Hi. My primary fermentation went as planned. Today I added sugar to the must as the directions stated. It has been in now for about 10 hours and there is very little bubbling in the bucket. Does this sound normal? This is my first attempt and I figured I would see a lot of co2 bubbles like in the beginning since I added more food for the yeast. Thank you.
Just to double check your meathod…you fermented for about 1 week - added sugar to water to make a slurry, added to the primary and stirred well?
You should get some activity, but I’m not sure it is going to show up all that much in the airlock. Are you opening the primary and looking at the surface of the wine? Remeber you are only adding 500g of sugar. You are not going to get the same effect as you would by adding yeast to the full sugar content of the must.
Unless there is any other indication of a problem, I’m sure you are fine.
That’s exactly my method. I appreciate the reply. Fingers are crossed.
I had the same problem on a Port I made several years ago. I researched it pretty thoroughly. It turns out the sugar, if added all at once, overpowers the yeast and you are toast. You have to do the second addition of sugar a little bit at a time over several days. You might try re-charging with new yeast. I don’t know. Don’t feel bad. Those are bad instructions and it is a common problem. :?
I’ve never had a huge problem with this step in speciale kits- And I have made 30-40 of them. Unless of course something else had been done wrong - like racking first, or waiting too long before the addition.
I’m actually pretty confident the OP’s wine is fine. On the other hand I do have some friends who have had issues at this step. So good to know there might be an alternate method.
Happy St Patty’s
:cheers:
