Wine fermentation

[Ken Wilson]

Hi I'm new to making wine. I made up some grape,grape&peach, and apple. It fermented for 4 weeks. It showed no signs of fermenting anymore. There was no bubbling and no foam. I racked it into mason jars and put in the fridge. The next evening, I opened one of the jars and it had pressure in it. No bubbles of carbonation though. All jars did this. What did I do wrong?

 

[RPh_Guy]

What did I do wrong?

You need a hydrometer to measure fermentation progress and determine completion.

P.S. Welcome to the forum!

 

[Ken Wilson]

Ok what should the final gravity be?

 

[RPh_Guy]

If the specific gravity is the same 7 days apart you know it's finished fermenting

 

[Ken Wilson]

Ok thank you very much

 

[jgmillr1]

The next evening, I opened one of the jars and it had pressure in it

The pressure may also simply be from outgassing carbon dioxide. Sounds like you didn't rack it and give the wine time to degas on its own. I'm not a fan of agitating the wine to degas it, but that process helps get the wine to bottle more quickly.

 

[stephenm2]

Hi, I would let the wine sit ( out of the refregerator) in glass carboys for at least two months. Also during these two months rack it at leadt once to another clean carboy to remove any sediment.