Wine Fermentation Problem... Help

I've been making wine kits for almost 3 years now. I have about 30 successful batches under my belt and only 1 failure (it tasted like acid) lol.

I'm currently doing 2 kits from the Vino Europa Exotic Fruit Collection, Green Apple Riesling and Raspberry Merlot. I started the kits like the instructions say. When it came time to pitch the yeast it says you can per-hydrate the yeast or sprinkle onto the surface of the liquid and stir in 10 min later. I went for the sprinkling method, as this is how I've done it every time before this.

The liquid temperature was 75F when I pitched the yeast. I stored the 2 batches beside my water heater. The fire keeps them a steady 75F... or so I thought.

Now with spring time coming and the warmer temperatures, I didn't realize that the water heater isn't firing up as often, making the basement cooler then I originally thought. I took the temperature of the wine the next day and it was 69F, The instructions say below 68F is to cold for the yeast? So I put the 2 batches over top of a heater and wrapped them in a blanket. By the evening of day 2 the temperature was up to 80F (higher then I wanted it to be). I moved them away from the heater and took the blanket off. Now there holding a steady 73F.

Tonight is the evening of day 3. There is no bubbles at all in the airlocks. I poped off the lids and saw no signs of any fermentation taking place. Which leads me to believe that I killed the yeast with the extreme temperature fluctuations?

Where do I go from here? Is the batch screwed? should I wait? can I just add more yeast? I've never had this happen before.

Any advice?

Most wine yeast strains have a huge temperature range- 55-95 degrees, but 70-80 is in the range for all of them.

If the yeast is good, the temperature fluctuations wouldn't have harmed them a bit.

Grab an SG reading and see where you are, and let us know the reading and we can give specific advice for this batch.

Yooper said:

Most wine yeast strains have a huge temperature range- 55-95 degrees, but 70-80 is in the range for all of them.

If the yeast is good, the temperature fluctuations wouldn't have harmed them a bit.

Grab an SG reading and see where you are, and let us know the reading and we can give specific advice for this batch.

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k I'll do that now.

The green apple is 62 (.62)? not sure how its read.
The raspberry is 73

I ferment my Pino Grisio at around 66 degress, since that is what my basement is at. Many say that it should be 70 - 75, but it ferments fine at 66. Just let it go longer and see what happens. There's no way 80 degrees would kill wine yeast.

Wulfonce said:

The green apple is 62 (.62)? not sure how its read.
The raspberry is 73

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Sounds ok, but double check and make sure you didn't add the F-pack or whatever it's called for those kits when you mixed them up. It's a flavor/sweetening/stabilizing pack that goes in when the wine is done.

I'd give them a stir with a sanitized spoon, and see if you get some gas bubbling up. Stir them well, cover up and airlock and check it in three more days.

Nope, I did it right. Also I gave it an aggressive stirring like you said.

I woke up this morning and finally saw a bubble in the airlock. I got home after work and now its doing about a bubble every 8 seconds, so its in the early stages still.

Since the fermentation happened so late, how long should I wait before transferring it to the secondary?

Wulfonce said:

Nope, I did it right. Also I gave it an aggressive stirring like you said.

I woke up this morning and finally saw a bubble in the airlock. I got home after work and now its doing about a bubble every 8 seconds, so its in the early stages still.

Since the fermentation happened so late, how long should I wait before transferring it to the secondary?

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Wait until it's about a week into fermenting, and the SG is 1.020 or less.

Yooper said:

Wait until it's about a week into fermenting, and the SG is 1.020 or less.

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k, ty.


More problems... I'm almost cretin that the green apple batch is still in a "dead" state. I just popped the lids on both batches this afternoon. The raspberry is foaming at the surface and has aggressive fermentation (about 2 bubbles per second), but the green apple is clear, no signs of bubbles at all. I gave the green apple another aggressive stirring, hopefully it'll take.

So far I'm not impressed. I have another batch of each that I'll make after these ones, and if there anything like the first two, I wont be ordering from Vina Europa again. Like I said before, I'm about 30 batches in and Argentina Ridge (my normal brand) has never let me down. The one that tasted funny was another brand that I cant remember the name of. But this Vino Europa... maybe it was cheap for a reason?

If you guys do kits, try Argentina Ridge - Australian Shiraz, Its a great wine and you can get double kits as cheap as $70. At $1.25 a bottle, how can you go wrong?

Pic or it didn't happen... the green apple is on the bottom.

The green apple doesn't look promising. Can you grab another quick SG reading, just to ensure that it's not going?

Yooper said:

The green apple doesn't look promising. Can you grab another quick SG reading, just to ensure that it's not going?

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The green apple was at .62 now its up to .86 and its developing a bit of a "dirty feet" kind of smell... I think this batch is a goner.

Wulfonce said:

The green apple was at .62 now its up to .86 and its developing a bit of a "dirty feet" kind of smell... I think this batch is a goner.

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Well, it can't go up. It just can't. But it's possible the first reading was wrong, and the actual reading is 1.086, I guess.

It sounds like a goner, as "dirty feet" tends to be contamination I'm afraid.

Yooper said:

Well, it can't go up. It just can't. But it's possible the first reading was wrong, and the actual reading is 1.086, I guess.

