Ascorbic Acid

[ToulouseLePlot]

I see the Cranberry juice I've bought has got added vitamin C. The 1 litre I put in to a (4.5 Lit) recipe has, according to the box, 0.24g of ascorbic acid. Testing the whole must for pH it started at 3.6.

I think the fermentation is going slower than others, having come down from 1.095 to 1.020 I see the fruit is no longer making a floating mat and there's no characteristic hissing when I give it a stir (there was 2 days ago at 1.048). Does ascorbic acid inhibit fermentation? Is that much ascorbic acid likely to interfere with getting down to 0.995(ish) and if so is there something I can add to help it?

[Cellar_Rat]

Ascorbic acid should not hurt - in fact I seem to recall it helps.

Lets treat this as a stuck ferment...
What temp is it?
What temp was it before ?
Any off smells?
What yeast & nutrient did you use?

Lots of questions, sorry, but I think the answer might be in there somewhere.
In the meantime a good rousing to get some air it is never a bad thing at this stage.

[ToulouseLePlot]

Thank you Cellar Rat.

It has been at 21°C 2 days ago when it was fermenting strongly in the bucket, it is now 18°C. This afternoon, after straining through muslin and putting in a DJ, which process gave it a pretty thorough rousing, I added 700ml of grape juice to bring it up to the neck of the DJ (grape juice was 1.064). It continues to bubble, but sedately. The original must had 1 tsp of tronozymol and Vintners Harvest R56 yeast. No off smells.

That's good news about the vitamin C - I know that it's naturally in fruit but read that it was used as an anti-oxidant at the end of fermentation (in some cases) and thought this extra in the cranberry might have over-egged the pudding. Perhaps it's just a slower ferment to the couple I've done just recently.

[Cellar_Rat]

The extra 700ml of grape juice may cause it to lag again. Is this a red or a white? If its red you could keep it a bit warmer too.

[ToulouseLePlot]

Wilco: it's a red, so I'll warm it up a bit and just get patience.

Thanks for your thoughts.