I made some Orange wine according to a recipe on the net. It was bubbling and boiling away merrily for three days and then just stopped. I took a hydrometer reading and it showed nothing at all. The thing sank all the way to 0.09 or whatever the last reading was.
I tried to get on the winepress.us net but it won't let me post for some reason. And the administrator won't answer either.
Well I'd say your wine has finished fermenting . If you took a hydrometer reading before you pitched the yeast[an IG - Initial Gravity] then you should be able to work out what % of alcohol you have in your wine.
If it's very low you may be able to add more sugar and it'll probably start bubbling again.
Charlie
As already said, it sounds like it is finished fermenting. But you need to learn to read a hydrometer. SG readings are usually quoted as
3 decimal places and 0.09 is an impossible reading. Perhaps .990. If you wish to calulate your alcohol %age at some point, reasonably accurate readings are essential.Steve
My typing is all messed up since I got a head injury last year. Yes, I meant
0.990. But since the fermentation is still bubbling away do I simply halt it with Potasium MetaBisulfate?
NO!
Why would you want to halt it, anyway?
So what you're saying is that you allow it to keep fermenting until it halts of it's own?
Yep. Keep feeding sugar and the happy content (alcohol) will increase.
We experimented years ago with the Lalvin EC-118 and kept feeding sugar until the alcohol hit 18% IIRC at which point the alcohol killed the yeast. The stuff always had a sharp boozy taste even after years of mellowing, and we finally relegated it to cooking.
Yes. Once the yeast have run out of sugar to eat, the fermentation will stop all by itself -- there's nothing left to ferment. If you want a sweet wine, then add potassium *sorbate* (not metabisulfite) to prevent the fermentation from starting again, then sweeten it. Stopping the fermentation early leaves you with a low-alcohol wine, which rather defeats the purpose of making wine in the first place.
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