Need Help ASAP - SG too high!

Please. No water. Go with the EC-118. I had a similar experience with my cab -26 Brix. I used the EC-118 and let it go all the way dry and extend the maceration 1 week past dryness. It shouldn't detratct from the flavor much. Mine doesn't seem to have a problem. I am oaking now, and will give it time. Just passing on the same advice I got. Marc

Jumbalaya wrote:

Not sure where you're getting the PA numbers, they seem inflated? The Merlot should not be over 14.5, the Cab has a lower sg, so you're in a pretty normal range for those varieties from California. FYI, Ben Rotter's site has a Hydrometer/Sugar/Alcohol Tables article in the Calculations section that compares different ways of estimating PA:

According to Lallemand's info, RC212 has alcohol tolerance of 16% so you should be fine there too although EC1118 is always a safe bet.

Pp

For starters, either your SG is mis-stated in your posts, or your conversion tables need correcting; a starting SG of 1.1 yields apx.13.4 alcohol - just fine for both varietals.

Second - as to the 'water it down' suggestion; --- ugh. Even if your sugar was way high (it isn;t) that would be a crime. It would not e just the alcohol that youere affecting, but the acids, tannins, flavor compounds, etc.

I ferment at those sugar levels - and higher - with RC212 all the time. No problem.

Thanks for the input.

I calulated based on a FG of .990. I guess that would be absolutely dry which is not normally the case.

I ended up adding water but not much (750ml to the Cab & 1.5L to the Merlot) hopefully I didn't screw it up too much. Although the grapes had no mold, they were a little shriveled so I figured a little water would be like re-hydrating them.

I want to conduct malolactic fermentation and was afraid at those alc levels it would be impossible. I re-tested sugar after adding the water & got 1.100 for Merlot & 1.094 for Cab.

I also ended up using the RC-212.

Thanks,

Jumbalaya

That's the all confusing issue with the PA scale, thought that might have been the case. We'd beaten that one to death here in the past. Basically, the PA scale assumes complete dryness as the starting point, so you're not supposed to add the part under 1.000 to the number you read from the scale.

Hansen has an ML culture that works up to 16% alcohol - CH-16. I've pretty much switched to it completely now because it got me through several stuck ML fermentations, as well as being pretty fast. Two years ago we had a Petit Sirah at 1.115, and the ML was finished in 2 weeks.

Pp

How to calculate potential alcohol has been discussed here many times. If you agree that the presence of alcohol is the reason specific gravity readings for a dry wine are less than zero then use of 1.000 as an end point for fermentation (for alcohol calculations) is probably a better number. Using 1.000 instead of 0.990 I get 13.9% and 13.1% alcohol for your wines. I would not have added water to either juices.

Bill Frazier Olathe, Kansas USA

Another tactic for the MLF; get the ml bacteria into the fermenting must early - soon after primary fermentation has begun, and thereby get it started before alcohol is high.

Dear Jumbalaya, To correct your #'s, SG 1.1= 13.4%....SG 1.106= 14.1%. I am fermenting an old vine Zin now that was SG1.115/27.3 Bx and expecting 15.6% alc. I'm using RC212. The fermentation is slowing now ( 10Bx) but still going. Use yeast nutrient also.