Help!

[Laxmaster456987]

I made a peach wine using this recipe

http://scorpius.spaceports.com/~goodwine/peachwine.htm

I did everything it said and I feel something has gone wrong . I started this wine on 1-31-2010 and it is now 2-10-2010. It has been in the glass carboy for 6 days now and the fermentation has slowed greatly. It only bubbles once every 18 seconds. There is approximatly 3/4 of an inch of sediment laying in the bottom.Did something happen to this wine or is this the way it is supposed to be? (This is my first time making wine.I've never done any homebrewing before this so I am very new to this whole thing) I plan to use the instructions for making it a sweet wine which means I will be adding 1/2 a cup of sugar to 1 cup of wine on the 25th of this month and then stiring it back into the wine after the wine has been racked into another carboy.

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk213/laxmaster456987/DSC00988.jpg

^^Picture of it

 

[bob1852]

Everything looks fine.

The sediment is the dead yeast compacting at the bottom. In the wine world, it's called lees.

As for making it sweeter -- you may want to try something else. After fermentation is completed and the wine clears, rack it on to a crushed campden tablet and 1/2 tsp. of potassium sorbate. This will essentially prevent the yeast from eating the extra sugar that you are going to add. Wait a day or so, then you can add your sugar to taste.

welcome to the forum!

 

[malkore]

agreed. sounds like a normal primary that's getting close to completion, but will still need to be cleared and aged a bit.

 

[Laxmaster456987]

Thanks guys! I still have a few questions though....

1.When will I know fermentation is complete? Will the airlock completely stop bubbling?
2.Is it normal for wines to take less than a month for the fermentation to slow down that much?
3.Do i have to leave it sit for a long time to clear or could i just wait until the fermentation is done and then add some bentonite?
4.Is the potassium sorbate needed or can i just use a campden tablet?
5.After i wait a day or two do i need to add a certin amount of sugar or should i add,taste, and then add more if needed?

 

[CandleWineProject]

Thanks guys! I still have a few questions though....

1.When will I know fermentation is complete? Will the airlock completely stop bubbling?
2.Is it normal for wines to take less than a month for the fermentation to slow down that much?
3.Do i have to leave it sit for a long time to clear or could i just wait until the fermentation is done and then add some bentonite?
4.Is the potassium sorbate needed or can i just use a campden tablet?
5.After i wait a day or two do i need to add a certin amount of sugar or should i add,taste, and then add more if needed?

1. The airlock stopping will be an indicator. It can also mean that fermentation is stuck. If the bubbling slows and stops, that is the time to test it with a hydrometer, wait a day or two, and test again. You want a number below 1.015 and the closer to 1 the more trustworthy it is done. The two readings need to match to know it is done.
2. Batches can take less than a month depending on size and temperature. Meaning, there is less to ferment, and will ferment faster if warmer. This last bit is not really considered good.
3. Clearing is your own personal preference. I have a cider that I forgot to treat in the early stages, so it didn't clear, but I bottled it up and drank it anyway. Clearing just looks nicer, and it is what the market expects. Mind you, peach wine is hard to clear.
4. Potassium sorbate prevents yeast from reproducing. Campden tablets kill bacteria but not yeast, plus it helps reduce oxidization, which can affect flavor and color (think of what happens to a cut apple). They do not do the same thing, so you need them both, unless you pasteurize.
5. You should wait a day or two after adding the chemicals to make sure things will not start eating the new sugar you add. However, you do not have to add sugar at that time, but can instead let it age as much as you want before you add sugar. Tasting it is not a bad idea ever, and I would caution you add a little sugar at a time, taste, and add a little more if you so wished. Remember - you can always make a dry wine sweeter, but the only way you are going to make a sweet wine drier is by adding more dry wine to dilute it. In your case, if you got a dry white wine, you might make something of it, but I think you would be disappointed that it wasn't 100% yours.

Keep asking questions!

 

[Laxmaster456987]

Thanks for all of the answers CandleWineProject! And don't worry...I will keep asking questions. Actually.....

1.Once fermentation is over and i sweeten it should i bulk age it in a carboy or should i bottle and age?
2.What would the easiest way to bottle wine be? Just siphon it into bottles and pull the siphon out when its a little over half way full or should i buy a bottling bucket,siphon the wine into that and then attach siphon hose and a bottle filler to the plastic tap and then bottle?
3.What are some easy wine/cider recipes for a beginner like me?

 

[pulpfiction32]

1 I would let it bulk age. also i would wait 6 months to see if it clears by itself before adding a fining agent

2 You can buy a bottling wand and attach it to your siphon. that is probably the easiest and involves the least amount of equipment

3 I see in your planned brews you have JOAM. meads are delicious and fun to make, but use malkores recipe for acient mead

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/malkores-not-so-ancient-orange-mead-50201/

 

[CandleWineProject]

Thanks for all of the answers CandleWineProject! And don't worry...I will keep asking questions. Actually.....

1.Once fermentation is over and i sweeten it should i bulk age it in a carboy or should i bottle and age?
2.What would the easiest way to bottle wine be? Just siphon it into bottles and pull the siphon out when its a little over half way full or should i buy a bottling bucket,siphon the wine into that and then attach siphon hose and a bottle filler to the plastic tap and then bottle?
3.What are some easy wine/cider recipes for a beginner like me?

1. YooperBrew is getting me to bulk age longer, so that seems to be the preferred method.

2. When I bottle, I rack first so that I don't have to worry about the lees when I'm bottling. Otherwise, you are trying to keep track of how full you are filling the bottle AND if you are hitting lees, and it takes too many hands and divides your attention too much. You will either hit lees or overfill a bottle. Racking first avoids all that.

