Apple Wine Fermentation

Hey guys, below is my post from back about ten days ago. You folks instructed me to try raising the temp in the room and it seemed to increase the bubbling some. I raised the temp to 75 and have kept it there for the past ten days. It is bubbling away (1 bubble every 5-7 seconds). The SG ten days ago was 1.080. Today it is at 1.075. It is really bubbling well but doesn't seem to be making much headway. Am I being impatient or is this wine going to take another three months to get to 1.000?? This would make a total of five months fermentation time. I originally added yeast on 10/11 with a view to bottling in December. Any help is appreciated.


OLD POST:

Hello, never really posted before nor have I made wine until this year. I have made plenty of beer and decided to try my hand @ wine. A rough idea of what I have done so far:

10/09- Crushed apples and boiled down. Placed in 5G containers overnight.
10/10- Added Pectic Enzyme to fruit
10/11- Strained fruit juice and added to primary fermenter. (about 15 gallons worth) Also boiled down 75 lbs. sugar and added water/sugar mix to top @ 23 gallons. I then added 2 gallons of orchard bought apple juice to make 25 gallons total. I added 5 packages of champagne yeast and enough nutrient for entire batch. My starting sg was 1.110+.

Batch bubbled profusely for four weeks and I decided I had better rack it off fearing that the lees would contaminate the soon to be wine. I racked it off and bubbling decreased by more than 75%. I let it sit for a few days and decided to add more yeast & nutrient to boost it back into fermenting mode. SG at this time was 1.090. I added two packages of yeast and nutrient. It is back to bubbling profusely again and has been almost two weeks since my last sg reading. I took a reading last night and it is only 1.080+.

My concern is that I originally added yeast 10/11 and here it is 11/17 and the sg hasn't moved much. I should also mention that I've been keeping the wine room @ 50-60 degrees. The taste of the wine is great but very sweet & I'm not sure its very alcoholic. I'd like to see more sugar turn into alcohol and sometime before xmas would be great. Am I being impatient or should this wine be closer to finished than it is? Suggestions??? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Yep, its bubling and the sg moved, its going. Im going to say you have already racked it once so you can probably just forget about it for awhile

That being said is it safe to say there is no chance I can have it ready for New Years?

LOL you do mean New Years of 2011 right it will be ready then.

Well, not really. Originally when I started this project I assumed to realize a four to six week fermentation time given the recipe above. I thought eight weeks at best. I'm at seven weeks now and was hoping to have a bottled product for this upcoming New Years. Not gonna happen though right?

No it will not be ready it is a year long process. Trust me everyone tries to make it in a short time and we all give in and wait till next year. Some wines will come in early like 6 - 8 months but the rest have to age a year.

Well.....I think this will be my only batch of wine. I was unaware that the wait time was so long. I have done many batches of beer in short of ten to twelve weeks max. Oh well. Guess when it is finally ready I'll be plenty thirsty!! Thanks for all your help!

LOl enjoy get out of the bucket into a carboy and let it set for a while and make some more beer , hell I need some help with beer my self Still lokin for that 2nd beer that you just cant put down.