It sounds like a goner, as "dirty feet" tends to be contamination I'm afraid.

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I'm almost positive I didn't read it wrong, but I wont argue with a man with over 50,000 posts. You're the expert, not me.

I dumped it out and made a new batch of apple. There was a scum in the bottom of the bucket that almost made me throw up when I caught a whiff of it. Something was defiantly a miss. I rinsed everything with hot water and did a thorough sanitizing with that spry stuff (Sodium Metabisulfite?). Hopefully nothing is contaminated this time.

I got the kits for $30 each so its not a huge loss. The raspberry looks and smells awesome! I can't wait till its finished.

Wulfonce said:

I'm almost positive I didn't read it wrong, but I wont argue with a man with over 50,000 posts. You're the expert, not me.

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Well, worse. Not only am a only sort of an expert, I'm not a man.



"Feet" is probably due to a bacterial contamination, so if you washed and cleaned and sanitized (and then maybe checked the bucket for scratches that could harbor bacteria), then you'd be fine.

It probably got contaminated because it didn't take off, and another microbe took old. One that I've done is just buy extra yeast. It's like 49-79 cents per pack, and they keep for years in the fridge. I have them "just in case" and have needed to use them a couple of times.

Yooper said:

Well, worse. Not only am a only sort of an expert, I'm not a man.

"Feet" is probably due to a bacterial contamination, so if you washed and cleaned and sanitized (and then maybe checked the bucket for scratches that could harbor bacteria), then you'd be fine.

It probably got contaminated because it didn't take off, and another microbe took old. One that I've done is just buy extra yeast. It's like 49-79 cents per pack, and they keep for years in the fridge. I have them "just in case" and have needed to use them a couple of times.

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Wow, 50,000 some odd posts, that is 20 posts a day! I know you are all woman, but you're "the man"! At my rate of posting, it will take me 100 years to get that many!

I have spare yeasts for fermentation emergencies. Knock on wood, haven't had to re-pitch yet.

Yooper said:

Well, worse. Not only am a only sort of an expert, I'm not a man.

It probably got contaminated because it didn't take off, and another microbe took old. One that I've done is just buy extra yeast. It's like 49-79 cents per pack, and they keep for years in the fridge. I have them "just in case" and have needed to use them a couple of times.

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Sorry about that. I assumed women weren't in this hobby. Looks like I was wrong.

I'm gonna start buying extra yeast. Is there different types for different applications?

Wulfonce said:

Sorry about that. I assumed women weren't in this hobby. Looks like I was wrong.

I'm gonna start buying extra yeast. Is there different types for different applications?

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You bet, but for instances like this you want a killer yeast kv1116 or ec1118.

More problems... I'm just about ready to dump this stuff out and cut my losses.

So the raspberry was doing great. Cleared and stabilized ready to bottle. I get home after work last night ready to bottle and notice that the wine is cloudy again and fermentation restarted!

This is BS, how can that even happen? The airlock wasn't removed once. and the yeast was dead. The wine was clear and stable ready to go. I'm glad I didn't bottle sooner cause there would be one hell of a mess by now.

On to the green apple. I'm 25 days into my 2nd batch. Fermentation happened late. THe SG went from 1.060 to 1.050 and then stopped. No more bubbles. Looks like I'll have to pitch the yeast a 3rd time for this batch.

Vino Europa... NEVER AGAIN!

Wulfonce said:

More problems... I'm just about ready to dump this stuff out and cut my losses.

So the raspberry was doing great. Cleared and stabilized ready to bottle. I get home after work last night ready to bottle and notice that the wine is cloudy again and fermentation restarted!

This is BS, how can that even happen? The airlock wasn't removed once. and the yeast was dead. The wine was clear and stable ready to go. I'm glad I didn't bottle sooner cause there would be one hell of a mess by now.

On to the green apple. I'm 25 days into my 2nd batch. Fermentation happened late. THe SG went from 1.060 to 1.050 and then stopped. No more bubbles. Looks like I'll have to pitch the yeast a 3rd time for this batch.

Vino Europa... NEVER AGAIN!

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Do not chuck these yet. We can try to help.

I assure you there were live yeast cells still in that must. Stabilizing will not kill them. How do you know it is fermenting again? Do you know what the SG was when you deemed it stable, after you added f-pac and all, what is SG now? Cloudiness does not necessarily mean refermentation. Are you racking your wines off the lees just once, or repeated more than once weeks apart? Perhaps give us a rundown of your notes, start to finish of what you did, SG readings, yeast, additives, temperature, rackings, etc?? Too hard to answer what happened, but your notes may help.

Were these kits expired? If the sorbate was old and you added f-pac then referment is likely. Or if must was not dry and you add stabilizers, plus f-pac, you will have refermentation.

On the green apple, what do you mean ferment happened late? Was the starting gravity 1.060 and now 3+ weeks later it is only 1.050? Share your notes on this one too, if you would. Do you happen to have a link handy for your kit instructions? Have you considered calling kit manufacturer?

When you are repitching a new yeast, did you rack off any lees that were present? Any chance you added a sorbate packet too soon, instead of when stabilizing?

FYI: Never judge ferment based on bubbles. Use your hydrometer. Not every ferment causes foam and not every ferment is an airlock or surface bubbler. Bubbles or absence of can be very misleading.