Yeast Issues

ozwakiekswino · December 23, 2011, 10:01pm

Here is my issue.
I used D47 in my sweet potato wine. It bubbled for two weeks and stopped. Yes the temp dropped in my house to about 50° . My wife went and bought some more yeast this time Lalvin EC-1118.

Can I add the EC-1118 to the batch or is this batch done?

I forgot to mention this was a two gallon batch.
so I guess it is possible that with two gallons and 6lbs of sugar that this could be done feeding.

OK so i just tasted this and it is tart as all get out so then this sound like I jumped the gun on the posting here looks like It needs more sugar.

I went by the Potato recipe and it said to use 2 ¼ tsp per gallon so that would be 4½ lbs for two gallon and I added 6 lbs.

any clue ?.. LOL!

Please help

Daren

baratone_brewer · December 24, 2011, 12:02pm

Can you provide your complete recipe? D-47 should be good all the way down to 50F. Have you taken a gravity reading? Have you racked it at all yet?

ozwakiekswino · December 24, 2011, 3:09pm

Not sure what listing the complete recipe is going to help.

No I haven’t Racked Yet.

I got impatient and added the EC-118. Did I screw this up now ?

I have no hydrometer it got busted last week and the place where I get my stuff is only open for two hours a day, and looking like they are going out of business

Daren

baratone_brewer · December 24, 2011, 9:37pm

Adding more yeast isn’t an issue.
Hard to tell if it is finished yet without taking a gravity reading. Your wine should have been racked when SG was reduced by half.
There are a number of factors that can contribute to a stuck fermentation if that is what is going on.
Young wines can be harsh and need to age. Plus, its easy to go overboard with acid blend and tannin if they were added.

ozwakiekswino · December 25, 2011, 12:14am

Yes they were both added. I will have to look up what I wrote down for the Taninn and acid blend.

I did go ahead and rack today and noticed that there was alot of sweet potato floating in the top( this was some that made it through the mesh bag).

ozwakiekswino · December 26, 2011, 8:46pm

Ok so here is what I have wrote down.

THIS IS FOR TWO GALLONS

Acid Blend: 6 tsp

Tannin: 1 tsp

Nutrient: 2 tsp

Campden (crush): ½ tablet

D47 Yeast added 24 later

Now the one gallon calls for this

Acid Blend: 3 tsp

Tannin: ½ tsp

Nutrient: 1 tsp

Campden (crush): 1 tablet

D47 Yeast added 24 later

Sorry it took so long to post

Daren

baratone_brewer · December 26, 2011, 10:11pm

Your high on your sugar, and you should have used 2 campden tabs for 2gal instead of 1/2 tab 24hrs before your yeast. But, your acid blend and tannin look like they are within range.

ozwakiekswino · December 27, 2011, 12:00am

I used One campden Tab. I was told not to use more then this for under 5 gallons . this was told to me by Baccus and Barelycorn in Shawnee KS.

ozwakiekswino · December 27, 2011, 12:04am

I mistyped

(Campden (crush): ½ tablet)

This is what I have I was looking at another recipe sorry

Campden (crush): 1 tablet ((do not use more then one Campden Tab,under 5 gallon))

I sure hope that makes sense now

itspossible · January 1, 2012, 2:57am

Either way their direction is not correct for an initial kill dose or your reading it as an instruction they meant for bringing up the free SO2 during racking or bottling.
If using the lighter weight tab at/ around 75ppm( as noted on the campden bottle) it will weigh .44gram and will contribute approximately 67ppm of SO2 with 1 gallon of must at 3.5PH This becomes sort of off topic at the moment but the total SO2 would be 67 the free amount is lower/ higher depending on PH.
If using the heavier weight tab at/ around 150ppm it will weigh .60gram and will contribute approximately 91ppm of SO2 with 1 gallon of must at 3.5PH

When making a kill dose addition to must you typically want to hit around 100ppm to blast the wild yeast and bacteria and then after 24 hours the SO2 drops rapidly so that you can introduce a fresh pitch of yeast.

If you added .5 tab of .44g campden to 2 gals you approximately added only 17ppm TOTAL SO2.
If you added .5 tab of .60g campden to 2 gals you approximately added only 23ppm " "
If you added 1 tab of .44g campden to 2 gals you approximately added only 34ppm " "
If you added 1 tab of .60g campden to 2 gals you approximately added only 46ppm " "
To hit 100ppm in 2 gals must using a .44g tab = 3 tablets
To hit 100ppm in 2 gals must using a .60g tab = right around 2 tablets

I will not sugar coat the following remark:
Sweet potato wine will taste like DIRT when young, after aging it does mellow out though.

itspossible · January 1, 2012, 3:07am

It may have already been answered above but the wine is done I cannot be a specific as a hydrometer obviously but I would say rack to clarify at his point.

And as you only had 34-46ppm SO2 TOTAL initially I would say after SO2 binding in the must and blow off during primary your pretty close to NO FREE SO2 in solution. Which you will want to correct during racking as FREE SO2 is an important antioxidant (oxygen scrubbing) and also helps ward off any contamination issues during racking and aging. In order to hit the baseline of 50ppm which is the amount total you will add, in reality it will be slightly lower due to the binding effect again but will be in between 30-50ppm which is where you want it to be in secondary. I am doing the following calculation on 1.80g of must which is what you will be around after losses to racking.

To hit 50ppm TOTAL SO2 using .44g tabs in 1.80 gallons = 1.5 tablets
To hit 50ppm TOTAL SO2 using .60g tabs in 1.80 gallons = 1 tablet