's not like you gotta rack off a bunch of dirt, stems, peels, and miscellaneous detritus.... just 3-4" of yeast.

Peppermint Schnapps comes to mind here.

Thanks

 

[RoastedOak]

Bought some candy cane sticks today and I'm getting ready to do this... except the recipes I've seen so far make no mention of adding (nutrient or energizer, which I will be doing) and acid adjustments... I'm guessing since candy canes are almost pure sugar they won't affect the acid level, so that calculation should be easy.

 

[RoastedOak]

Well... put together a batch a few minutes ago. Don't really have a clue if this will turn out okay but I have 12 packages of candy canes ($1.10/each at walmart... made in canada.)

Melted 32 canes into 3.5 litres of water (each cane was 13 grams of sugar) and then I added 960 grams of sugar... Alcohol should be 14% in this 5 litre jug (probably close to 13% after losses during the rackings... who knows.)

The house smells like Christmas !!

Letting it cool down so I can add the nutrients and pitch the yeast in a hour or two.

Will be making another 5 litres with double the number of canes tomorrow.

 

[DaveAllen]

What yeast will you be pitching?

 

[RoastedOak]

ec-1118... but now that you mention it. Hmmm, maybe I'll pick up a few packets of rc-212 tomorrow.... I have enough candy canes and jugs to experiment.

 

[BrewPahl]

Just wondering what the potential ETOH is on this when the recipe is followed correctly? Roasted Oak what was your initial reading making the standard batch?

It sure looks good from your pics that you posted!!

 

[RoastedOak]

Well... I'm a little miffed about what the acronym ETOH means. I actually didn't take any readings on this batch... really winging it this time around. My guestimates say the ABV should be around 14% or a bit a less.

I racked it yesterday and took out a small sample for tasting..... this is gonna be an interesting wine, it really does taste like liquid candy cane, it's ridiculous. Hopefully it will mellow out over the next 10 months.

 

[BrewPahl]

Sorry medical term....Im a nurse and at work (Ethyl Alcohol) (ETOH) is the chemical name.... sorry but this one sounds ridiculous and I have to make some.....

 

[RoastedOak]

Kicking myself for not picking up some green candy canes... something about a green wine just seems so damned cool

 

[sd38]

So has anyone tried this yet?It sounds great!

 

[BrewPahl]

Roasted just pick up some green Star mints by Brach's.....they sell them here all year long. They are a spearmint type of hard candy and use the same weight as you would candy canes!

 

[BrewPahl]

Just started this one today using 75 candy canes and 5 lbs sugar OG 1.080 if this one goes well I am going to do one with sour apple candy too.

 

[CandleWineProject]

Woo hoo! People are tossing out their candy canes and I've been nabbing them up to make this. Any one have any idea why it has to be boiled for so long?

 

[Tepe]

Try this Sister group for more info on Wine
http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/

 

[BrewPahl]

So i just bottled this up this week and had it bulk aging for almost a year. So the color fermented down to a pale yellow so a drop of red food coloring brought back that nice pink color, not sure if the alcohol with fade the food coloring out or not but planning on giving these out as christmas gifts this year so they will not last that long anyway. It actually is pretty good stuff, reminds me a lot of Dr McGillicutty's but with a much more wine like taste. I will be making more of this again this year!!!