I have been making wine for years and never had any trouble, but I tried a new wine recipe and made a six gallon batch. I’m afraid the specific gravity of the must was too high-1.1200 + and it has stalled out at about 1.100–too sweet. We will not drink wine that sweet. Is there any way I can salvage the 6 gallons by blending or trying to restart fermentation?
Name: John S.
State: Kansas
Hello John,
Your starting Specific Gravity on your wine hydrometer is a little high. We normally don’t recommend starting a fermentation any higher than 1.100. At an S.G. of 1.120 the potential alcohol for the fermentation is right at 15%. That’s just a little too high to shoot for and not have a potential for a stuck fermentation. The higher sugar concentration starts to act as a preservative, inhibiting the wine yeast activity.
Having said this, there is something that is a little puzzling. You say that the fermentation started and moved 20 points down to a Specific Gravity of 1.100. If the sugar level of the wine must was the issue at hand, typically the fermentation would not start at all. The fact that it did start tells me that the sugar concentration of the must is not  what’s causing the stuck fermentation. Or at least, it is not the main contributing factor.
Now the obvious question is: If it’s not the sugar level that’s holding the fermentation up, what is?
This could be one of an array of issues. It could also be a combination of two or more issues. While there may be something else causing the stuck fermentation, the higher sugar concentration level could be a contributing factor. It could be the jab to the upper-cut.
We could go through all the reasons why here, but that would not be very productive, and it would require me to go through a back-and-forth of questions and answers with you to get to the bottom of things. But here’s what we can do. On our website, we have put together The Top 10 Reasons For Fermentation Failure. This is a list of what we have discovered to be the top reasons why a wine must is not fermenting.
This list has been compiled through many years of experience with helping home winemakers through their more challenging moments. It is my feeling that this list covers well over 95% of the issues we run across. By going through them I’m fairly confident that we can solve your stuck fermentation riddle.
Going back to your sugar concentration, I wanted to bring up something real quick. I don’ t believe it to be the primary problem, currently, but as the fermentation continues and the alcohol level rises, it could indirectly cause a problem with the fermentation being able to finish completely. Just as too much sugar can interfere with a fermentation, so to can too much alcohol.
Happy Winemaking,
Ed Kraus
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.

When I do my first racking, there is a lot of carbonation in the wine, and it does not siphon well at all. How should I handle this?
Name: Bryan P.
State: GA
Hello Bryan,
Yes, this can be quite a problem. For the readers out there who don’ t understand what Bryan is talking about, let me explain a little bit.
During a fermentation, CO2 gas is created by the wine yeast. This is the same stuff that creates the fizzy in beer and soda pop. This CO2 gas is saturated into the wine must.
When Bryan is racking [siphoning] his wine must from his primary fermenter to his secondary fermenter, the gas starts to release from the liquid within the siphon hose. This is because the liquid is being agitated, much like shaking a bottle of soda pop. The gas collects and rises to the highest point of the siphon hose and forms a gas pocket, which eventually breaks off the siphon and stops the flow of the liquid. This is known as a vapor-lock.
One thing I have done in the past, is raise the exit-end of the siphon hose as high as I can to get the gas pocket to rise and release out the end of the hose and then start the siphon again, but this is a very annoying process and may be required more than once during a 5 gallon racking. It is also very hard to do if you are employing a curved racking cane in the siphon process. The rigid curve in the racking cane requires you to turn the cane completely upside-down to get the gas to release.
Siphoning without a racking cane is no good either. This is because a loose hose in the bottom of a fermenter will do nothing but sabotage your racking efforts by stirring up the sediment that has collected at the bottom. The rigid tube of the racking cane allows you to keep the end of the siphon under control a not sloshing all around, sort of like a wand.
The only way I’ve been able to get completely around the vapor-lock issue is to use fermenters that have spigots at the bottom. You attach the siphon hose directly onto the spigot . Then you can depend completely on gravity to start the flow. By siphoning in this way there is no opportunity for a CO2 gas pocket to develop. There is no rising curve coming up and out of the top of the fermenter as with a regular siphon.
All the primary fermenters we offer have spigots at the bottom that will accept a 3/8″ I.D. vinyl siphon hose. The spigots are strategically placed away from the bottom so that sediment will not be drawn. As you get towards the end of the siphon, gently tilt the fermenter towards the faucet-side to round up the last bit of liquid.
Last year we also introduced secondary fermenters that have the same faucet at the bottom. They are plastic carboys of varying sizes: 3, 5 and 6 gallon. They are all made out of the same exact plastic that is used to 2 liter soda pop bottles, only thicker.
By using these types of fermenters you can avoid the vapor-lock issue all together. Also, you are not sticking anything into the fermenter that can potentially stir up the sediment. The sediment stays at the bottom quiet and undisturbed through the entire racking.
Happy Winemaking,
Ed Kraus
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.

