How does it taste? If it doesn't taste like you've got bacteria, why not
let it go until it is the sweetness and alcohol percent that you like? At 76
degrees you might be getting quite a ferment going. Was the initial ferment
cold and slower? If that is what is going on it will probably slow
drastically soon.

I have a honey grape I started in August that is still bubbling at the rate
of a bubble a minute. It also started very sweet. It tastes good and I am
interested in how it turns out. Why rush it?
Mary


"Lee" wrote in message
...
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