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Feeding Fermentations - When to stop..?

I wondered if anyone had advice on the following matter...

I am making a rice-wine and I'm using gervin gv26 yeast. It states the capability to reach ~21% vol and my intention is to get as close to that percentage as I safely can. I want the wine to ferment out dry, so while this is an experiment, I don't want to push it too far and find myself high and (not) dry.

So far, the 5UKGallon wine has had 10.45KG (23 lbs) of sugar which would seem to put it somewhere north of 18.5% alcohol - assuming it ferments to sg 1.000. Today, for the first time so far, the fermentation seems to have slowed slightly.

I have been tracking the SG drops, but with some anomalies (for example addition of 3 litres of water some time after starting didn't seem to change the SG - perhaps due to post addition aggitation adding straining bag contents back into the liquid). Annoyingly I didn't take a pre-sugar SG. If the SGs were all believable the wine would already have made a 0.182 drop making the wine ~25.5% which is clearly erroneous)

The question is when to stop feeding the wine with more sugar. I don't want to push it till it will ferment no further as I will end up with residual sugar. I am happy to stop where I am if it is the only way to achieve my 'dry' goal. The ~5UKGallon batch had 55g of minavit nutrient to work with - a compromise on the amount stated to achieve full potential.

Does anyone have any experience of this kind of scenario or vaguely similar which I can use to extrapolate likely success with further sugar additions?

Many thanks for any advice,

Jim

Reply to
jim
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hi jim! we made two 18% peach wines & 17% pear/raisin wine. if you think you're in the 18% range, I'd stop adding sugar now. the first peach dried out nicely w/o probs & resembled an entre deux mers in character. the pear wine stalled @ around 15 and we had a dickens of a time restarting it.we ended up using Turbo yeast as a last resort. it finished @ 1.000 but all remarked on a background fruityness. The 2nd peach stalled @ 1.01 & we decided to let it be: it made a nice dessert wine with a sneaky kick & a dirty hangover. we used lalvin 1118 which was rated to 18%.I'd say let it be & watch it dry out.... HTH, regards, bobdrob

Reply to
bobdrob

If you want this to be dry, which is hard to achieve in a high alcohol wine, you proabably should stop here.

Some comments on your deffinition of dryness. If you put alcohol in water which will be perfectly dry, you will end up with a SG of considerably below

0.990. I have fermented 13% wines to below 0.990. If you have or are aiming at 18-21% alcohol and defining dry as 1.000, you could end up with a considerable amount of sugar in the wine. There has to be to counter the low gravity of alcohol. You will probably have residual sugar of 2 to 4%.

Just some comments.

Ray

Reply to
Ray Calvert

Hi Ray, thanks for your input.

I was really meaning dry as having fermented pretty much all the available sugar. I thought as I wrote SG 1.000 that it wasn't the right way to express it, but that is how I worked out the alcoholic content (if it ferments to 1.000 then it will be about 18.5% by vol - if it ferments lower then it will be even higher.)

I have made several wines which went down to ~0.990 and suspected what you have confirmed, that confirmation is very handy as many wine facts are still fuzzy to my newbie-winemaker head.

When the fermentation speed slowed down I suspected it wasn't going to reach total dryness. Now it is so active in the secondary I think I have a good chance :) I stopped feeding the day I posted as it seemed like it had to be the right move.

Cheers, Jim

you proabably should stop here.

which will be perfectly dry, you will end

0.990. If you have or are aiming at

amount of sugar in the wine. There has

sugar of 2 to 4%.

capability to reach ~21% vol and my intention

ferment out dry, so while this is an

to put it somewhere north of 18.5%

far, the fermentation seems to have slowed

addition of 3 litres of water some time after

aggitation adding straining bag contents back

all believable the wine would already

to push it till it will ferment no

if it is the only way to achieve my

compromise on the amount stated to

which I can use to extrapolate likely

Reply to
jim

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