I racked and filtered my Pinot Grigio and it was crystal clear when I bottled it. Now, some bottles (but not all) have a white almost milky sediment in the bottom of the bottles and it has a slightly “dirty sock” aftertaste. I’ve been told it was a protein and I might be able to remove it with Sparkolloid but have not tried it yet. Any suggestions?
Name: Neal C.
State: CA
Hello Neal,
Normally, when someone tells me they have a milky/dusty/silty substance at the bottom of their wine bottles, I tell them that they either bottled their wine too soon — before everything had a chance to clear out completely — or that the wine started slightly fermenting again while in the bottle.
But something you have explained has changed this whole scenario: that is the fact that you have filtered the wine. I’m assuming that when you say filtered, you mean that you put the wine through an actual wine filter and didn’t just strain it through some cheesecloth or similar.
Filtering the wine would have taken out anything that could have caused a visible sediment later, so having the sediment caused by particles that were still suspended in the wine at bottling is out of the question. Filtering would have also taken out a huge chunk of the yeast cells that may have remained in the wine, so a re-fermentation is highly unlikely, as well.
What this means is that what you are seeing is something that was created after the wine was bottled. It wasn’t from microscopic particles still in the wine. It wasn’t from a re-growth of yeast cells. It was from something that was precipitated out of the wine while in the wine bottle.
Precipitation occurs when there is more of a particular compound in a liquid than the liquid can hold. Instead of staying dissolved or saturated within the liquid, it releases as a solid substance.
By far, the two most common substances to precipitate from a wine are tartaric acid and tannin. Tartaric acid will precipitate as little crystals, about the size of popcorn salt or smaller. It may look white, but is more likely to be beige in color. Tannin precipitates as a powdery substance, about the consistency of flour. It can be white in color, but it is more likely to be beige, or in the case of a red wine, rose colored.
Based on your description I would say that you have a tannin precipitation problem. I would also like to point out that the person that said it was protein was correct. That’s because tannin is a protein. And like that person said, I would also recommend putting the wine back into a common vessel and treating it with Sparkolloid, with only one difference. I would also treat the wine with Bentonite, beforehand. Both are fining agents.
One other thing I would recommend is that after pouring the bottles of wine back into a fermenter you should immediately treat the wine with sulfites such as sodium metabisulfite. This will drive the oxygen out of the wine that was just introduced through the splashing. Once the wine has been successfully treated with the Bentonite and then the Sparkolloid, you will want to treat the wine again with sulfites and bottle right away.
Finally, you may want to take a look at the following article that is listed on our website: Maintaining Temperature Stability In Your Wine. This article goes over the precipitation issue in much great detail than I can here: how to determine it; how to prevent it.
Happy Winemaking,
Ed Kraus
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.

Hi, I was told by a local winemaker, that if you add vanilla bean to a racking of chardonnay, it gives it a subtle nice flavor. Well, we put just half a vanilla bean in and racked it for a month. We just racked again and took the vanilla bean out. The wine has a weird plastic-like taste and smell to it that is rather unpleasant. We are so disappointed because we were so looking forward to this batch of chardonnay! Is this smell and taste because of the vanilla bean? Did we leave it in too long? And, how do we salvage this batch of chardonnay? Help!
Name: Mary A.
State: MA
Hello Mary,
Adding vanilla bean to a wine recipe is one of those tricks that many home winemakers try out from time to time. I have not used vanilla beans, myself, but I have tasted wines with their addition and observed no negative effects — certainly, nothing like you are describing. I’ve also had lots of other winemakers describe to me their use with varying degrees of success, but I’ve never had someone come to me with a bad experience from its use. So, I think it is highly unlikely that the vanilla bean is the root of your problems.
By far the most common reason for having a plastic taste or smell in your wine is using fermenters that are not made of a food-grade plastic. It is very important to verify that any plastic vessel that comes in long-term contact with the wine be food-grade. Plastics that are deemed food-grade are made from a plastic that is more pure, with no dyes or other additional chemicals that can leach out into the wine. They are also mostly made from non-recycled plastic.
Any container you that get from a food supplier or that is being sold for the purpose of holding consumables, should work just fine. Stay away from containers that you find at the hardware store and other such places. The only exception to this is if the container is being sold specifically for food use or actually says “food-grade” on it.
One common misconception is that you can tell if a plastic container is food-grade by the recycling symbol that is stamped onto the container. The recycling symbol is the arrowed triangle that’s seen on plastic containers. It will have a number in the center of the triangle ranging from 1 through 7. These numbers denote the type or class of plastic from which the container is made. These symbols are used so like-plastics can be easily sorted together for recycling.
But one thing these symbols do not do is tell you if the plastic is food-grade or not. While only certain types of plastics are capable of being food-grade for liquids (numbers 1, 2, 4 and 5), not all containers made from those plastics are food-grade. What makes them food-grade is how pure of plastic is being used. Is it made mostly from recycled plastic or not? Does it have dyes and other chemicals that can release from the plastic.
Mary, hopefully this is not what’s going on with your wine, but based on your description, that’s what it sounds like. I know of no effective way to reverse these types of defects. You may get some marginal benefit from fining the wine with gelatin. You may also notice a reduction of the odor with the addition of a sulfite such as Campden tablets or potassium metabisulfite. Time may also reduce these effects. But beyond this there is not much else you can do.
Best Wishes,
Ed Kraus
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.