Jacob's Creek, 5 bucks a bottle. And it tastes quite good.
You have a yeast infection.
/johnny
Use a 5 gallon deep rock water bottle and make a larger batch.
Try cranberry juice to get the process down. Or add ascorbic acid. Lower pH (higher acid) works better for beginners.
To be a REAL snob, run it through four times and you can call it "fourth run."
It leaves one "legless," that is, no hangover but one's THIGHS ache. I tried it ONCE...and that was enough.
As already mentioned by jrf, preservatives in packaged juices kill the yeast.
Have you tasted it may already have enough alcohol to kill the yeast. Wine yeasts usually have more alcohol tolerance. more sugar the better if you suspect the juice use less with more water sugar and real fruit
I have 20 gallons made of persimmon wine this year. 12 pounds of sugar per five gallons.Citric and ascorbic acid. Will finish out about 17-18 % alcohol.
A lot of folk use a balloon for wine.
Maybe try sterilizing the juice, if it's old it might already have had a lil hep in the fermentation situation.
You may want to check the pH, if you can. Temperature and pH are the most basic conditions for any fermentation process
Cranberry is a very acidic juice, such that it is always sold “in cocktail.” you could not drink 100% cranberry juice - far too bitter.
Strawberry juice is relatively lower acid.
Same in your mouth - yes, plaque is bad, but its also the pH environment in your mouth that does damage to your teeth....
In short, it is highly likely that the yeast cannot properly eat the high-fructose corn syrup, which is why it's not fermenting nicely.
Lord have mercy. When I read the headline I thought this was going to a gynecological thread.
The juice has potassioum sorbate in it to stop fermentation in the bottle. They don’t have to include it in the ingredients.
You usually can make a starter with sugar water and some yeast nutrient then add it to the container.
Other than yeast inhibitors, too high an alcohol or no fermentable sugars will stop ferment. Some long chain sugars, or polysaccharides cannot be consumed by yeast.
I make beer and wine.... never have stuck ferments....
Make kool-aid and let it age in the frig for a few weeks.
Likely preservatives in juice that stalls fermentation. I’ve fermented gallons of apple juice but only use that which specifically says “no preservatives”. Works great.
Cranberry juice should go like crazy with a wine, not bread, yeast.
Also make sure your containers are clean and allow no outside air to enter while venting CO2.
My grandma makes wine every spring from the mulberries off her huge tree, which only puts out fruit in the spring. This is her recipe: Put a gallon of fresh mulberries in the blender and puree them. Let the puree sit overnight at room temperature, then skim off the chaff (which will float to the top). Add four cups of regular cane sugar and one eighth teaspoon of plain old baker’s yeast. The quantity of yeast is very important. If you add too little, your wine will rot. If you add too much, your wine will turn to vinegar. I guess it’s a trial-and-error thing. And the more sugar you add, the stronger your wine will be. The yeast eats the sugar and turns it into alcohol, and the finished product isn’t even sweet. It has to sit around at room temperature for about a month to cure. And whatever you do, DON’T SEAL THE BOTTLE. The gasses will build up in the bottle, and eventually it will explode and turn your kitchen into a huge purple mess. But when you get it right you end up with some strong, dry, 30 proof mulberry wine. She makes gallons of the stuff every spring and gives much of it away to friends and neighbors.
Jacob's Creek, 5 bucks a bottle. And it tastes quite good.
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/
This is where I ordered tools and supplies