Fermenting Fruit Wines
This is the basic procedure I follow for fermenting wine from fresh or frozen fruit and berries. Primary fermentation is the most active stage when the yeast is the very busy multiplying and converting the sugars to alcohol. The Secondary Fermentation the yeast slow down and slowly finish converting the remaining sugars to alcohol.
Primary Fermentation
- Put lid on fermentation bucket and cover airlock hole with a cloth
- Place in a warm place 72F - 75F is ideal
- About a week later when the SG gets down to 1.010 - 1.020 or so rack the wine to your secondary. I use a 6.5 gallon glass carboy as my secondary fermentation vessel.
Secondary Fermentation
- About two weeks later the wine should be about 0.990 - 0.995 SG
- Rack the wine to a 5 gallon carboy and place in a cooler place about 65F like a basement.
- Put the remainder in a 1/2 gallon jug under and airlock. This will be used to top off the 5 gallon carboy each time you rack the wine.