effervescence after 8 months?

Hello Vic,

I am new to the group, but not new to winemaking. Maybe I can help. What was the initial gravity of the juice and what is the gravity now? Also, what strain of yeast did you use? Some of them leave more residual sugar, and others ferment more completely and leave you with a wine that is much drier.

Probably a natural malo lactic fermentation going on. Suggest you get a paper chromatography kit and check when you think it is complet before bottling. Also check your free SO2 and pH and prior to bottling.

...The wine tasted sweet, and sort of carbonated - like a

Yes, it's possible. If there is residual sugar a secondary ferment can start as the wine warms. The existing yeast can lie dormant if cold enough. Your best bet is to measure residual sugar. You can get clinitest tablets to do that. If the residual sugar is over 0.2% it can restart in my experience.

It could be MLF but it sounds like you taste sweetness so that will either be a whole lot of alcohol or some RS. Joe

Thanks for your reply. I added no yeast, nor any other ingredient. I do not add any chemicals to the wine at any time. Closest I get is sterilizng equiptment and bottles with sulfites. The SG started at 1.11, PA 15, and PS 27 at crush.

10 days later at press time, SG 1.014, PA 2, and PS 3.5. I have not measured current gravity but can only guess its greater than

1. Its now been a week since transfer and the bubbling continues with visible effervescence up the demi jon walls, which are air locked. I will let continue until still with not real concern for anything negative. Perhaps just the opposite? Your view?

Vic wrote "I added no yeast, nor any other ingredient. I do not add any chemicals

Vic - Like Paul said it's probably a malo-latic fermentation. Especially since you don't add any yeast or malo-lactic culture to your wines. Let it run to completion which may take several weeks depending on temperature. BTW, what is PS.

Bill Frazier Olathe, Kansas USA

Bill, He said it still tastes sweet, he used natural yeasts and had a high starting gravity. It could be MLF but it sure sounds like the yeast 'gave up the ghost' to me.

With a PA of 1.11 natural yeast may not complete the alcoholic fermentation; I wouldn't have tried that if the goal was dry. I would have used K1V on it and kept it warm.

I have Sangiovese that is too sweet and am going to use a heating pad on it to finish it, it's too sluggish and making me nervous.

Joe

Good points Joe. I missed the part about the wine still tasting sweet. I think you're right about natural yeast not being able to complete a wine starting at 1011. Plenty of discussion here about how to restart a stuck fermentation and that's probably in order. I always add ML culture so the fermentation completes before cold cellar temperatures set in so I thought Vic's wine might just be starting the ML after cellar conditions warm up in spring.

Bill Frazier Olathe, Kansas UsA

Hi Vic - The slow, tiny bubbles sound like a malo-lactic fermentation to me. Joe reminded me that you said the wine still tasted sweet. So, the bubbles could be from a regular yeast fermentation, a ML fermentation or maybe both. Since you don't add yeast or ML culture any of the above is possible. To be sure of what's going on you could do a chromatograpy test and see if lactic acid is present. Or, just let the wine go and wait for it to finish whatever type fermentation is underway.

Knock on wood, I've never had a stuck fermentation. But those that have give a general method to restart using fresh yeast. Hydrate yeast, add a small amount of grape juice and get a strong fermentation going. Then add some of your stuck wine. When this mixture is fermenting strongly add more stuck wine...and so on.

But, since you like to ferment naturally I would just let the wine finish out as is. Tincture of time cures lots of problems.

Bill Frazier Olathe, Kansas USA

I guess I'm late to this discussion, but I have another thought.

This past fall, Ihad a batch of syrah which was doing the same things as your Cab mix. Ultimately, I innoculated for MLF, and then re-innoculated after several months. Still, I was getting persistent minor bubbling. Finally, after fooling with this wine for about 7-8 months, I just tried degassing it with a stirring wand on a drill. After LOTS of agitation, the bubbling stopped, and hasn't re-startedafter another 2-3 months. It tastes "sweet", but the R.S. is virtually zero.

So, I wonder if the sweetness is just the flavor of your grapes, and the bubbles are retained CO2.

Lee

Glycerin is a by product of fermentation. Some yeast produce more of it than others and some conditions favor it's production and I think some grapes tend toward it. I don't know exactly what they are but it happens. The army, in wars past, has used fermentation to manufacture glycerin. Anyway, glycerin is sweet and adds legs to your wine. Some people add glycerin for the legs. When a wine comes out tasting sweet but has a low RS, it may be that you have a high glycerin content. You might check it to see if it has strong legs.

Ray