Wine won't stop secondary fermentation

Mark,

I'm not sure what you mean when you say it's still fizzing, maybe you could describe what it's doing. But if it's been at 70F I'd just keep waiting until the gravity is stable and don't rush to add anything - it should be stable fairly soon if it isn't already. By the way, I would not add the sorbate - it's not necessary in a dry wine, and from everything I've read it has a negative impact on the taste (I've never used it and never had a problem in a dry wine, so I don't really know what the taste impact is).

Ed

Mark,

As you probably know, the creation of wine is not a precisely timed phenomenon. The kit directions are a guideline, not a schedule. The important question: Is your wine topped up in secondary? If so, just leave it alone (70F is more than warm enough) and wait until it is still.

If, however, there is headspace in your secondary, your wine may be at risk of oxidation if it is left for too long at that low gravity. In that case, I would proceed with the instructions in the kit.

I have never made wine from a kit, so I won't comment on adding sorbate to a dry wine, or on adding clearing agents before letting the wine clear naturally (both are things I would not do).

Roger Quinta do Placer

Time tables are just guidelines. But it must be about finished. It is not going to go much below 0.991. (I assume your decimal is in the wrong place.) That is very low. Temperature is fine. Incidently, and I am not pocking fun, fizzing is not a determination for wine fermenting. The question is, is the airlock still working? If it stops for a day then it is probably finished, but give it a week more to be sure.

They are exactly right. But your wine is very dry already. If you are not going to add any sweetener, you do not need to add the sorbate. It stabalizes the wine so it will not restart fermentation in the bottle. But at your SG, there will be no sugar left so that is not a problem. Just one chemical that does not need to be added.

No, it is fine.

You indicated that you are checking it dayly. I know they suggest this in many kit instructions but it is really not necessary and can be bad for the wine. Every time you pop off the airlock and take a sample air is getting to your wine. This is not good in the later stages of fermentation. If you leave it alone the CO2 being produced and pushing out the airlock will protect your wine. You defete this protection when you open it. As long as the airlock is working you know it is fermenting normally so there is no need to test it. When it stops fermenting you should test it to see that all the sugar was used up (SG condiderably less than 1.000). Once you test it this way you should top up as the air that gets in while testing can be detrimental.

Ray

Mark, don't mess with success. The wine is fermenting, and that's the important thing (much better than a stuck fermentation, I assure you). But, if you don't want a wine that dry (and it is getting DRY), then you'll have to sweeten it back anyway, so you might as well wait it out and be safe.

For the record, I never expect a wine to finish fermentation in secondary in only 10 days (by the way, "secondary fermentation" is the second inoculation with yeast in making sparkling wine; the fermentation in the secondary is still part of the primary fermentation). I expect it to ferment for 30 days, and if it finishes before then I am mildly surprised. If it takes longer, so what? This isn't a foot race. But then, you are talking kits and I am talking grapes or fruit....

Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Page

First of all, thanks for all of your advice:

"Brew King" is the company that makes the wine kits and they use the terms "fizziness" & "Secondary Fermentation", probably to help newbies like me. I appreciate the clarifications of terms from each of you.

I will let it finish primary fermentation completely without checking the wine daily to reduce the chance of introducing foreign elements and then move on to the next stage.

Regarding the additional ingredients:

Sorbate: So this will probably not be necessary considering the low sugar level of this wine and the fact that I plan to leave it very dry. Thanks for the tip.

Metabisulphite: I'm guessing that this is supposed to clear the wine of any foreign elements (i.e. other yeast strains). If I plan to keep the wine bottled for a long period of time (i.e. 5 years) would this be recommended? I remember reading that home made wine usually can't sit for many years because it lacks a process that wineries are able to do (I can't recall what that process is...).

Chitosan: So this is suppsed to clear the wine but one of you mentioned that you let it clear on it's own. Is there a trick to letting wine clear on it's own or do I just let it sit for an extra period of time? If so, how many months approx. and how will I know that it's clear enough?

