Fortifying port style wine

[Timr]

Hi, new here. There seems a lot to look through in the threads but a quick search doesn't show up much about fortifying.

I'm wondering if anyone here fortified enough to answer a couple of questions. Like, how quick does yeast die after fortifying?
I'm attempting a port style wine with elderberry, and a few raisins and blueberries thrown in for fun. Started at 1.115 and fermented down to 1.034 or thereabouts. Then added a combination of a friends clear moonshine that he says is just under 60% and a bottle of cheap brandy averaging out to 52%. 3 parts spirit to 13 parts 10+% wine by my calves gets me over 18%. Its been a day and it's still bubbling a bit... is this normal?
Do you think it's still active because my mate oversold his moonshine or just releasing dissolved cow?

Ta
Tim

 

[Timr]

Geez typing on a phone is bad enough without it correcting you.
For "calves" read calcs and for "cow" read CO2... seems to be a theme going on

 

[jtratcliff]

Moo

 

[MilesBFree]

I would give it another couple of days.

Check the hyrdometer in a couple of days and see if the yeast is still consuming the sugar. At 1.034 there may be enough sugar left for the yeast, even if the ABV is on the high end.

The type of yeast may make a difference too - some can take a fairly high ABV before they die.

Also, how long has it been in the current carboy or fermenter, and are there a lot of lees? Have you racked / is the fruit still in it?

A data point: I made a fairly standard elderberry wine with Montrachet yeast IIRC, and it went pretty fast for maybe a couple of weeks then slowed way down but never seemed to quite stop with the really samll bubbles - there alwasy seemed to be some percolating to the top. I racked it 3 times and then after letting it sit in the carboy for maybe 3 more months I figured it should be done so I added potassium sorbate and bottled. I burped the bottles after a day, then a couple more days, and then after a couple of weeks and they didn't have any pressure. (I am using swing-top bottles, and this is one of the benefits...)

 

[Timr]

It's been a couple of days and the bubbling has stopped.

I did the initial fermentation in a lidded bucket with with the fruit floating on the liquid, punching down at least 3 times a day. When I got the gravity I wanted I hooked out the fruit with a clean sieve, pressing lt lightly with a spoon to get a bit more juice. then siphoned into a clean vessel and added some sulphites (perhaps too low a dose) to hopefully eat any oxygen as I was holding a finer sieve under the end of the hose. then siphoned into 3 or 5 litre demijohns each with a measured amount of spirit already in them. this is where they are now with airlocks.

The plan is that I have 16litres in glass now - allowing for a bit of settling I can rack into a 15 litre demijohn and leave the sediment behind, add some oak chips, plug it up and leave it for a year.

Just at the moment, the bubbling has stopped and there is the usual purple dust that my regular elderberry produces collecting at the base of the jars, but there is also some whitish yellow growth forming on the surface of the liquid in the head space. (I'd like to think this is flor like happens in sherry, but that is probably wishful thinking) I'm assuming it's some kind of infection.

I'm tempted to try and fix this by getting a small bottle of cheap whisky, trying to dip the growth out with a paper towel soaked in whisky and sanitising the headspace glass and stoppers whith more whisky, then topping up the headspace with another half dose of sulfites dissolved in the whisky - do you think this will work? or should I rack all and treat with sulfite and sanitise the jars properly?

 

[Timr]

A data point: I made a fairly standard elderberry wine with Montrachet yeast IIRC, and it went pretty fast for maybe a couple of weeks then slowed way down but never seemed to quite stop with the really samll bubbles - there alwasy seemed to be some percolating to the top. I racked it 3 times and then after letting it sit in the carboy for maybe 3 more months I figured it should be done so I added potassium sorbate and bottled. I burped the bottles after a day, then a couple more days, and then after a couple of weeks and they didn't have any pressure. (I am using swing-top bottles, and this is one of the benefits...)

I bottled the regular elderberry I made last year in screw cap wine bottles with new plastic caps (Novatwist) stabilised with sulfite and potassium sorbate just prior. I was able with the novatwist caps to slightly unscrew them enough to detect a small amount of pressure buildup and reseal without breaking the sleeve. I only did this with a couple - warned the friends I gave a couple of bottles to to keep them in the garage just in case, but by 3 months the pressure build up had disappeared and the wine was still.

 

[marc1]

I haven't made wine in a while, but if I were to do this, I would finish my normal winemaking process, and then add the spirits at the final racking.

 

[Timr]

I haven't made wine in a while, but if I were to do this, I would finish my normal winemaking process, and then add the spirits at the final racking.

From what I've read. Portuguese port wine is stopped during primary fermentation by fortifying in order to retain some sugar - which is what I'm trying