dead slow fermentation

[Vicky66p]

Ive just restarted my old hobby from years ago and have just made Beetroot wine.
I steeped the beetroot along with a cinnamon quill, cloves, lemon and ginger. Steeped for 4 days and looked in bucket to find it had started fermenting on its own!
I just followed the instructions and added brown sugar. Strained into another bucket and poured a rather thick liquid into the carboy. I then added the yeast and put it under airlock. It started bubbling quite regularly the slowed to a crawl.
It hasnt gone off and theres no rank smell either. Its in a warmish place 65°F.
I dont have a tool to measure sg. Would awakening it by adding more yeast or liquid work? or is it going to be a crawling fermentation!

 

[myndflyte]

It's hard to tell without knowing what the gravity was when you started. If it was on the low side, it could already have chewed through most of it and is now finishing up. Or it could be stalling. But without having a hydrometer, there is no way to really tell. My advise is get a hydrometer so you can actually see what is going on.

 

[Vicky66p]

It's hard to tell without knowing what the gravity was when you started. If it was on the low side, it could already have chewed through most of it and is now finishing up. Or it could be stalling. But without having a hydrometer, there is no way to really tell. My advise is get a hydrometer so you can actually see what is going on.

Thanks for your reply. Ive never used a hydrometer but will get one this week. If I take a reading ìts present state, what would I see? Am very curious as to what will happen etc. A new thing to learn!

 

[myndflyte]

You can at least see where your wine is at. And then the next time you take a reading, you can see if it's still fermenting (numbers decreased) or if it is done (numbers are the same). The next time you make a batch, take a reading before you pitch the yeast and then you know what the ABV is as well.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Vicky66p - and welcome.
What was the actual recipe? Did you add any fermentable sugar? In about 1lb of raw beetroot there is about 25 gms of sugar (about 1 very scant oz). If you know how many pounds of beetroots you used and the amount (if any) of sugar you added then we can "guess-timate" the starting gravity and so the potential ABV
(1 lb of sugar dissolved in water to make 1 gallon volume will raise the gravity of the water by 40 points (1.040) - so if you never added any sugar then 16 lbs of beetroot steeped in enough water to leave you with a gallon after you removed the vegetables might have extracted 25-40 points of sugar (about 3% ABV, 5% if the steeping was really effective) - half the amount of beetroot would half the potential ABV.