Mulberry help!

[sailman]

A friend gave me 8.7 lb of mulberries and I'm trying to make some wine and I can't get it to start fermentation. This is what I've done.
8.7 lb of mulberries 5lb sugar , about SG 1.080
Enough water to bring it up to three and a half gallons total volume
I added yeast nutrient one teaspoon per gallon ,wine tannin , acid blend , pectic enzyme , 3 campden tablets ( crushed and waited 24 hours before I pitched the yeast) ,Montrachet yeast.
I pitched the yeast last night about 7 and there is no signs of fermentation. The bucket that I've used does not have the proper lid but I think that if it has sealed very well. what could be going wrong with this ? as a side note I think that it's too early to take a gravity reading to see if there was any change. Also I check the specs on the yeast and I should be within a tolerable temperature range. How long should I let this go before I try to open it up and check it and or pitch fresh yeast?

 

[ShadesManna]

Without any added sugar (and not having measured how much was in there before adding yeast), the must might not be sweet enough. Some fruits need that extra sugar to get going in order to start fermentation.

 

[sailman]

It was 10% abv sorry I forget to say that I added 5 lb sugar SG 1.080 or so

 

[Bocochoco]

Dead yeast? Even from the store or ordered sometimes it wasnt handled properly.

 

[sailman]

It started

 

[Bocochoco]

Probably a delay from the K-meta or not enough pitched.

 

[bernardsmith]

Yeast require lag time after pitching to repair cells and become acclimated to the environment in which they find themselves before they begin to ferment. This is called "lag time". Nothing unusual about this taking several hours, or even a couple of days.

One way to reduce lag time is to pitch actively fermenting yeast.

 

[sailman]

Thanks guys the cap has doubled sense my last post. I usually pitch dady yeast and it starts over night. The fermenter I'm using doesn't seal very well and that's why I'm not getting any visible activity from the airlock. I'll be glad when it's done its fermentation so I can rack it off to the secondary and get it under a proper seal.

 

[bernardsmith]

Wait. DADY yeast? That's a gerry-built and stressed yeast meant for distilling where stressed yeast is all but irrelevant. Seriously, if you are making wines or meads or beers you really don't want to produce the by-products that yeast under stress produce unless all you are looking for from your wine is an alcoholic buzz. The fusels and other off flavors are removed during distillation, either filtered out before the mash or wash is distilled (along with all the other flavors) or is called "heads" or volatile alcohols and is used as cleaning fluid. Lab cultured wine yeasts cost about $1.50 for enough yeast to ferment five or six gallons of wine.

 

[sailman]

You have misunderstood I know what Dady yeast is used for, that was not used for this wine. This is what I used to make this batch of wine Montrachet yeast

 

[sailman]

I transfered everything over to a Carboy last night,

this morning it's already started to clear a little.

 

[ShadesManna]

Wow, it's a great color, but it looks so milky, and dense! Hopefully time will help it settle, and clear nicely. Did you taste a sample? Take a hydrometer reading?

 

[sailman]

No I didn't take a hydrometer reading because I knew it what's cloudy I wouldn't have got a good reading. I'll give it a week in the secondary and if it doesn't clear ill use some turbo clear on it and then take a reading. I did taste it and it was very dry no sweetness at all. If it ferments all the way I should have around a 10% ABV. I was trying for a lightly sweetened wine so I may have to back sweeten with a little sugar.

 

[Bocochoco]

No I didn't take a hydrometer reading because I knew it what's cloudy I wouldn't have got a good reading.

This is where a refractometer reigns supreme.
You'll probably lose about 20% of that to clearing. The solids will be loose and fluffy in the bottom 20%. I've just bottled as is before with berry wine when this happened. I filter it now if the solids are too thick.

 

[sailman]

I have never filtered anything would a good coffee filter work.

 

[Bocochoco]

I used to do that and used a natural coffee filter but it takes forever and gets clogged a lot. Gotta treat it for oxydation too.

 

[Bocochoco]

Typically I have to do it before primary on the must but leave the large fruit if I make an oopsie. Did you give it pectic enzyme? Mulberry has a lot of pectin. Like, no need to add pectin to turn it in to jelly it has that much. I haven't turned it to wine but have made jelly from it.

 

[sailman]

Yes I did add pectic enzyme

 

[sailman]

Mulberry Wine
(Makes 5 Gallons)
Ingredients
25 lbs. of mulberries
10 lbs. of sugar
2 tbsp. Yeast Nutrient
1 tsp. Pectic Enzyme
3 tsp. Acid Blend
1 tsp. Wine Tannin
1 Packet of Wine Yeast: Montrachet
10 Campden Tablets (5 prior to fermentation and 5 at bottling time)

A Loosely went by this recipe also I scaled it back for the amount of mulberries that I had

 

[Bocochoco]

Well you didn't boil it so you're probably totally fine. You could try to cold crash it before tertiary to pack the lees cake in tighter to get more out of it. Won't hurt it to leave it until a cold fall night unless you have a big fridge.

 

[sailman]

That's funny I was just watching videos on cold crashing and I have a spare frigerator so I may try that. That is if it still works I haven't had the need to open it up in a few years I just let it sit there and run.

 

[Bocochoco]

*inserts comment asking if your refridgerator is running*
I have two 5 gallon carboys outside I left out all winter with corn wine in it to distill. Been lazy. Anyways, the lees are less than an inch thick and it's clearer than my yellow safety glasses.
I definitely plan to run this at least 4 times though lmao. If you do this you need to rack it right away. It won't be drinkable if you let the yeast sit there dead lol

 

[sailman]

I did rack after 2 days. I noticed when I rocked it that it had a slight sulfur smell when I took it out of the refrigerator this may not have anything to do with it but what could have caused this smell? I found this out because I was splashing the wine a little in the carboy to De gas it. It's in a new car boy under an airlock and I'm waiting to see if it clears anymore if not I may just go ahead and bottle it if the smell is okay. Again I'm new to wine and I really didn't want to do this because of my lack of knowledge I'm just trying to help somebody out.

 

[sailman]

*inserts comment asking if your refridgerator is running*
I have two 5 gallon carboys outside I left out all winter with corn wine in it to distill. Been lazy. Anyways, the lees are less than an inch thick and it's clearer than my yellow safety glasses.
I definitely plan to run this at least 4 times though lmao. If you do this you need to rack it right away. It won't be drinkable if you let the yeast sit there dead lol

Yes I'm more into making a cleaner more refined liquid for drinking as well..