After primary fermentation of cranberry wine to a specific gravity of about
0.99, I transferred it to a carboy with an airlock. Quite a bit of the yeast was also transferred. After 2 weeks in the carboy I still see small gas bubbles being generated. Based on the specific gravity when I transfered the wine, I am surprised fermentation is still occuring. Will cranberry wine undergo a secondary fermentation or am I just too impatient?I just bottled 6 gallons of Cranberry wine, and I must admit - you might be too impatient. Keeping it in bulk until it is "dry" or done is just fine. I had mine down to .990 but was advised to let it sit. And it was also "bubbling" like every 8 minutes, which seems slow. But I listened and let it bulk, and it worked. I was told by several - bulk aging is not a bad thing, in many ways it is good! So I'm learning, not to get into the bottle too quickly. It's ok, to let it bulk age.
That's my 2 cents. DAve p.s. it was my first 6 gallon batch of Cranberry wine, so I'm just telling you my thoughts. DAve
Roger McG> After primary fermentation of cranberry wine to a specific gravity of about
Did you sulfite it? It might be a MLF.
Roger,
There's nothing wrong. Cranberries contain Benzoic Acid, a natural preservative, and usually don't ferment too fast. Do a Google search on "Cranberries benzoic", and you'll get more than you need to know.
I have some blueberry wine which is still _very_ slowly fermenting fermenting after all these months since last summer. Blueberries also contain the benzoic (benzoate) ion, and are naturally protected against fungal decay, aka fermentation. Sometimes it takes many months to ferment to dryness, but it eventually gets there. Sometimes a racking reinvigorates the yeast, so it seems, and this may speed things up a bit, but I'd rather avoid the risk of unnecessary oxygen exposure.
It's not that you're necessarily impatient, but your particular wine demands extraordinary patience ;-)
I too am fighting to be patient with some blueberry wine that I started in the middle of September . It's just about 10% and is a touch too sweet. About 1 % too sweet . Maybe around the middle of March we'll get there. ?
I wish I had read this before I replyed to another message in the group.
I have experienced the slow fermentation issue with Cranberry. I figured there was SOMETHING about the cranberry that caused the fermentation to be slow, because I have the problem EVERY time I make it. What tends to happen with me is that fermentation stops completely and the wine does not ferment to dryness, but I don't particularly care for dry wines soooo... I get about
10 percent alcohol which is fine for my purposes. I've never kept a bottle for much longer than a year anyway... :-)Brad
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