HELP! My wine has stopped fermenting prematurely?
I am making my first wine which is not from a kit. I have been following a recipe but seem to be having problems.
I began putting my mushed up cooking apples along with yeast, yeast nutrient and Pectolase in a fermentation bucket with an airlock fitted to the lid. This started fermenting vigourously but then stopped after 3 days. In the hope of getting it to start up again I added the sugar, some citric acid and some more yeast and nutrient. This got it fermenting like crazy for another 4 days before stopping again, which just happens to be the day it's due for it's first racking. I proceeded to strain the wine through muslin, as instructed, and put it into a demijohn. I used an airlock on it and hoped it would show some signs of life... but nothing. So I hastily added more sugar, citric acid and yeast (like before), stirred it like crazy and still nothing.
I now believe I have added too much sugar (the sugar sediment at the bottom of the jar is a bit of a giveaway) and I am completely at a loss as to why the fermentation process keeps stopping and what I can do to salvage this wine (if anything).
Any advice from wine makers will be very much appreciated!
Thanks.
In response to the comments about glycol, how does it get used up, and how do I stop this from happening again? Thanks.