Hello, I am making a wine form Welch's frozen concentrate (Concorde). After a vigorous fermentation in primary I racked to secondary and topped up with a red wine. Fermantation stopped and looks like yast are dead. I think that sulfites from the wine were to much for the yast. Is there any way to re-start the fermenation and basically salvage the wine? Thanks for any and all advice, Tee
Did you take a SG/PA reading before fermentation and after racking to the secondary? Do you have a hydrometer? Darlene
what is your sg now?
-- Miser, qui nunquam miser!
-- Miser, qui nunquam miser!
Your sugar has been consumed. It is dry now, that's why the fermentation stopped. You have over 12% alcohol and a pretty well completed fermentation.
Why do you think it needs salvaged? Dry Concord does taste pretty unusual, all you really need is some sugar to balance once you feel it is clear enough. At that point you might want to test sulphite levels and add sorbate to keep the wine from refermenting again.
You can determine the sweetness level by just adding a teaspoon at a time to a glass of the wine until it suits your taste.
Make sure to keep the sulfite level up and keep the container topped up and you should not run into any issues with this batch. Regards, Joe
Okay, good. Once your SG drops to below 1, your primary fermentation is complete, so you won't see the vigorous bubbling you saw before. 12% alcohol is good for bulk aging, so you're okay. You just need to rack when there is a lot of lees at the bottom (top-up after racking), and as you do this, the wine should clear over the next few months. Have you decided how long you want to bulk age? With my batches using Welch's, I usually bulk age for about 7 months before bottling. This usually includes 2 or 3 rackings, depending on how much sediment drops. If you can wait, this wine will taste good at a year, but even better at a year and a half. If you don't like a dry wine, you should stabilize, sweeten, wait at least 10 days, before you bottle. Good-luck. Darlene
Just curious, for those who have made this before, would you mind describing what the final product is like? Does it age well/at all?
I've made wine from a bunch of different kinds of frozen 100% juice. I make it because you can get a pretty good fruity wine while you're waiting for the other fruit wines to age properly. I usually bottle at 7 months, and taste at 1 year. For the most part, they are a very tasty wine with fruit overtones. I've found they taste even better at a 1 1/2 - if I can wait that long. I don't think I have anything at 2 years old, so I can't say. Darlene
I hope you meant that it had dropped to 0.995, not 0.095. Otherwise you have something besides wine there. Yes it is probably very close to finished if not finished. Don't worry about it at all. It dropped 100 G so that is a little over 13% alcohol. You are fine. Don't try to restart it.
Ray
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