Have I let the wine get too hot during fermentation?

daddyg

I am brewing a magnum wine kit 22.5 litres. The kit started at SG 1.070 on the 27/8/12 now tonight should have a target SG of 998 or below. However SG is at 1.004. wine tastes sweet.

The fermentation bucket has been on a hot plate in a boiler room with a room temp circa 25degrees. 

1. How do I get the sg down>

2. have I cooked the yeast?

Do I rack into new vessel and dump old must or keep and use to try and rescue?

Help guidance required please.

HBO_Staff

The ferment sounds like it has gone nearly all the way through, and the reading being just a bit high at 1004 could be for a few reasons. What you could do is give it a bit of a stir, this will get things moving and may allow the yeast to ferment it down a little bit more. It may be that 1004 is as low as this batch will go, so just keep checking it for a couple of days after stirring, and make sure it's stopped changing. The reading may be out slightly if the amount of water or sugar added was not exact, and this won't cause a problem. The temperature is quite high so may have resulted in a faster ferment time, but is not high enough to have harmed the yeast. Sometimes brews will just not go down any lower, so stir it and check, and once satisfied it has stopped, move on ot the next stage