Sloe wine: going very slowly

Question

Having started enough sloe gin this year to last a decade, I decided to use the rest of the fruit to brew some sloe wine. I'm new to brewing, and this might seem like an odd choice, but I have high hoped for it.

I boiled up 2kg of sloes with 2kg of sugar and not a lot of water, and put it all in a demijohn with some wine yeast provided by more experienced brewers.

It's been going a couple of weeks now. It was never very fast, peaking at one glub through the air lock every 30 seconds or so, but it's now even slower. I tried adding more sugar and mixing, but that didn't seem to make any difference. The mixture inside is very dense, dark and strong, so I can't really see what's going on in there. It's also not very wet.

The question is: should I be worried by this lack of activity, or is it natural for this kind of brewing? Should I be doing anything to fix it, or just leaving it alone?

Answer 1

Slow is good (no pun intended), and anecdotally at any rate, I believe it leads to a more thorough fermentation and usually a dryer wine.

As long as it's fermenting, no matter how slowly, it's doing the right thing. Some fermentations are over in days, others take weeks, and some months!

Be patient!

Answer 2

You may need to be very patient. My Dad used to give sloe wine a year to ferment, the results were worth it.

If you want quick results from sloes, gin is the way to go. Having said that, I leave my sloe gin a year before bottling/drinking.

Answer 3

Did you measure the starting gravity? Could be too much sugar and not enough water is creating a difficult environment for the yeast to get going. Otherwise you might consider aeration/oxygenation and adding a yeast nutrient to give the yeast a fighting chance.