Question on using a yeast that leaves residual sugar after primary fermentation

[jwhill260]

Hello all.
Recently i tried a peach wine that i made with Cotes Des Blanc yeast with the hope that it would be slightly sweet as this is one of characteristics of Cotes when fermented at a cooler temperature. Unfortunately it turned out very dry and im trying to figure out what went wrong. It was fermented at about 72 degrees.
Perhaps i just dont understand how yeast leaves sugars behind.
I believe Cotes alcohol tolerance is around 14%. If I only add enough sugar for 12% after fermentation, would the yeast consume it all or do i need to add enough for 15% so it begins to dies once it reaches 14% leaving some sugar behind?
If primary fermentation is successful and sugar is left behind, does the wine have to be kept cool through aging to prevent it from warming up and allowing any yeast left to consume the remaining sugar?
Does anyone know what the specific gravity is for this yeast if fermented correctly and residual sugars were present?

Thanks for your help

 

[jonereb]

Excellent question. I decided against using Cotes des Blanc in my muscadine wine for this very reason -- I'm not sure how to handle the residual sugar. I'll be watching this thread. I'm sure one of the experts can explain.

 

[Sir-Hops-A-Lot]

Hi. Your wine attenuated (fermented a high portion of the sugars) more than you wanted it too. It can happen easily. It has nothing to do with the alcohol tolerance. It has more to do with the wine characteristics and the temperature of the room where fermentation took place. 72 isn't cool. Its room temperature. What do you know about the wine kit you used or did you make it yourself?




Hello all.
Recently i tried a peach wine that i made with Cotes Des Blanc yeast with the hope that it would be slightly sweet as this is one of characteristics of Cotes when fermented at a cooler temperature. Unfortunately it turned out very dry and im trying to figure out what went wrong. It was fermented at about 72 degrees.
Perhaps i just dont understand how yeast leaves sugars behind.
I believe Cotes alcohol tolerance is around 14%. If I only add enough sugar for 12% after fermentation, would the yeast consume it all or do i need to add enough for 15% so it begins to dies once it reaches 14% leaving some sugar behind?
If primary fermentation is successful and sugar is left behind, does the wine have to be kept cool through aging to prevent it from warming up and allowing any yeast left to consume the remaining sugar?
Does anyone know what the specific gravity is for this yeast if fermented correctly and residual sugars were present?

 

[jwhill260]

Hi Sir-hops-a-lot. It was one i did myself.
Ingredients for 1 Gal
3 lbs of peaches (peeled and mashed)
2 lbs of sugar
Water
1 Campden tablet
0.5 lbs of golden raisins
Pectinase enzyme
Yeast nutrient

Perhaps I need to ferment at a cooler temperature next time? With apple season coming up, im thinking about using Cotes for some apple wine and want to get it right this time.

 

[DoctorCAD]

Trying to "guess" when yeast will quit is simply a futile effort. Yeast are living things and will do what they do.

Best method is to let the yeast finish and stabilize and add sugar back.

 

[Maylar]

Shoot for about 62°F next time.

 

[dmtaylor]

Cote des Blancs is my favorite cider yeast. I've used it at least 9 times over the past 8 years.

Most often it finishes a normal, unsugared cider at about 0.998. However, there were two times where it finished higher at 1.002 and 1.010. This was most likely due to sorbate additions, which I no longer use. In any case, it takes months to get to the bottom when fermented cool at 55 to 60 F like I do. It will go faster and possibly farther above 70 F. For the best cider, though, I recommend getting it a little cooler if you can.

So, you see, a final gravity of 0.998 is in fact slightly sweet, but only as compared to the typical finishing gravity of 0.992-0.994 that you will get with almost every other yeast on the planet.

 

[Chef-Ryan]

yeasts say they will go for a % of alc but they are living and if are a happy culture they can go beyond that % stated by manufacturers. The way to stop a wine with residual sugar remaining from the fermentation is to add kms (Campden tabs, or other sources of meta-bisulphite) and chill it down to 40f or less (colder the better but don't freeze it) then allow wine to settle out and you will end up with a large portion of the yeast going dormant and settling out so you can rack off those lees and ensure adequate sulphites to prevent refermentation. but unless you have space in a fridge for a carboy, a dedicated fridge for winemaking or it happens to be winter outside (in northern regions this helps greatly when doing high sugar wines to stop ferments) it can be a challenge to do the cold treatment.

 

[bernardsmith]

yeasts say they will go for a % of alc but they are living and if are a happy culture they can go beyond that % stated by manufacturers.

Chef-Ryan, I think that the issue is slightly different. The tolerance for alcohol that the labs give is an expected average much like an engineer will compute the MTBF (mean time before failure ) of an electronic component. The MTBF that is then provided will almost always be met and can be expected to be exceeded in almost every case (think of the maximum load you can put on a chain or rope. A rope made to support 1000 lbs might fail at 2000 but if YOU put on it 1050 and it fails that is 100 % your responsibility and not the manufacturers. They listed 1000 lbs).
Moeover, Murphy's Law states that if the expected tolerance for alcohol is say, 14% ABV and you are looking for 14.5% in your wine, the yeast will keel over at 13% but if you are hoping that it will die at 14 % it will continue to ferment the must until it hits 16% and then some...