Stuck...a follow-up

Nov 27, 2003 4 Replies
J

I posted last week about my horribly stuck saignée of cabernet sauvingnon and franc, and wanted to post a follow-up.



I checked pH, and found it at 3.4. Aggitated it like mad to release all of the dissolved CO2. Racked it to a second secondary (tertiary?), and then did the "yeast doubling" technique. The starter of White Labs Champagne yeast stopped almost as soon as I added the first alloquot of my wine. So, I dumped it all back into the carboy, and gave up on trying to restart the thing.



Frustrated, I went to my local homebrew store and bought a hydrometer. I had previously been checking the wine with my refractometer, which, I have discovered, is not accurate. Used the hydrometer, and guess what? The wine is dry! That's why it wouldn't restart...it was done.



Apparently, refractometers can't be used on fermented liquids, as some research revealed. Can ethanol make them that far off, though (6 degrees Brix)!?


-- ACEY


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T

Are you admitting that you didn't _taste_ the wine when you thought it was stuck? Doh! ;^D

Tom S

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R

Hehe,

You really made those poor yeast suffer!

Yep, refrac will be well out by the time the ferment finishes. In real wineries hydrometers are used for checking ferments, with other more accurate chemical analyses at the end for final residual sugars.

Your hydrometer will not actually read the correct level for sugars once a ferment starts, but it is close enough for watching ferments. Most winemakers don't class a ferment as dry until the hydrometer reads around -1 Baume (and then we check accurately).

The yeast doubling method will work if you have a real stuck ferment 8)

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J

Yes, refractometers are not used for this measurement. There is a rule of thumb using a refractometer and hydrometer to calculate alcohol content, but distilling the wine and using an alcohol thermometer is cheaper and accurate to 1/2 %. (You can make a rudimentary distiller for a few dollars.) Regards, Joe

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R

While often overlooked, the most common cause of yeast sticking is lack of sugar! ;o) Ray

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