Stuck ferments and yeasts.

[waggoner]

In my short time wine making, i've had two stuck ferments.

The first one was a Ribena wine, Made to the recipe on here,,i followed it along, but the wine got down to 1040 and stopped dead,, i tried shaking it,adding yeast nutrient, a B1 tablet, acid, tannin, not all at once, but over a few days, but nothing!! so short of following the restart method, i binned it!!
And started a new batch.

The second one was the Dessert wine number 4, xmas pudding wine.
I followed the recipe again, and all was going great, then it stopped,, SG1020,
it's been that for a week now, no movement at all,, no bubbles either...
I don't want to lose this one so i will do the restart method,, (tried shaking it but nothing).

Temperture of both wines roughly 68 degrees,, kept in the kitchen..

The question is, both these were made using Gervins gv4 yeast,,which is a high alc yeast,, so i thought it would have been ok!! Is there any known downfalls to using this yeast?? Or just a coincidence that both wines using this yeast stopped with a high SG.
Just wondering if anyone else had this experience??

[NorthernWiner]

Were there preservatives in any of the ingredients?

[mcblades]

Can't comment on the ribena but I had a xmas pud wine stuck recently. I used lalvin k1v as I didn't have a specific high alc yeast on hand (although this is supposed to go to 18% abv). Mine stuck at 1030. I had a WN1 on at the time which was finishing (same yeast used) so I racked the XMAS pud onto the lees, added tronozymol and crossed my fingers.

This went down to 1020 and stuck again but I think I added too much sugar at the start.

Had to fortify with quite a bit of brandy before it was drinkable. But came out almost like a madeira.

Don't ditch a wine unless it's gone to vinegar. You can always blend it with a drier one if you can't restart it.

good luck

Mark

[goldseal]

What were your starting sgs?

It is possible that you started with a high sg and it has hit the yeast's alcohol tolerance, but the only way of telling is knowing the starting sg and any subsequent sugar additions.

Christmas Pud wine needs to be sweetened to above 1.020 anyway, so don't panic

[waggoner]

Thanks everyone.

Preservatives?? I boiled the ribena in the water for 20 minutes,, so hopefully that would get rid of any that was there..
The pudding wine,,there must be some in the pudding i would have thought??

The starting SG for the Ribena was 1120,, i might guess then, that could have knocked the yeast for six??

The pudding wine,, was SG1090 to start with, then made up to 1130 the next day, as per recipe.

Both wines started off great guns, bubbling away like made,, the pudding one even bubbled out of the air-lock,,then they slowed down and stopped.

Not sure what to do next,, either rack it into a clean demijohn, as its stopped working now,and then leave it alone, or try the restart method on it??

[waggoner]

Well, I racked it into a clean demijohn to get rid of the lees and the fat on the top. Then made up a yeast starter in another demijohn with a bit of the wine and some grape juice,, thats been working over night, so added more wine to it today and its bubbling away ok,, so fingers crossed this time..

[billybuntus]

Well, I racked it into a clean demijohn to get rid of the lees and the fat on the top. Then made up a yeast starter in another demijohn with a bit of the wine and some grape juice,, thats been working over night, so added more wine to it today and its bubbling away ok,, so fingers crossed this time..

I think you'll be wasting your time with the CPW. If its stuck due to high alchohol then a starter will stick just the same.

Have you tasted the CPW? If the alchohol is there and its a little too sweet for your liking then try adding a touch of citric acid which will balance it out. I'd wait till its degassed and cleared to make any additions though.

[goldseal]

The Christmas Pudding Wine is at around 15% alcohol, probably a bit more. That should be sufficient.

I would stabilise (just in case the yeast isn't QUITE dead), and I still reckon you'll need to sweeten a little more (1.030 ish). Billybuntus' idea for adding acid to balance the sweetness is good advice too.

The Ribena is just under 11% alcohol. You might be lucky and get it restarted.

A while ago I had a batch of yeast which all seemed a bit 'sick'. Fermentations would get going, then just fizzle. This happened when others tried yeast from the same batch. This may be what you have experienced (but now I'm guessing ).

[lockwood1956]

Hi

did you use any yeast nutrient in these batches?

Gervin G4 is claimed to go over 20% alc, but it should easily attain 18%

I would add a little nutrient to them and see if they fire up

regards
bob

[waggoner]

Hi.. The Ribena wine's gone now,, but i tried shaking, adding nutrient, B1 tablet, acid, tanin,, not all at once but over days, but nothing happening,, completely dead,,smelled very sharp too,, so i binned it and started a new batch off, which is ok so far..

The pudding wine, i tried shaking it,but nothing,so rather than go down the same path, on saturday i made up a starter and am still slowly adding the wine to it..its bubbling away ok so far.....

Nutrient was added at the start to both batches, as per instrutions.

Yes, the gv4 yeast i would have thought would have been ok,, as its a high alc one..strange why it fizzled out really..

I guess its one of those things to put down to experience,,, and to learn from..

[lockwood1956]

Did you (and this is a tip for all) check the use by date on the yeast packet?

could have been old stock, they are normally ok for about 6 months to a year after the date, but dont last forever

regards
Bob

[waggoner]

Thats one thing i've never looked at, i've seen it on the tubs of things,,but never looked on the yeast packets,, will check from now on though..

Thanks.
Mark.