My strawberry wine isn't co-operating

[Neil Ward]

Hi everyone,

My girlfriend and I are newbies in the winemaking world.

We have a batch of strawberry wine on the go which doesn't seem to be fermenting properly yet. Here's what we've done so far...

Mashed 2kg of dehulled strawberries with 1 Camden tablet and 1.5kg sugar, 1.5l cooled boiled water and some pectolase. Let that stand for 24 hours then strained it through muslin, added another litre of water, mixed in 1tsp citric acid, 1/2 tsp grape tannin, 2g MA33 yeast, 2tsp nutrient. Poured into demijohn and fitted an airlock. SG is 1120
24hours later nothing was happening so we added 2.5ml yeast (same yeast), 1tsp nutrient and 2tsp sugar to 1/2 pint lukewarm water, waited 20 mins (no bubbling) then added to the dj.
24 hours on and there's a thin ring of bubbles around the top of the liquid but no movement of the water in the airlock.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Thanks
Neil and Debbie.

[kirk]

You appear to have about 2.5 litres and 1.5kg of sugar, the SG would give around 16-17% if made dry.
The sugar content may be too high and the yeast cannot get over the shock.

Equally the starter you made up doesn't sound as if it would go wrong so maybe the yeast is dead, not sure how long it will remain viable.

Are you sure nothing is happening? I have found that a wine will sit there looking as if nothing is happening until I stir, then basically all hell breaks loose. Would suggest you remove the airlock and bung and with something long give it a gentle stir 0 but if it follows mine there could be a lot of foam produced.

May I ask why you didn't do the initial ferment in a bucket with the fruit in it ?

[Neil Ward]

Ive given the DJ a swirl more than once to see if that makes any difference, I haven't however taken the bung out to stir it, do you think that makes a difference ?

To be honest I didn't know about fermenting in a bucket, we're simply following a recipe and method in the good ol c.j.j berry book 'first step in winemaking'.

[rjb222]

Hi everyone,

My girlfriend and I are newbies in the winemaking world.

We have a batch of strawberry wine on the go which doesn't seem to be fermenting properly yet. Here's what we've done so far...

Mashed 2kg of dehulled strawberries with 1 Camden tablet and 1.5kg sugar, 1.5l cooled boiled water and some pectolase. Let that stand for 24 hours then strained it through muslin, added another litre of water, mixed in 1tsp citric acid, 1/2 tsp grape tannin, 2g MA33 yeast, 2tsp nutrient. Poured into demijohn and fitted an airlock. SG is 1120
24hours later nothing was happening so we added 2.5ml yeast (same yeast), 1tsp nutrient and 2tsp sugar to 1/2 pint lukewarm water, waited 20 mins (no bubbling) then added to the dj.
24 hours on and there's a thin ring of bubbles around the top of the liquid but no movement of the water in the airlock.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Thanks
Neil and Debbie.

Is this an attempt at a port style wine? your SG is way to high for a table wine. Your starting sg should be around 1.070 to a max of 1.090 with a strawberry wine I personally would not start one above 1.080 for balance reasons. You when this starts will definitely wind up with a high alcohol wine not much fruit flavor will come out.

[Neil Ward]

No, it's just a couple of newbies making newbie errors.

Anyhow were trying to rescue the batch rather than chuck it

[NorthernWiner]

24 hours on and there's a thin ring of bubbles around the top of the liquid but no movement of the water in the airlock.

Neil, a couple of things. First, I would check to ensure that your lid is on tight. If the seal isn't sealed, the airlock won't work properly. I have a hunch that your wine is in fact fermenting, since you say there is a thin ring of bubbles.

If that isn't the issue, then simply wait a bit longer. Fermentation goes through two phases. First is what is known as the "lag" or "growth" phase. During this period, the yeast cells are adapting to their new environment and increasing population, but not yet putting much effort into metabolizing sugar. This stage can take 24-48 hours during which you will not usually see much in the way of activity. During the growth phase, some oxygen can be beneficial. In fact, I usually recommend that people not seal up the fermenter until they see signs of CO2 being created.

Once the yeast progress to metabolizing sugar, you should then see obvious signs of activity.

[cpfan]

Neil and Debbie:

Visual Signs of Fermentation can be Misleading. What that means is that looking for the lack of bubbles or air-lock activity may not mean that fermentation is not happening. You provided an initial sg. What is the current sg? That's the best way to know if fermentation is truly happening.

Steve

[lockwood1956]

Hi Neil and Debbie

You said you added more yeast, but it didn't bubble in the starter you made.....

How old is the yeast any idea?

It could just be as Steve (NorthernWiner) says still in its lag phase where it is multiplying ready to launch into giving you the alcohol you require. As i mentioned to you elswhere airlock activity isnt a good sign of fermentation activity, and as the other Steve (cpfan) said SG is the best guide. On that note 1120 is a bit too high for a table wine, this is the problem with some of the CJJ Berry recipes.....way too much sugar and the yeast may be suffering a little from osmotic shock (they will get over it)

As with many things winemaking....try not to worry too much, but thats easy to say when you arent new to it. This batch will either be very strong or end up sweet due to high sugar level at start. If you want that to change you can adjust the SG now to around 1.080 by dilution.

take out the bung and put your ear to the DJ....do you hear it fizzing? if so fermentation has started

I think MA33 is a low foamer, so may not display large bubbling activity anyhow

I re-visited the JJ Berry recipes and toned the sugar additions down so that better balanced wines would be achievable will find the link

regards
Bob

[lockwood1956]

here you go

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?3985-Updated-CJJ-Berry-Recipes

[Neil Ward]

Morning,

Bob thanks very much for your input.

The packet of yeast was purchased Saturday at the brew shop in Bedford so we didn't even think to check its age, however reading on the packet has revealed it expired in feb 2012 ...another newbie error, note to self, always check the expiry date!

So in all likelihood we have dead yeast.

Anyhow, we have down decanted the ailing strawberry liquid into 2 djs, added more water to dilute as recommended, we now have an sg of 1080.

We have another yeast that we know is good as its working in the elderflower wine we have on the go... This yeast is Sn9.

Any concerns on using this yeast to revive the batch?

Thanks to all that have input, it's all valuable info for us noobs

[NorthernWiner]

Expired yeast... oops. Yes, that's probably the culprit.

[Gaztops]

I am also a newbie to wine making and I just want to add. The advice from the experienced guys stating that bubbling isn't an accurate way to test your fermentation is absolutely spot on.

I made a 5 gallon must of apple and white wine juice 8 days ago. The starting SG was 1.085 and now it is nearly done with an SG of .995 and through out the the 8 days I have not had one bubble come out of the airlock. The hydrometer is the best way to go.

Gary

[Neil Ward]

Update...

Arrived home today to a wondrous site... Obvious signs of fermentation!!!

Thanks again guys for your help, we have strawberry twins!

[lockwood1956]

Result!!!

[lockwood1956]

Slow start more than likely down to old yeasties.....if you still have the packet take it back to the store and explain and I'm sure they will replace it

regards
bob