Hi Folks,

I am a new wine maker and this summer have started some blackcurrant wine, 5
gallons in 5 demijohns. The wine has now stopped blooping or at least only
bloops about once a day'ish. I have checked the specific gravity and it is
down to 1.

I thought that I should be able to stabilise the wine with Camden tablets
and then bottle after a few weeks ready for Christmas. Anyway the wine I
extracted to check the specific gravity was poured into a couple of glasses,
waste not want not, and I noticed that bubbles started forming on the side
of the glass and then rising to the surface as if it had started fermenting
in the glass!

The wine tastes quite sweet and acidic after taste. Any advice?
--
Regards
Bri Newsome

Hi Folks,

My Mistake, I actually have a bloop time of only 5 minutes so I guess the
wine is still going. It went to secondary at the beginning of August. How
long will it keep going? I know that yeast is known as a culture, at this
rate I'll have a yeast civilisation.

Comments

Bri

"Bri" > wrote in message
...
> Hi Folks,
>
> I am a new wine maker and this summer have started some blackcurrant wine,
> 5 gallons in 5 demijohns. The wine has now stopped blooping or at least
> only bloops about once a day'ish. I have checked the specific gravity and
> it is down to 1.
>
> I thought that I should be able to stabilise the wine with Camden tablets
> and then bottle after a few weeks ready for Christmas. Anyway the wine I
> extracted to check the specific gravity was poured into a couple of
> glasses, waste not want not, and I noticed that bubbles started forming on
> the side of the glass and then rising to the surface as if it had started
> fermenting in the glass!
>
> The wine tastes quite sweet and acidic after taste. Any advice?
> --
> Regards
> Bri Newsome
>
>

If you are getting airlock bubbles (bloops?) every 5 minutes, it is
probably still fermenting slowly. It will stop eventually; it will
finish faster if the temp. is higher. You don't want anything above
100F, but the high end of comfortable room temp (say, 75 to 80F) will
produce more yeast activity than, say, 60 to 65F. Some fermentations
just seem to take longer than others. If you've added reasonable
amounts of yeast nutrients and kept the temperature nice and warm, the
yeast will put out their best efforts -- beyond that, you just have to
let them finish at their own pace.

Doug

Bri,

Is there a lot of airspace in your secondary fermenters??? What yeast
did you use???

Bob

The bubbling in your glass is probably not so much actual fermentation
in the glass as dissolved gas in the wine that is coming out of
solution when you pour and as it changes temperature (think of what a
glass of pop will do when you pour it).

While it appears your wine is still fermenting, even after it is done,
if you try to pour a glass too soon without degassing it will do the
same thing for this reason.

Fizzing when poured into the glass suggests trapped CO2 gas. Whether
or not fermentation has completed, it seems probable that a young wine
like yours, fermented in glass, still has plenty of CO2 (g) in
solution. Your wine should be sufficiently degassed before you bottle
if you want to avoid fizz and potential off-flavors. Assuming you're
making a dry wine, I would first make sure fermentation is complete.
Check your residual sugar levels again (you may want to use a
Clinitest) but it seems SG = 1.0 still has .5 - 1% RS. As Doug said,
warm things up to 75 - 80F and, if needed, pitch additional yeast like
Premier Cuvee to bring it to completion. Next, de-gas the wine.
Usually, this is accomplished with time and several rackings but if
you're in a hurry to bottle before the Holidays you might try searching
this newsgroup for details on quicker methods.

Good luck,
RD

Hi Bob,

The wine level comes up to the top of the straight part of the demijohn. I
used a standard high tolerance wine yeast

Bri
> wrote in message
oups.com...
> Bri,
>
> Is there a lot of airspace in your secondary fermenters??? What yeast
> did you use???
>
> Bob
>

Yes yeast is a culture but it will not reproduce in the absence of O2.
Consequently it does most of it's reproduction during the first week when O2
is available. If you racked off the sediment at the wrong time (usually
later than you should have) there might not have been much yeast left in the
carboy and, hence, a slow ferment after that. Not enough nutrient is
another cause of slow ferment. OR you may have had more sugar than the
yeast could handle and it is just slowing down as it runs out. What was the
beginning SG anyway?

You can wait it out and it will eventually quit. Or you could deliberately
stop it to maintain the current sweetness if it is to your liking. Or you
could give it a bit more nutrient, stir it good to give it a bit of O2, and
see if it takes off.

Ray

"Bri" > wrote in message
...
> Hi Folks,
>
> My Mistake, I actually have a bloop time of only 5 minutes so I guess the
> wine is still going. It went to secondary at the beginning of August.
> How long will it keep going? I know that yeast is known as a culture, at
> this rate I'll have a yeast civilisation.
>
> Comments
>
> Bri
>
> "Bri" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Hi Folks,
>>
>> I am a new wine maker and this summer have started some blackcurrant
>> wine, 5 gallons in 5 demijohns. The wine has now stopped blooping or at
>> least only bloops about once a day'ish. I have checked the specific
>> gravity and it is down to 1.
>>
>> I thought that I should be able to stabilise the wine with Camden tablets
>> and then bottle after a few weeks ready for Christmas. Anyway the wine I
>> extracted to check the specific gravity was poured into a couple of
>> glasses, waste not want not, and I noticed that bubbles started forming
>> on the side of the glass and then rising to the surface as if it had
>> started fermenting in the glass!
>>
>> The wine tastes quite sweet and acidic after taste. Any advice?
>> --
>> Regards
>> Bri Newsome
>>
>>
>
>
>