After posting about demijohns, I thought it might be an idea to actually check the specific gravity of the quince, grape and perry. Here are the results.
Quince Wine 2013.11
| Date | Specific Gravity | Alcohol Content |
| 4th November 2013 | 1,110 | 0% |
| 13th November 2013 | 1,070 | 5.3% |
| 27th December 2013 | 1,038 | 9.5% |
| 15th February 2014 | 1,035 | 9.9% |
The recipe says “When fermentation has ceased, rack the wine into a clean jar and place in a cooler environment and leave. When the wine is clear and stable siphon into bottles”. Fermentation is slow but visible (and the utility room is 16°C), and with alcohol of 9.5% I am happy to leave it going as is. Back to the utility room. It is still rather cloudy, so I wonder if I should not have added pectolase at the start. I looked at whether you can add it later and it looks like you can, so I’ll wait and see what happens when the fermentation really slows down (you can still see obvious bubbles). If it does not stop being cloudy I will add some pectolase and see if the fermentation speeds up again.
| Date | Specific Gravity | Alcohol Content |
22nd November 2013
(Grape Juice) | 1,066 | 0% |
22nd November 2013
(Juice + 100g fructose + 100g caster) | 1,078 | 0% |
| 27th December 2013 | 996 | 10.9% |
According to my “wine from white grapes” recipe, I need to act on this, rack it off and degas it. So I got one of my father-in-law’s recent gifts, sterilised it (it was already clean – thank you David), and syphoned the wine in. Weirdly the new demijohn was significantly smaller in volume than the old one and I didn’t realise until I had a fair sized puddle on the floor. This is actually good news, because there is no air gap. At the same time I put in a Campden tablet and some potassium sorbate to knock the yeast out and allow the carbon dioxide to come out with a shake or two over the next few days “degassing”.
| Date | Specific Gravity | Alcohol Content |
| 21st October 2013 | 1,050? | 0% |
| 7th November 2013 | 1,010 | 5.7% |
| 27th December 2013 | 1,010 | 5.7% |
Very confused about this one, that has been slowly fermenting for weeks without changing its alcohol content. I think I might just bottle it without adding much sugar for the fizz – the bottles from the first round of cider I made are rock hard and I suspect I will need wellies when I open them.
| Date | Specific Gravity | Alcohol Content |
| 7th November 2013 | 1,050 | 0% |
| 19th November 2013 | 1,000 | 6.6% |
19th November 2013
(after apple juice) | 1,004 | 6.1% |
| 27th December 2013 | 1,004 | 6.1% |
Another that has been fermenting slowly without much change in alcohol. Probably needs bottling like the perry.
