Hi all. We picked some of our grapes(Concord and Buffalo) this
afternoon and discovered we are out of yeast nutrient. I had a bag of
vials of the campden tabs, pectic stuff, etc.and mistakenly thought I
had some nutrient left over from last year. Surprise, none in the bag.
I am 30 miles from a supplier as well.
I know, I know, should have checked first.
We pulled a Concord wine recipe from jackkeller's site.
Here is where we are at right now.
Put 96 pounds of crushed Concord and Buffalo grapes in the primaries.
At 75 F the SG read 1.064. Sampled the juice from the crush and it is
wonderful, grapey and super sweet without a hint of bitterness. Did
not measure acidity.
Based on the recipe proportions we added 19 pounds of sugar and 2
gallons of water and 8 Campden tabs.
I am shooting for a SG of 1.107 when I recheck the must tomorrow and
dump the 8 tsp of pectic enzyme. I plan to dump 3 packs of Lalvin K1
V1116 tomorrow night.
What does the group think the impact of omitting the yeast nutrient
wil be ?
Might I add it early next week if I express phone order some
tomorrow ?
Thanks in advance for your feedback.

BTW
We have had one heck of a drought / record heat wave going on in my
part of Kentucky this spring and summer. Vines are 40 years old,
heavily pruned each year with no water or fertilizer added. Gave the
grapes a shot of sulfur dust in July to knock down the brown rot.
Other than that nada. First blooms and leaf buds froze out in a record
late April cold snap. Vines bounced right back with a bumper crop in
spite of the heat and drought. You have to admire their tenacity don't
you ? I have them on a 300 foot double curtain trellis 6 feet high.

I'd say that with that yeast you are good to go.
Steve
"Kentucky" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi all. We picked some of our grapes(Concord and Buffalo) this
afternoon and discovered we are out of yeast nutrient. I had a bag of
vials of the campden tabs, pectic stuff, etc.and mistakenly thought I
had some nutrient left over from last year. Surprise, none in the bag.
I am 30 miles from a supplier as well.
I know, I know, should have checked first.
We pulled a Concord wine recipe from jackkeller's site.
Here is where we are at right now.
Put 96 pounds of crushed Concord and Buffalo grapes in the primaries.
At 75 F the SG read 1.064. Sampled the juice from the crush and it is
wonderful, grapey and super sweet without a hint of bitterness. Did
not measure acidity.
Based on the recipe proportions we added 19 pounds of sugar and 2
gallons of water and 8 Campden tabs.
I am shooting for a SG of 1.107 when I recheck the must tomorrow and
dump the 8 tsp of pectic enzyme. I plan to dump 3 packs of Lalvin K1
V1116 tomorrow night.
What does the group think the impact of omitting the yeast nutrient
wil be ?
Might I add it early next week if I express phone order some
tomorrow ?
Thanks in advance for your feedback.

BTW
We have had one heck of a drought / record heat wave going on in my
part of Kentucky this spring and summer. Vines are 40 years old,
heavily pruned each year with no water or fertilizer added. Gave the
grapes a shot of sulfur dust in July to knock down the brown rot.
Other than that nada. First blooms and leaf buds froze out in a record
late April cold snap. Vines bounced right back with a bumper crop in
spite of the heat and drought. You have to admire their tenacity don't
you ? I have them on a 300 foot double curtain trellis 6 feet high.

I would agree with Steve; K1V is a a great 'goto' yeast, it likes to
get going and likes to finish. It doesn't mind low nutrient
either.

Just monitor your fermentation for 'stink'. If you start getting
some H2S coming off, just aerate it. You may want to get the nutrient
but I would not pay for express shipping, it's more CYA than anything
else. It does not hurt to add it later if necessary but it can cause
a violent foam up if you add it quickly.

That is kind of high for SG; since this is Concord I'm assuming you
want it sweet. The only downside I see here is K1V likes to finish.
If you want it to, that's great. You may need to cool it quickly if
you want to stop it sweet though. I didn't see a need for 3 packets
either, I'm thinking you have about 10 gallons of must so 2 is
enough. 3 won't hurt though.

Joe

On Aug 18, 5:16 am, Joe Sallustio wrote:
I would agree with Steve; K1V is a a great 'goto' yeast, it likes to
get going and likes to finish. It doesn't mind low nutrient
either.

Just monitor your fermentation for 'stink'. If you start getting
some H2S coming off, just aerate it. You may want to get the nutrient
but I would not pay for express shipping, it's more CYA than anything
else. It does not hurt to add it later if necessary but it can cause
a violent foam up if you add it quickly.

That is kind of high for SG; since this is Concord I'm assuming you
want it sweet. The only downside I see here is K1V likes to finish.
If you want it to, that's great. You may need to cool it quickly if
you want to stop it sweet though. I didn't see a need for 3 packets
either, I'm thinking you have about 10 gallons of must so 2 is
enough. 3 won't hurt though.

Joe

Thanks Steve and Joe. This group is great and I appreciate the polite,
expert and timely help.
I think I will go with no nutrient and see how things proceed.
A note to Joe. If the yeast eats all my sugar might I add some 2 to 1
sugar/water syrup at bottling ?
You are correct about our wine preference (country, sweet and grapey)
but the kids like a drier wine.
Sounds like I might be able to satisfy everybody and just sweeten mine
at bottling. Think so ?

I think I will go with no nutrient and see how things proceed.
A note to Joe. If the yeast eats all my sugar might I add some 2 to 1
sugar/water syrup at bottling ?
You are correct about our wine preference (country, sweet and grapey)
but the kids like a drier wine.
Sounds like I might be able to satisfy everybody and just sweeten mine
at bottling. Think so ?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

The problem with adding it at bottling is you stand a chance of it
refermenting and popping corks unless you add sorbate. I have very
little faith in sorbate. If it isn't fresh it's useless and you can
never tell if it's fresh. Another way to go that is much safer is to
back sweeten, in other words make your syrup and keep it in the
fridge; add it when you open a bottle. The advantage to that is if
your wife likes it sweeter than you she just adds more syrup. As long
as you make the syrup the same way each time you are set.

As to Concord as a dry wine, if anything it's an acquired taste. The
flavor of Concord is pretty unique.

Joe