Country wine advice - stuck secondary fermentation?

[Kaiya]

I have yet to make a successful wine and I really would like this one to work! I made this according to Andy Hamilton's recipe - Andy Hamilton's delicious crab apple wine | Life and style | guardian.co.uk although I think I was 200g of apples short and I left it in the primary bin longer for convienience reasons.

After 1.5 weeks in primary bin (where it was active and happy) it was strained and went into a glass demijohn, where initially it bubbled a bit - nothing really that impressive though, and nothing for a few weeks after then. A month on, I racked it (lots of apple sludge so will need more rackings, but looks clearer already), tasted it and tested it. It's alcoholic to some extent (I really can't tell how much as I gave up wine for lent so don't want to quaff enough to test how strong it is!) but still tastes noticeably sweet, SG is 1.030. Unfortunately I didn't test it at the start as I didn't have a trial jar then.

Heat-wise it lives next to a radiator, which is perhaps too hot? Our house is cold otherwise so I thought it needed to be somewhere slightly warmer. Secondary fermentation probably doesn't need to be that warm though...

I'm assuming it is in stuck fermentation? Is there anything I can do to restart it? I've ruined my last two wines by mucking about with them so thought I should ask for advice before wrecking this one too

[Capsid]

1.030 is rather high still.

Have a look at this site which recommends you use it as a dessert wine. The problem may have been too much sugar and temperature fluctuations.

Why not try the fruit wine recipe on that site which is what I use and gives a wine that is quite drinkable. It's much easier to make too. I have an airing cupboard for the primary fermentation in a demijohn which maintains a more even temperature.

[Two_Sheds]

My elderberry wine always gets stuck, so I have to restart it using a champagne yeast (I don't know why champagne yeast is recommended, but it works)

[Kaiya]

Hmmmm... I'm gonna try restarting it and putting it in a better house (more stable temp). I'd accept it as dessert wine except I hate sweet wine and these crabapples were from my Grandma's house before we had to sell it, so it's slightly important they end up as something... nice. It's in my car at the moment, en route! It sounds like putting it next to a hot radiator was not correct!

Thanks for the resources! Very handy In shopping for champagne yeast I also found that Young's also make a re-start yeast as well which sound interesting.

[Kaiya]

An update (so as to provide resource) - I restarted it by using my original wine yeast (too cheap/impatient to buy different yeast) - took a pint out, added yeast and yeast nutrient to it, waited a day and then put that back into the demijohn, and it started perfectly. It was also moved to a granite worktop in my parent's kitchen (oh how they indulge me and my random hobbies), which turned out to be a more reliable site temperature-wise than next to the radiator in my student room. It finished at 1.005 and doesn't taste sweet any more - needs some aging I think as it tastes like cheap wine at the moment, but that's fine. Yay!