Ribena wine - Fermentation not started

[roaduck]

Hello everybody.I have a question for a friend's brew.He did it two days ago.

In a 5 gallon fermentation vessel was placed - 10 litres of Ribena,5 litres of water, 1.7 kg golden syrup, 400 grams mixed fruit, 1 lime, 2 whole lemons and two sachets of Muntons purple high alcohol yeast.

The first yeast was pitched immediately and the second one went in on day two.

There is no bubbles or froth or visible brewing yet.

As he didn't take an original starting gravity measurement; I don't know if the sugar solution was too strong for the yeast to start.

The yeast was not cultured first before pitching and was put next to a warm radiator (21 degrees celcius.)

Also the must was not aerated initially.

Would the potassium sorbate preservative in the Ribena inhibit the yeast?

What would be the best way to get this going please?

[Geezah]

The Sorbate will definately stop the yeast from working, or at the very least kill off a lot of cells.
The ribena should have been boiled for 20 minutes first to kill of the preservatives.
If you have some demijohns, split the brew and boil up 5 litres at a time and put back in the bucket with a new yeast starter, you might be able to salvage it.

[roaduck]

Thanks very much Geezah - that's what I thought but I needed some confirmation.A friend did a Ribena / fruit wine previously without boiling the cordial and it was more than okay.Do you think it's worth stirring it thoroughly today to oxygenate it to see if it starts or should it be boiled ,cooled then redone with a healthy yeast starter immediately?

[Geezah]

Was an OG taken and compared to now?
Sometimes a brew may look inactive but it is slowly doing its thing ( I have found this when using old or pporly stored yeast)
I personally would draw off a demijohns worth, boil it up and add a yeast and see if you can get some vigorous activity going on, then either use it as a new starter or consider boiling up the rest.
The longer its left without any protection the more there is a risk of infection.

[Gordonmull]

OK - OG was not taken. It hasn't started yet so grab a measurement tomorrow. Post it. At least you can eliminate too high a sugar concentration. I'd go with Geezah though, probably the preservatives. Still for the sake of an SG check...

[roaduck]

OK - OG was not taken. It hasn't started yet so grab a measurement tomorrow. Post it. At least you can eliminate too high a sugar concentration. I'd go with Geezah though, probably the preservatives. Still for the sake of an SG check...

Thanks a million Gordonmull and Gezzah.

Was an OG taken and compared to now?
Sometimes a brew may look inactive but it is slowly doing its thing ( I have found this when using old or pporly stored yeast)
I personally would draw off a demijohns worth, boil it up and add a yeast and see if you can get some vigorous activity going on, then either use it as a new starter or consider boiling up the rest.
The longer its left without any protection the more there is a risk of infection.

No sorry the hydrometer was at large at the time; so no O.G.

The yeast was in date at the back of the kitchen drawer.

What I'll do tomorrow is get a couple more Muntons purple high alcohol yeast and a Young's high strength wine yeast to jazz it up once I boil up the Ribena effort with a 6 hour frothy yeast starter kit.

There is so much sugar solution - I think it will preserve it 'till tomorrow at least - like jam. I'm not worried.I'll just do a bit of surgery on it.

I've done a few back "from the dead" for friends, I even drink my floorcleaner failures eventually!; after six months they get reasonably smooth!

[Gordonmull]

Best approach - suck it and see!

See you've got a ginger wine on the go. Would you post your recipe?

[roaduck]

Best approach - suck it and see!

See you've got a ginger wine on the go. Would you post your recipe?

Hiya Gordonmull - the new effort is just a Ritchies Ginger wine kit - I think it was about a tenner for 4.5 litres/6 bottles.

I love ginger so I might do a homemade wine with boiled up fresh ginger with lemons and golden syrup.

All my D.I.Y. wines have come out very strong (over 20% abv) and needed diluting with lemonade or soda water.

[roaduck]

Hooray - it's started.

The little yeasties obviously just needed a bit of time to grow.It started on Thursday morning after doing the brew on Monday night.