Yeast ran out of sugar?

[gingerfury]

Ok so today I've racked off my ginger wine today as there was a good amount of sludge at the bottom.
The fermentation had slowed down to like a bubble a minute through the airlock.
So I went to get some sanitizer as I had ran out and the person in my local home brew shop said that after two weeks of fermentation with a reading of .990 it sounds like the yeast has ran out of sugar and is slowing down.
So I've tasted it, it's very, very dry!
And added more sugar as advised as I want it sweeter.
Any more advice on this?

 

[stpug]

Adding more sugar without stabilizing will likely just lead to refermentation of the sugars and land you back at 'dry'. Worst case scenario is this doesn't happen right away, you bottle it all up, and it occurs in the bottle leading to explosive bottles. If you want to 'backsweeten' your wine then you should be looking to stabilize with potassium metabisulphite and potassium sorbate FIRST, and then backsweeten to your liking.

 

[gingerfury]

Ahh! Well I have Added more sugar, I am not looking to bottle any time soon as it still has a while before it'll clear fully.

Do you recommend leaving 'til this fermentation has totally finished, stabilise and back sweeten?
And do you recommend brewers sugar or the artificial wine sweetener?

 

[saramc]

Allow the wine to degas, completely clear, drop no sediment for 60d since last racking before proceeding to stabilize with k-meta/sorbate and then backsweeten. You can use any sugar source you like, granulated sugar being the most common for wine. I would steer away from the 'wine conditioner', it simply is horrid stuff. You can always do 1oz samples with various sweeteners to find the one you like the best.

 

[stpug]

Listen to saramc, she's got a better handle on wine making than I do.

 

[gingerfury]

Brilliant! Would anyone recommend stirring the wine for the next week (daily) as I've read the sugars can sometimes settle to the bottom and been told this can help stop that.
Thank you for all the advice!

 

[saramc]

Brilliant! Would anyone recommend stirring the wine for the next week (daily) as I've read the sugars can sometimes settle to the bottom and been told this can help stop that.
Thank you for all the advice!

As far as you are now, and if sugars are dissolved, there really is no need to stir at this point. The circulation caused by the continued ferment, action of the dissolved CO2, will be enough to stir things up. If you want to give the jug/carboy a daily wiggle you can, but really no need at this point.