stupid brewing question

[jampot]

ok so im on my second ever brew ,fig wine, question is the "stuff" isnt bubbling loads but theres a bit of fizz left,( its been in about 10 days)do i shake it up or syphon it into a new 'john i dont want to mess up now cos it looks nice and tempting .. and might be my dad xmas pressie if it works
thanks

[roger ramjet]

jampot,
Just give it a taste, it may be you have used all or most of the sugar up and need to add more. The chemical reaction is basically yeast plus sugar solution creates alcohol and carbon dioxide, Any fruit or veg gives it the unique flavour and body. Do not be impatient a good wine takes time to mature. I think drinking at Christmas is a bit early. I always reckon it takes 12 months or more to make a decent wine.

Regards

Roger

[MKG]

The "fizz" is probably dissolved CO2 which will come out with time - but it shows that a fermentation has taken place. Assuming that you used the requisite amount of sugar in the first place, I'm going to have to disagree with Roger - adding more sugar at this time often results in a creepingly slow additional fermentation which goes on for months. There is a technique for adding sugar (called feeding the yeast) but you have to do it at exactly the right time and you have to have calculated the alcohol content using a hydrometer.

Where I do agree with Roger is that it's optimistic looking for Christmas as a drinking date. It could happen with a very light-bodied wine (such as a flower wine) but almost certainly not with fig wine. As a matter of fact, all my experiences with fig wine tell me that a maturation period of about a century might help - but I don't think so. Still, it's all a matter of taste.

In the meantime, don't shake it - that'll do just about nothing. Check that the airlock is seated correctly (so that you KNOW there's no gas creeping around a bad seal) and when you're absolutely sure the fermentation is finished, stick it in a cool place to finally settle for a few days. When you've done all that, then you can rack it.

Mike

[jampot]

thanks for the info guys i think ill leave out any more sugar if its gonna complicate matters . so racking it is , i know it wont be drinkable by xmas but its nice to have some thing to look forward too