corn sugar question

[shovelheadfreak]

Hello. Does this type of sugar take longer to start working compared to regular sugar?

 

[hamiltonkiler]

Nope. Works just fine and has a better flavor imo

 

[bernardsmith]

Sorry, Coming late to this party. If you are finding that a wine is taking longer to start active fermentation than normal the cause may be one of several, including, the starting gravity is relatively high: a significantly high SG can cause osmotic shock in the yeast and that is like you eating a meal of 10,000 calories; the yeast cell count may be high but the amount of viable yeast may be very low - and that can be caused by poor hydration protocol or because you pitched the yeast too soon after using a very high dose of sanitation fluid to kill wild yeast or the yeast was decimated by bacteria or mold if you used an opened pack of yeast that you kept in the fridge; the ambient temperature may be too low - creating very sluggish yeast activity; or you used some fruit juice that was drowned in preservatives (sorbates) to prevent fermentation.

 

[shovelheadfreak]

Used fresh unopened yeast that I had started for 6 hours and the mix sat over 24 hours before adding the started yeast. Still is showing no activity. What do I do now?

 

[bernardsmith]

I would first check to see if by "no activity" you mean no visible activity but the gravity may still be dropping. What was the starting gravity? What is the current gravity? If gravity is dropping then the fact that you cannot see any activity simply means that you cannot see it. But your hydrometer is a better tool when it comes to monitoring activity than your eyes or ears.
Worse case scenario , the fermentation has in fact stalled before it began. OK, then I would upend the fermentation process and proceed this way:
1. Create a starter with some fresh yeast. The starting sugar solution should not stress the yeast so you want a starter that is around 1.040. You can use apple juice as long as the juice is sorbate free or you could even use some DME (dry malt extract). Assuming the SG is 1.040 I would start with 1 cup of starter.
2. When you know that the starter is very active I would add 1 cup of the stalled must to the starter. Monitor these 2 cups to make sure that they are actively fermenting. When they are, add 2 cups from the stalled batch and repeat your monitoring.
3. Keep on repeating this doubling and monitoring until all the stalled batch has been transferred to the starter. Of course, if this process stalls and you see that there is no drop in gravity at some stage then you know that there is some systemic problem with the must. But assuming that this process is effective in restarting your stalled fermentation it can take a couple of days to transfer all the must from the stalled batch into the starter.

 

[shovelheadfreak]

First off I wonder if my problems may be not sealing primary. I used a new 2 gallon bucket and after 7 days hadn't noticed any bubbles in the lock[old style S lock] but checked it yesterday and it had went from OG of 1.996 to SG of 1.000. I transferred it to a secondary. This is the second time I've relied on bubble action so hopefully I have learned a lesson about locks. Just going to let it go for some time and see what happens. It's a gallon of Apfelwein. Thanks for the help.

 

[hamiltonkiler]

In the primary just throw a clean cloth over the bucket. No need for a lid and airlock.
First 7 days anyway

 

[bernardsmith]

First off I wonder if my problems may be not sealing primary. I used a new 2 gallon bucket and after 7 days hadn't noticed any bubbles in the lock[old style S lock] but checked it yesterday and it had went from OG of 1.996 to SG of 1.000. I transferred it to a secondary. This is the second time I've relied on bubble action so hopefully I have learned a lesson about locks. Just going to let it go for some time and see what happens. It's a gallon of Apfelwein. Thanks for the help.

Bubbles tell you diddly-squat. They look good but that's about it. The only way to tell what is going on is by measuring a change in density and to do that you need to measure with your hydrometer.. If you sanitize you can simply return the sample to the fermenter. Wine ain't beer and fruit is not going to be spoiled by lacto-bacteria.