Stuck ferments

Appears in
The Complete Book of Home Preserving

By Mary Norwak

Published 1978

  • About
Probably one of the commonest problems, a stuck fermentation, is either caused by the death of the yeast, or because it has gone into a dormant state. This should be remedied as soon as possible. Sometimes a violent shake of the jar will do the trick, but usually a longer process is necessary, and consists of introducing a new yeast starter into a small quantity of the wine, and gradually introducing more wine until such time as the whole lot is fermenting again. This is sometimes difficult if the wine already has a fair amount of alcohol, for it will tend to inhibit the yeast. Another method of re-starting, which is sometimes successful, is to blend it with another suitable wine. Often the whole batch will re-start within a short time. It is important, however, to know what causes a stuck fermentation: