So I’m following Jack Keller’s recipe for peach wine:
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques26.asp
And I’ve gotten up to the step about straining the wine through a bag. Here’s the problem–I didn’t see any yeast activity at all until today. Should I let my yeast do its magic for a bit longer, or should I go ahead and strain my wine?
You will almost never get into trouble by letting things take more time with winemaking, but you can often get into trouble by rushing things. If unsure, wait a few days.
This is sage advice.
I agree, wait a few more days. You want to make sure the bulk of the work is complete before doing a chaptalization step.
My preference for chaptalization is slightly different than the recomended process however. I prefer to add sugar to the primary and leave it there for another week to ferment out in situ before racking to the secondary.
Not sure it will make a huge difference either way.
[quote=“Brew Meister Smith”]I agree, wait a few more days. You want to make sure the bulk of the work is complete before doing a chaptalization step.
My preference for chaptalization is slightly different than the recomended process however. I prefer to add sugar to the primary and leave it there for another week to ferment out in situ before racking to the secondary.
Not sure it will make a huge difference either way.[/quote]
I don’t think it makes any difference unless there is a lot of pulp or such that you want to rack off of. Sometimes fruit pulp can lend an unpleasant flavor to the wine if you leave it too long, but that is only a very few fruits that you would need to worry about with that. There should be plenty of yeast in suspension to accomplish the chaptalization goals either way.
Interestingly enough, I accidentally added all the sugar for the recipe in the first step. Whoops. I guess I can add half the amount or so when I strain it…just to keep it on track. I’m thinking I should wait another week at the most before doing so, especially since this heat has this must literally fizzing with yeast activity.
That’s the reason for the slow start. The reason to add sugar in stages is that the yeast have a hard time getting going in a very high sugar environment, and tend not to finish as strongly when you do it that way as well, which can result in a higher final gravity. So by adding half the sugar initially, the yeast can get going better, and they are strong and healthy enough to chew through the second addition a few days later.
I would not add more sugar if you have already added what is called for though. That will result in a high alcohol wine that won’t be in balance.
For this reason i think you should stay there…
If your SG is 1.010 or below, go ahead and strain.
Actually, by now (more than 2 weeks), you should strain and rack to get off the lees.
