Hello Fred and thank you for the reply. Ray was the only one to reply
who might help determine the error in my calculations. Hopefully I'll
figure out what I did wrong.

Thanks also on the assessment of my wine. Although I'm happy to
report that my wine most definitely isn't stuck. Clinitest shows it's
bone dry, as do taste tests. Taste tests reveal a strong alcoholic
snap, reminiscent of a Washington state wine called Duck Pond, which
is about 14.5%. Dextrose additions raised Brix to 24 at start of
fermentation, so those yeasties had a lot to feed upon! I'd be
shocked if this were at the levels of my 2002 Seyval, which is at
about 12.5%.

I used Enoferm CY-3079 yeast, which is good up to about 14%
alcohol with decent temperature tolerance. Used Lallemand Go-Ferm
nutrient through primary and Fermaid-K nutrient after an eight Brix
drop. Also put it through ML fermentation using Enoferm Alpha
(Oenococcus oeni). Chromatography tests show ML fermentation
completed properly. It's in its eighth month storage on 10oz of
Stavin medium+ oak and I have to say with pride, it tastes damn
good!!! Creamy mouthfeel, slight hint of butter, nutty and complex
character, and the oak has integrated well over the entire flavor
profile. Can't wait to bottle the stuff and begin enjoying it, but
that won't happen until January or February 2005. Gotta fine and cold
stabilize first.

And I have to thank many of you in this newsgroup for coaching me
through various questions and issues. Mostly our resident Chardonnay
expert, Tom S.

Cheers All!

-Paul

"frederick ploegman" > wrote in message >...
> "Paul S. Remington" > wrote in message
> om...
> > "Ray" > wrote:
> > <Snip!>
> > > The calculation I use is that published by Duncan and Acton in
> Progressive
> > > Winemaking.
> > > PA = (G begining - G ending) / F
> > > Where
> > > G = 1000 * (SG - 1) = gravity
> > > and
> > > F = 7.75 - 3*(G begining - 7) / 800
> > <Snip!>
> >
> > Hello Ray, et al.,
> >
> > I ran my numbers for a Chardonnay in long-term aging to see what PA
> > the formula above reports. I must be doing something wrong because
> > the answer I'm getting is an impossible PA. Can someone run-through
> > how they're determining the answer based on my SG? Either the formula
> > is wrong or I'm wrong. Considering what I do for a living, I lean on
> > the latter; I'm NOT a mathematician! Rather, I was a Liberal Arts
> > major. :-)
> >
> > Beginning SG: 1.098
> > Ending SG: .998
> >
> > The final alcohol rating I calculated with a hydrometer after
> > fermentation completed was 13.75%.
> >
> > Much appreciated, gentleman!
> >
> > -Paul
>
> Hi Paul
>
> I'm not a mathematician either, so I will let those guys answer that part
> of your post. Hydrometers and "standard" charts haven't changed in
> my (long) life time, so I will continue to believe that they are the best
> that "science" has been able to come up with (so far).
>
> Here is how I would evaluate your wine:
>
> Your ferment got stuck. You have about 2% residual sugar and your
> alcohol is about 12.4%abv. I would not trust this wine to remain
> stable in the bottle with this much remaining sugar in it.
>
> I would taste it to confirm the presences of sugar and then test it with
> clinitest to try to determine how much. If more than 0.5%RS, I would
> stabilize by raising SO2 to not less than 0.83ppm molecular and add
> enough sorbate to insure stability.
>
> OTOH - You might decide you want to force it to go dry. To do this
> with this much alcohol already present will be troublesome. Use a
> very high alcohol tolerant yeast such as P. Cuvee (PdM) etc, and a
> slow "doubling" procedure to let the yeast get used to the high
> alcohol content. HTH
>
> Frederick