Jack said: "I am talking grapes or fruit...." - I live in Austin TX and don't have a place to grow grapes. The local homebrew store only sells the kits... do you have any advice on how to get wine grapes? Let's say that I find good wine grapes and plan to extract the juice myself; my understanding is that the kits I am using are 80% juice &

20% water... Would I use 100% grape juice if possible or a dilution?

Thanks again,

Mark

Mark

See below.

Don't avoid this step, it's needed. It protects the wine from premature oxidation among other things. Whoever said homemade wine can't last for several years did not know what they were talking about. Well made wine is well made wine. I can't say a kit wine will be better in 5 years, I have no experience with them. Most reds benefit from a year or so in the bottle though.

If you or someone who will drink your wines hase a problem with the use of sulfites it can be eliminated, but it makes things more complex, the wine is unprotected in a sense. The amount of sulfite needed to protect wine is very low, it's measured in parts per million.

Wine will naturally clear on it's own usually. You can fine (ad the chitosan) at any time. You should rack off the gross lees at minimum, or stir them if you like a 'creamy' taste in your wine, that's called a 'sur lee' style. Most grape wines are pretty clean within 3 months.

Good grapes are grown in Texas, you may be closer to a winery than you think... Never add water unless there is a good reason, like way too much acid or sugar in the juice.

Joe

No, this is the standard disinfectant/preservative used by winemakers at various stages of the process. It is variably referred to as "sulfite" or "SO2" or "meta." The key is to maintain as low a level of this as possible while keeping the wine antiseptic. If the kit provides a dose of this and instructs you to use it, I wouldn't drift far from its recommendation.

As a general rule, wines should be allowed to clear on their own - and clear they will. It just takes patience. We have all been there for those first few batches, anxious and eager and wanting to "do something" every day. Truth is that wine just takes time, and there are very few things that truly can't wait 'til tomorrow (or next week, next month...) once the wine is aging, sulfited, topped up, and stable. Kits are designed to complete sooner, but that doesn't mean they *need* to be made that way. My solution for this 'problem' is to start another batch!

The kits involve a concentrated grape base, hence the water addition (really a reconstitution). With grapes, you use 100% juice. The only exception is for extremely sweet and/or acidic juice where water dilution would bring the starting chemistry into line, but that is a stylistic decision more than anything.

Roger Quinta do Placer

Mark, I don't have your instructions in front of me but you may be misinterpreting them. Fizziness is a term used to describe a wine that has finished fermentation and started to clear but still has a lot of CO2 disolved in it. When you taste it, it will have a prickly feel on the tounge. Some people like it. If you bottle too early it will maintain this. It will clear up on it's own given 2 to 6 months in bulk aging or you can do the verious sloshing and stirring that they suggest. For many wines it is better to let this clear up on it's own. But for some wines designed to be drunk young and fruity, it might be better to manually get rid of the fizziness so it can be bottled quickly. In any case it needs to be in bottle for a month or so before drinking.

[snip]

Getting grapes in Texas is an agravation. There are lots of grapes grown here but I have not found and vineyards that would sell them to home winemakers. And I have looked for several years. I have ordered them from California and I have gone on vacation and picked them in the Virginia/Maryland/Pensilvania area. Good luck in finding them.

Ray

I had that very problem on a brewking kit, but the SG was stable... This is my communication with the company:

Hello Andrew, Thank you for your contact and for using our products. The activity might just be outgassing? Due to the slightly longer than normal fermentation, the wine retains CO2 gas in suspension longer than regular Selection kits. It could appear 'foamier' than normal. Have you taken a few consecutive s.g. readings and has it been stable at .992? If so you can go ahead and stabilize. You will really need to stir this one vigorously to be sure to remove all the CO2.

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Comments: I started a Limited Edition Cabernet Merlot, I racked it to secondary at 1.010 on May 3, 2004. The wine is still fermenting briskly at 0.992, the airlock burps every 90 seconds. The room temperature is

70 degrees F. I usually let Brew King kits ferment until they stop on their own accord but this one just keeps going. Should I stabalize it now or wait until it stops fermenting?