helllppp ..... No bubbles in airlock on secondary fermentation

Steve, It may be so slow that you don't notice it. I've never seen so much as a bubble in my secondary. But I'm not master at this, I can only tell you what I know.

Hi Steve....with a gravity already at 990 I personally wouldnt expect to see bubbling, since 990 is fairly indicative that fermentation is pretty much over, and all the sugar has been used, leaving your wine completely "dry". If any fermentation is occuring at all, it is, as your first respondant said, going to be so slow as to be virtually invisible unless you happen to be in the room at the moment it might burp.

Sean

I agree - .990 means it is about done. now is the time to let it clear.

You really should have known the original SG, but I'm guessing it was higher. smile. If it is too low alcohol, you might need to fortify with a little everclear. When it clears in a few weeks, you need to taste to see if you want to add sugar or honey to sweeten it. Though I had a cranberry wine that was .990 - tasted horrible - and now after 3 years now, it's not bad. smile. Hoping it is good by Thanksgiving.

I had a Mango/Peach that was .992 and needed sweetening prior to bottling.

I'd love to try mak> >> I am brewing some Plumb wine and really need some advice.

Thank you very much for the advice everyone; I am now a little happier knowing that I have not ruined it on my first attempt.

It sounds like the worst impact of this is that It wont produce as much alcohol and I need to fortify it later on; which is a million times better than the situation that I feared.

Thanks again.

Steve.

n.b.

Does anyone know the formula for calculating the alcohol content if you dont have the original SG, thanks.

Steve.

It's almost impossible to ruin wine if you follow a few simple precautions. Please tell us how much wine you have (is this a US gallon or an Imperial?) and how much sugar you added and we can tell you if the alcohol sounds high enough to protect the wine. Also, did the plums taste ripe? In fruit wines you often shoot for around 10% alcohol, that is the minimum for a wine to keep. If you will drink it all in a year, the alcohol doesn't matter as much if you keep the finished wine cold.

As to next steps, you will want to ensure the container is topped completely now. Try to make sure you have very little airspace in the container, I'm assuming it's a glass gallon or 3 liter container. If it's not glass you may want to hunt a glass one up; it will protect your wine better than most anything else.

0.990 sounds dry and sounds fine. You should consider adding sulfite now. I really don't care for campden tablets because they are hard to crush but powdered sulfite is a little harder to use in small quantities. What you could do is put 1/8 teaspoon in a one ounce container of water and mix it up, then add 2 teaspoons of that water to your wine. Don't strain your wine anymore, rack it. By straining it you helped degas it so that was actually not a bad move.

That should get you going in the right direction.

Joe

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the advice, I have now topped the demijohn right up to the shoulder leaving a little air space at the top (just the small neck); it's an imperial (UK) Gallon glass demijohn.

I will go and buy some powdered sulfite tomorrow.

I added one kilogram of sugar into the bucket at the start of the process and then another 50-70 grams approx a day before moving to the glass. is this all the info you need to tell if there is enough alcohol in there?; I do intend to leave the wine for a year or over if possible.

Steve.

Sorry, forgot to mention that the plumbs did taste ripe.

Thanks.

Steve, I'll look up plums when I get home from work and get back to you but it sounds like you are in good shape.

Joe

If you used around 5 pounds of plums I think you are in good shape. There are websites out there that give directions on fruit wines, one I saw said 20 lbs plums to 9 pounds of sugar in 5 gallons (US). That is about exactly what you did sugar wise.

The reference I have says ripe plums are around 8% sugar, acids are around 9g/l and the predominant acid is malic. (That is the raw juice, yours was diluted by 'X' amount of water and sugar to lower values.)

If anything I think you may have a bit too much alcohol, but that is better than too little. Alcohol and acids are what makes a wine stable and it looks like you are good on both. If is tastes a little flabby because the acid is lower (because of the water added and possible higher alcohol) you can just add a little acid; lemons would work if you don't have any from a wine shop. I would start with juice from half a lemon and go from there.

In other words, I think you are in fine shape. If you are in Europe Trevor Panther has been making fruit wines for a long time and is an expert, so is Ben Rotter. You may want to discuss with them. Ben has a website and Trevor posts here.

Joe