Stuck fermentation, what do I do?

[Ed_Kurtzman]

Tim, so far so good, but it’s painfully slow! Yesterday, each 1 ton fermenter went under 1 brix. I don’t know if the dry pomace helped, hurt or had no effect. If they ever get to -1.4 brix, I’ll call it a success. Today is the 1 month anniversary of the fruit being picked. I probably should have pressed and done a traditional restart. However, we had bled off one barrel of Zin, during the first week, so that the fermenters wouldn’t overflow. That one barrel got stuck at 4 brix, which is just about ideal for a restart starter. We tried getting that going with UVA Ferm 43, but a week after trying that, it’s still at 3.2 brix, and the fermenters are well below that. If and when the fermenters go dry, and if the barrel is still around 3 brix, I may hit the barrel with high proof and turn it into an “off dry” Zin Port.

[Ed_Kurtzman]

I had almost given up last week, but was pressing some Syrah that went completely dry. I put the free run Zin on top of the dry Syrah skins, then things started happening again. By this morning, the bins were down to -0.8 and -0.9, so I put the Zin in the press on top of dry Grenache skins, and voila. I have 4 barrels of almost dry Zin, with tiny percentages of Syrah and Grenache mixed in. I’ll have to convince myself the Syrah and Grenache don’t make up more than 5% of the total blend so I can use the vineyard name on the Zin.

[Tim_Corliss]

@Ed Kurtzman

I had almost given up last week, but was pressing some Syrah that went completely dry. I put the free run Zin on top of the dry Syrah skins, then things started happening again. By this morning, the bins were down to -0.8 and -0.9, so I put the Zin in the press on top of dry Grenache skins, and voila. I have 4 barrels of almost dry Zin, with tiny percentages of Syrah and Grenache mixed in. I’ll have to convince myself the Syrah and Grenache don’t make up more than 5% of the total blend so I can use the vineyard name on the Zin.

Ed that is awesome, great to hear. Four barrels is a lot of wine that was saved.

I punted on mine, after six weeks with no success, I waved the white flag and admitted defeat

[mattcitrang]

@Tim Corliss

@Ed Kurtzman

I had almost given up last week, but was pressing some Syrah that went completely dry. I put the free run Zin on top of the dry Syrah skins, then things started happening again. By this morning, the bins were down to -0.8 and -0.9, so I put the Zin in the press on top of dry Grenache skins, and voila. I have 4 barrels of almost dry Zin, with tiny percentages of Syrah and Grenache mixed in. I’ll have to convince myself the Syrah and Grenache don’t make up more than 5% of the total blend so I can use the vineyard name on the Zin.

Ed that is awesome, great to hear. Four barrels is a lot of wine that was saved.

I punted on mine, after six weeks with no success, I waved the white flag and admitted defeat

I’m not ITB but I’m curious. What did you do with it?

[Tim_Corliss]

@mattcitrang

@Tim Corliss

@Ed Kurtzman

I had almost given up last week, but was pressing some Syrah that went completely dry. I put the free run Zin on top of the dry Syrah skins, then things started happening again. By this morning, the bins were down to -0.8 and -0.9, so I put the Zin in the press on top of dry Grenache skins, and voila. I have 4 barrels of almost dry Zin, with tiny percentages of Syrah and Grenache mixed in. I’ll have to convince myself the Syrah and Grenache don’t make up more than 5% of the total blend so I can use the vineyard name on the Zin.

Ed that is awesome, great to hear. Four barrels is a lot of wine that was saved.

I punted on mine, after six weeks with no success, I waved the white flag and admitted defeat

I’m not ITB but I’m curious. What did you do with it?

Nothing.

[Benjamin_CALAIS]

This was my first year dealing with stuck fermentations (high alcohol conditions, and probably too bone headed to put water in 28 brix must) and I’ll say that the Scottlab protocol with Reskue/UVAFERM 43 Restart worked wonder on every wine that was stuck/sluggish. Sure it’s painful to execute but close to bulletproof in my limited experience including on 16%+ alc wines.