The "fermentation thing"

11/11: Temp of room dropped to 68F today, because the garage door was open during construction. But the must is still in the high 70s F.

Our friend Jason visited the garage today, and helped with the punching down. The whole "fermentation thing" was a bit much for him, so he passed on tasting the must.

Brix today was down to 12.5! Fermentation is going fast. Must still tastes a little sweet, but the alcohol taste is much stronger. Plenty of very fine carbonation.

Fed the yeast 2oz. of yeast food, hopefully they are happy yeast. Need to find a 55 gallon plastic drum ASAP for malolactic fermentation, which could happen soon.

Fermentation Action

11/9: 8am punched down cap. Something is happening, I think the fermentation is working. The density of the must has dropped dramatically, probably because little bubbles from fermentation are fluffing everything up. Much easier to stir the must now.

Room temp = must temp = 68 degrees. Per hydrometer, Brix is still about 26.

Punched down cap twice more, at lunch time and before bed. More punching down means more flavor, will shoot for 4 punch-downs tomorrow.

Here's a photo of our as-yet-unnamed wine cellar, aka Le Garage: