I posted last week about my horribly stuck saignée of cabernet sauvingnon
and franc, and wanted to post a follow-up.

I checked pH, and found it at 3.4. Aggitated it like mad to release all of
the dissolved CO2. Racked it to a second secondary (tertiary?), and then did
the "yeast doubling" technique. The starter of White Labs Champagne yeast
stopped almost as soon as I added the first alloquot of my wine. So, I
dumped it all back into the carboy, and gave up on trying to restart the
thing.

Frustrated, I went to my local homebrew store and bought a hydrometer. I had
previously been checking the wine with my refractometer, which, I have
discovered, is not accurate. Used the hydrometer, and guess what? The wine
is dry! That's why it wouldn't restart...it was done.

Apparently, refractometers can't be used on fermented liquids, as some
research revealed. Can ethanol make them that far off, though (6 degrees
Brix)!?

--
ACEY

"Jonathan Acey Albert" wrote in message
...
I posted last week about my horribly stuck saignée of cabernet sauvingnon
and franc, and wanted to post a follow-up.
snip
Frustrated, I went to my local homebrew store and bought a hydrometer. I
had
previously been checking the wine with my refractometer, which, I have
discovered, is not accurate. Used the hydrometer, and guess what? The wine
is dry! That's why it wouldn't restart...it was done.

Are you admitting that you didn't _taste_ the wine when you thought it was
stuck? Doh! ;^D

Tom S

Hehe,

You really made those poor yeast suffer!

Yep, refrac will be well out by the time the ferment finishes. In real
wineries hydrometers are used for checking ferments, with other more
accurate chemical analyses at the end for final residual sugars.

Your hydrometer will not actually read the correct level for sugars once a
ferment starts, but it is close enough for watching ferments. Most
winemakers don't class a ferment as dry until the hydrometer reads around -1
Baume (and then we check accurately).

The yeast doubling method will work if you have a real stuck ferment 8)

Rob L
"Tom S" wrote in message
. com...

"Jonathan Acey Albert" wrote in message
...
I posted last week about my horribly stuck saignée of cabernet
sauvingnon
and franc, and wanted to post a follow-up.
snip
Frustrated, I went to my local homebrew store and bought a hydrometer. I
had
previously been checking the wine with my refractometer, which, I have
discovered, is not accurate. Used the hydrometer, and guess what? The
wine
is dry! That's why it wouldn't restart...it was done.

Are you admitting that you didn't _taste_ the wine when you thought it was
stuck? Doh! ;^D

Tom S

Yes, refractometers are not used for this measurement. There is a
rule of thumb using a refractometer and hydrometer to calculate
alcohol content, but distilling the wine and using an alcohol
thermometer is cheaper and accurate to 1/2 %. (You can make a
rudimentary distiller for a few dollars.)
Regards,
Joe


"Jonathan Acey Albert" wrote in message ...
I posted last week about my horribly stuck saignée of cabernet sauvingnon
and franc, and wanted to post a follow-up.

I checked pH, and found it at 3.4. Aggitated it like mad to release all of
the dissolved CO2. Racked it to a second secondary (tertiary?), and then did
the "yeast doubling" technique. The starter of White Labs Champagne yeast
stopped almost as soon as I added the first alloquot of my wine. So, I
dumped it all back into the carboy, and gave up on trying to restart the
thing.

Frustrated, I went to my local homebrew store and bought a hydrometer. I had
previously been checking the wine with my refractometer, which, I have
discovered, is not accurate. Used the hydrometer, and guess what? The wine
is dry! That's why it wouldn't restart...it was done.

Apparently, refractometers can't be used on fermented liquids, as some
research revealed. Can ethanol make them that far off, though (6 degrees
Brix)!?

While often overlooked, the most common cause of yeast sticking is lack of
sugar!
;o)
Ray

"Jonathan Acey Albert" wrote in message
...
I posted last week about my horribly stuck saignée of cabernet sauvingnon
and franc, and wanted to post a follow-up.

I checked pH, and found it at 3.4. Aggitated it like mad to release all of
the dissolved CO2. Racked it to a second secondary (tertiary?), and then
did
the "yeast doubling" technique. The starter of White Labs Champagne yeast
stopped almost as soon as I added the first alloquot of my wine. So, I
dumped it all back into the carboy, and gave up on trying to restart the
thing.

Frustrated, I went to my local homebrew store and bought a hydrometer. I
had
previously been checking the wine with my refractometer, which, I have
discovered, is not accurate. Used the hydrometer, and guess what? The wine
is dry! That's why it wouldn't restart...it was done.

Apparently, refractometers can't be used on fermented liquids, as some
research revealed. Can ethanol make them that far off, though (6 degrees
Brix)!?

--
ACEY