help please...

[rustynail84]

Brand new to posting in the forum, but have been reading it for a few months now. A while back i decided to make some blackberry wine. Finally got around to starting it 3 days ago. I made 2 batches in 3 gallon buckets.

10 lb berries frozen and thawed
1.5 tsp pectic enzyme
3 tsp yeast nutrient
3 camden tab
6.25 lb sugar
2.5 gallons water

Let sit for about 30 hrs and added Cotes de Blanc yeast.

One batch is fermenting great, just bubbling away. The other bubbled slowly the first day then tapered to nothing the second day. Today is day 3 and its doing nothing. I am fairly new to making wine and didnt have a hydrometer when i put the batches together. I got one today but dont know how to interpret the readings. Any suggestions or advice on what to do about the second batch would be extremely appreciated.

 

[bernardsmith]

An hydrometer will tell you how dense a liquid is compared to pure water. Water is given a nominal density of 1.000. When you make wine the density is for all intents and purposes caused by the sugars in the fruit and with fruits all the sugar is fermentable. That means a reading of the juice (plus any fermentable sugar you have added) will give you an idea of the potential alcohol level that can be made by the yeast.
Approximately 1 lb of sugar (including the sugars in the fruit ) in one gallon of liquid will give you a reading of 1.040 and a reading of 1.040 is equivalent to about 5% alcohol by volume. A wine typically starts with a gravity of about 1.090 which is about 12%.
You allow your hydrometer to float in its tube and you take the reading from the bottom of the meniscus (the meniscus is where the liquid touches the glass). You want to make sure that the hydrometer is floating free and straight up and down.
Each time you take a reading after you add the yeast you want to make sure that there is no CO2 gas in the wine because that gas will make the hydrometer more buoyant and so will give you a false reading. And each time you take a reading the density should be dropping because alcohol is less dense than water and you should expect there to be more alcohol in the wine with each passing day - also , the sugar is being eaten by the yeast and that sugar was what you were measuring when you took the first reading.
You can expect the density (gravity it is called by wine makers) to be close to 1.000 or even lower when the yeast has done all it can do...

 

[mrchaos101]

I started same way. Take a spoon and taste it. It is dry...yeast done... transfer to secondary. Its how I did things till I learned the right way. (Dry means no sweet taste)
I have had a few batches ferment 3 to 4 days all the way out.....thats is when I used Red Stat Yeast.

 

[madscientist451]

You could try to add some of the the wine that is fermenting really good to the wine that isn't doing anything. There should be enough yeast suspended in the wine to help kick off the fermentation. I'd also stir up the bucket that isn't fermenting, a little aeration will help the yeast get going.

 

[rustynail84]

Thanks for the fast replies. Last night after i posted the msg i pulled a sample of the 2nd batch thats not doing anything and the hydrometer read between 1.000 and .998. Could all that sugar have been used up in one day? And there is no "alchohol taste". It smells slightly like wine but more like just berries. Should i add more sugar and yeast? Thanks again for all the help.