This is my first batch of muscadine wine. I have about 6 gallons already blended with 10lbs sugar and Camden tablets. SG was 1.090. First 24 hours I put lid on plastic jug with airlock. Then I put yeast (Lalvin EC1118) in and it has been in for 24 hrs. So I am at 48 hrs right now. I am getting no bubbling during the fermentation. I realize now I should have kept my bucket lid off and only should have had cheesecloth over mixture so it could breath. My question is what can I do now to salvage batch?
Fermentation issue
- Thread starter RexLynch
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- fermentation
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DoctorCAD
Well-Known Member
Campden is meta bisulfite. You may have overloaded with sulphites.
Stir and leave the lid loose and give it some more time.
Stir and leave the lid loose and give it some more time.
Personally, I'd wait another 24 hours to try and let the SO2 to degas, then pitch more yeast. I think DrCAD got it right- you probably killed your 1st pitch.
jgmillr1
Well-Known Member
There is no harm in dosing it with more yeast. You usually should see some activity by 48hrs.
The 5 campden tablets in 6 gallons of juice should only yield about 56ppm of sulfites, much of which will quickly bind with sugars. Regardless the EC1118 should have no trouble with that level of sulfites.
I wonder if your yeast rehydration procedure had trouble. The yeast like to be rehydrated in 100'F water for ~20min and then have the juice slowly added to the yeast solution to cool the solution and acclimate the yeast to the acid and sugar concentration. They don't like temperature shocks.
The 5 campden tablets in 6 gallons of juice should only yield about 56ppm of sulfites, much of which will quickly bind with sugars. Regardless the EC1118 should have no trouble with that level of sulfites.
I wonder if your yeast rehydration procedure had trouble. The yeast like to be rehydrated in 100'F water for ~20min and then have the juice slowly added to the yeast solution to cool the solution and acclimate the yeast to the acid and sugar concentration. They don't like temperature shocks.
mrbeachroach
Well-Known Member
I make Muscadine all the time. Sometimes it can take up to three days before the yeast kicks in. But everybody else is correct in the fact that more yeast used isn't going to hurt anything. So you can give that a try. If you follow Jack Keller's recipe for Muscadine it's going to be almost impossible to mess up. The other thing I would suggest is not to let it go completely dry, about 5 to 6 days in the fermentation check the gravity again and do your calculations. If you're around 10 to 12% it is time to wean off The fermentation because if it goes to dry it's going to taste like rocket fuel. That is the problem with most fruit wines. If you nail the FG, it's going to taste amazing. The other problem with commercial md wine that I've tasted, is that they come out tasting like perfume smells. I have personally never had this problem, I don't understand why people like to make it like this. But if you keep it simple and back sweet and at the end slightly do your taste you're really going to enjoy this.
