Seems to me that the key issues are; 1. does the wine have sufficient
alcohol already, and 2. is the current activity mlf or yeast?

What I would probly do, in your shoes (which doesn't mean any of it is
right!) ....

* If the alcohol is sufficient at this stage, which it sounds as if it
is, refrigerate to stop any activity.
* Test the RS (I use clinitest) to ensure it is where you want it.
Chaptalize later if it needs sweetening ... but I suspect it doesn't
* Run a paper chrom test to see if there is any lactic acid present -
in other words, to determine if the current activity is mlf.
* If there has been mlf, you can still use lysozyme to prevent any further mlf
* If there has been mlf, do NOT use sorbate. Use a filtering to prevent
further activity, or as someone said, add alcohol - although the
resultant wine may be too hot or imbalanced
* If there has not been mlf, then sorbate should stop any yeast fermentation







On 2008-01-26 06:39:41 -0800, Lee said:

I'm embarrassed to be asking this question, because I'm a fairly
experienced winemaker. My question concerns a persistent primary
fermentation, but the SG is not dropping.

A couple of months ago, I received a batch of botrytized juice with a
brix level of 35. I'm trying to ferment it to the point that the
yeast dies, and I'll be left with some residual sugar. My problem is
that it keeps bubbling away (vigorously), but the SG hasn't dropped at
all in the last 3 weeks. It's stuck at 1.026.

I've put in a lot of lysozyme, because I don't want MLF. Also, the
bubbles "look like" a primary fermentation. There's been a bit of
temperature change (I warmed it up a bit up to about 76 degrees)
because I wanted to speed things up, but I can't imagine that this is
all CO2 coming out of solution.

The yeast that I originally used died when the SG was still in the
1.050 range. That left me with too much residual sugar, so I re-
inoculated with Premier Cuvee, which has an alcoholic tolerance of 18
percent. I realize that the Premier Cuvee might ferment all the way
down to 0, but that's ok...I can always add back some sugar and be
left with a very potent wine. At this point, I just want things to
stop.

My alternative is to chill the wine, stop the fermentation, then
filter and hit it with sorbate...but frankly, my filtration is never
COMPLETELY sterile, and I don't like sorbate.

Any thoughts? This is baffling me. I can understand that the yeast
is still doing it's thing. I just don't understand why the SG isn't
dropping.

Lee