Strawberry wine stuck at 1.020

[Zakrabbit]

Hi All,

Ive come today to check and stabilise my strawberry wine, and found that its stuck at 1.020.

This one was put on before I started taking proper notes, but I did take an initial gravity reading, an SG of 1.150! On my hydrometer this is right at the bottom and well outside the red marked 'dessert wine' section!

I tasted it, and its extremely sweet. Hard to tell through the sweetness what the actual alcohol content is like!

Ive reinnoculated it with a mix of half a cup of the wine, a teaspoon of yeast (same type, wineworks) and a teaspoon of yeast nutrient. Im hoping this will get it going again and at least let me get it down to a dessert wine reading.

Can anyone offer any further suggestions?

Cheers

 

[Chippy_Tea]

How do you know it has finished?

.

 

[Zakrabbit]

How do you know it has finished?

.

Three consecutive FG readings over 96h.

Sorry for late reply, been unavoidably away from t'internet.

Its back active now, since the re-start. Going to give it another week before checking again.

 

[GerritT]

Three consecutive FG readings over 96h.

Sorry for late reply, been unavoidably away from t'internet.

Its back active now, since the re-start. Going to give it another week before checking again.

Thought about champaign yeast? That'll pull it down to 1010. If not further.

 

[Tau]

Having read this and calculated a current abv for your wine as being 17.06% you will have to leave for another month or two to even get it down another 10 points. Now this will only happen if you used gv4 which is capable of a potential 21% abv', almost all yeasts other than this will give up the ghost at around 18% so 1.013 is probably the best you're going to get. Now you could rack and dilute with 0.5 ltr (no camden as it will just stop) just to give it a chnace to get a little lower. Either way 96hour there won't be any change measurable.

 

[Zakrabbit]

Cheers Tau,

Just read it again this evening, so thats a week and a half since trying to restart it, and its still 1.020! A quick taste and its very sweet with a hell of a kick! :lol:

The yeast is a bog standard wineworks general purpose job. I think thats probably it for this wine, and if its strength is as you calculate, then theres no point holding out for any further change.


edit 29/10. Not sure where to go with this! Its still bubbling away, one through the airlock every 55sec! A look with a good backlight shows plenty of nice big bubbles coming up, so im sure the yeast are still working at it! Wondering now how much longer to give it?

 

[Zakrabbit]

Well, Ive tested again today and still 1.020. The burst of bubbling died off despite a bit higher ambient temp in the room, so ive decided enough is enough and stabilized it at this point.

 

[tonyhibbett]

What you have ended up with is a strawberry liqueur, which is not so bad, as dry strawberry wine is, in my experience, none too pleasant. In the same way that sweetening can offset an overly acidic taste, adding acid can do the same for over sweetness. The main acid in strawberries is citric, which tends to get consumed during fermentation. If the pH is 4.0 or higher, the wine is acid deficient, so you could add say 2 teaspoons of citric acid and half a teaspoon of tannin to improve the wine.

 

[Zakrabbit]

Hmmm, might be able to persuade the wife to drink it then!:lol:

 

[Anglezarke]

When I make strawberry wine I always include a litre of grape juice from Lidl. Starts off the ferment explosively and doesn't seem to affect the colour or flavour. If it ever stops fermenting I use the double up method. Get a litre of Lidl red grape juice. (about £1) Start it fermenting in a spare demijohn. It will explode. Then double up with some of the stuck wine until all is fermenting again. Works every time.