Help - Tinned Strawberry Wine

[GrillMonkey]

Ok, so last night I splash racked the wine in to a bucket. Cleaned out the demijohn and splashed the wine back in. No visable sign of fermentation this morning but at the same time I mixed up some water and a tsp sugar with some yeast nutriant and and equal amount of the wine.

This morning all was looking well with my starter so I've added more of the wine to the starter. I'll top up the starter when I get home and add the lot back into the wine after 5-6 hours and see how that goes. Hopefully I can get this wine going again.

[Mamgiowl]

Fingers crossed here

[Hippie]

You are doing a good job. Keep growing it until it is at least a liter in volume.
You will then need to just barely try to ease it onto the surface of the wine, not just pour it in all at once.

[GrillMonkey]

If I top it up tonight, it'll be 2 litres. I'm only making a gallon so that is neary half the volume. Hopefully that will be enough of a precentage of volume that fermentation will commence easily. I will, as you suggest poor it slowly into the wine.

Should I give it a gentle stir after I've added the starter or just let the yeasties do their thing?

[Duffbeer]

Just let the yeasties do their thing.

[GrillMonkey]

Pitched the yeast starter now. Fingers crossed it'll be ok and fermenting away by tomorrow.

Can I expect the wine to be as good as if I had no messed this up or will it be inferior? I'm worried about oxygen because it's be opened up a few times for stiring and for adding must to starter and re-pitching yeast etc...

[lockwood1956]

It will be fine, dont worry too much about oxygen

[GrillMonkey]

Ok

[Hippie]

Just let the yeasties do their thing.

Good job, Karl 'ol buddy !

[GrillMonkey]

Nothing happening this morning. Altho I did take a hydrometre reading this morning and it has gone down a bit.

I've put it in the back of a cupboard to be forgotten about, with an alarm in my phone to remind me in a couple of weeks.

[Hippie]

I would go ahead and give it a good stir with a tad more nutrient and make sure the bung/airlock assembly is tight. Is there any foam in the DJ ? It will most likely be a very slow ferment going on.

[GrillMonkey]

No, no foam. Had a look this morning and it looks like it's starting to clear itself :S

[Hippie]

If you have any champagne yeast, you could make another starter with it and try it. Check the SG again first and let us know what it is now.

[GrillMonkey]

Looked again this morning and nothing, took a hydrometre reading and it had gone down to 1.023

Decided I would not be beaten so I racked it and made a new yeast starter. Fed the starter slowly throughout the day with the wine. Pitched the starter about 5 hours ago and there is now a bit of foam on top. Hopefully this will continue and the wine will finally kick into gear and ferment down to dry...


...fingers crossed

[Hippie]

Fingers crossed here also !