The bottler attachment like pulp fiction suggests is really quite easy and cheap to operate. We just got a bottling bucket, but we have yet to use it. Actually, I'm not really sure why my husband wanted it so badly because I'm the one who bottles and he is the one who caps/corks.

3. I don't always agree with it because it develops bad habits (at least for cider), but the Aplewien recipe is a good beginners recipe. You get 2 or 3 batches under your belt and you'll get the general swing of things.

 

[Laxmaster456987]

Thanks pulpfiction32 and CandleWineProject!

Are there any other cider recipes that arent to hard to make? I dont have a juicer so that might be a problem. (I plan on buying one soon though)

 

[CandleWineProject]

Are there any other cider recipes that arent to hard to make? I dont have a juicer so that might be a problem. (I plan on buying one soon though)

Ciders are easy to make! I just happen to be a purist who doesn't believe in adding sugar to cider, and people who start with the aplewien recipe seem to think they always need to add sugar to cider. For good cider, you just need to get a hold of good apple juice. It is okay if it is pasteurized, but try not to do anything from concentrate unless you want to make an apple wine. If you do an apple wine, go for concentrate and add sugar. Cider is naturally around 6-8%, where wine is higher than 10%. The added sugar increases the finished alcohol, which in turn hides more flaws in the juice. If you have a good juice to begin with, why muck it up and hide good qualities? If you have okay juice to begin with, then I understand adding sugar.

You can make wine out of about anything - juice, concentrate, frozen fruit, fresh fruit, canned fruit, and even things like carrots. Most of them you don't have to use a juicer on, but just put in a primary in a nylon bag and pour warm sugar water over them (actually, the carrots are seeped in water for awhile, then removed, and you work from the water then). Just make sure there are NO PRESERVATIVES. If there is, it will prevent your yeast from growing and starting the ferment.

Go out and get (bookstore or library) Terry Geary's The Joy of Home Winemaking and also John Peragine's 101 Recipes for Making Wild Wines at Home. Read them, and hang out here, and your confidence will grow. If you want to experiment with cider, Michael Pooley & John Lomax have a good book called Real Cidermaking on a Small Scale and so does Andrew Lea with Craft Cider Making - see also http://www.cider.org.uk/. Those two books focus on the cider making, and there are two more out there that expand on the trees and apples involved.

 

[Yooper]

As CandleWineProject said, you can make cider or wine out of anything! Perry is a cider made out of pears instead of apples, and just about anything can be fermented into wine.

Now, some things taste better than others! I have quite a few simple recipes posted, just to give people an idea of some quick and easy wines. "Quick" in wine isn't really all that quick, though- so be forewarned! Time counts in months in winemaking, not days.

For easy, you can't beat fruit juice wines. Just make sure your juice doesn't have any preservatives like sorbate in it. I've made wine out of everything from tomatoes to bananas, all of which were good. Good sanitation and preventing the wine/cider from oxygen after fermentation is over will go a long way to making a good tasting drink.

 

[Laxmaster456987]

Thanks for all the info!
CandleWineProject: After i make apfelwein I will definitely try to make a cider using just apple juice and yeast.no sugar added.For this cider is apple juice and yeast all you need or could you add some spices in it too? I am also very interested in making a blueberry or a raspberry wine and maybe a cucumber or a carrot wine.I will also have to go read those books you mentioned.
YooperBrew:I will most definitely try to make a Perry.Is it just pears and yeast or do you add sugar and other spices to it too? (recipe?) Bananas also sound good for a wine. Would a blueberry banana wine be good?

 

[CandleWineProject]

I've added cinnamon to my cider before, and a touch of cranberry juice, though cranberries are acidic and I have heard of one person on this forum doing a 50/50 mix and it was aweful.

Perry is made the exact way that cider is made, just from pears instead of apples. The makers in the UK would argue that you need cider breed apples and perry breed pears, which are horrible eating, to make great ciders and perries. But, they will also tell you you got to start somewhere, so just work with what you can get your hands on. Perry pears are rare in North America (no profit to grow them... yet), so a lot of cider houses make apple cider, stabilize the cider, and then add pear juice for flavor. They don't let the pear juice ferment. I also know of a winery that makes Bosc pear wine, though they had sold out when I was there.

There are soooo many options aviable - type of raw materials, types of sweeteners and styles to brew, things to add, yeasts to try, time fermenting, ways of maybe back sweetening, bottling... It is so exciting!

 

[Yooper]

Thanks for all the info!
CandleWineProject: After i make apfelwein I will definitely try to make a cider using just apple juice and yeast.no sugar added.For this cider is apple juice and yeast all you need or could you add some spices in it too? I am also very interested in making a blueberry or a raspberry wine and maybe a cucumber or a carrot wine.I will also have to go read those books you mentioned.
YooperBrew:I will most definitely try to make a Perry.Is it just pears and yeast or do you add sugar and other spices to it too? (recipe?) Bananas also sound good for a wine. Would a blueberry banana wine be good?

Sure, you can just use pears and yeast. I'm not much for "flavorings" in my beer or wine, so I don't use cinnamon or other things very often at all.

Banana wine IS good. I would think a blueberry banana would be wonderful. Banana wine has lots of body, while blueberry does not, so combining them would probably give you a great wine.

There are tons of recipes on Jack Keller's site- he's my winemaking idol. His site is a bit difficult to navigate, but it's awesome for beginning winemakers. he talks about techniques, wine yeast strains, recipes, finings, etc, and all of his advice is proven. Try JackKeller.net, and click on the "winemaking homepage".

 

[Laxmaster456987]

About the blueberry banana wine and I guess just wines in general how do you go about making a recipe? Is there a special SG you want?