An easier protocol (no invert sugar, yeast cake, or pre-yeast aeration) for SP!

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WineyDoc

Junior
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I just wanted to share this with others. My lemon juice had all three types of preservatives in it, so I was worried about getting it going without a yeast cake.

I made it up to 6.5 gallons, so I upped all the ingredients on Lon's site by a factor of 1.3.

125oz 100% lemon juice
9.1 lbs of sugar
1 tsp tannin
8 tsp. yeast nutrient
3 tsp. yeast energizer
Approx, 6 gallons water
Red Star Montrachet Wine Yeast
Potassium metabisulfite (Kmeta)
Potassium sorbate (sorbate)
Sparkolloid

I mixed 80oz of the lemon juice (2.5/4 bottles), all of the sugar (didn't invert) and tannin, 4 tsp of nutrient, 1.5 tsp of energizer and the water up to 6.5 gallons in my primary fermenter for a starting SG of ~1.074.

I rehydrated the yeast for 20 minutes in a 1/2 cup warm water, three tablespoons of the mix I had made, and another spoonful of sugar. I warmed the slurry on my stove element at the lowest setting. I stirred it a few times and eventually heard CO2 production after about 20 minutes. I poured it into my fermenter and gave it a good whipping. Put a lid on it, but didn't seal it. I placed it on my heating pad on high setting to get it near 80 degrees.

Twice a day for the next two days I gave it a good stirring with my spoon. I was getting a little scared because I didn't see any action but when I awoke on the third day it had taken off and was fizzing audibly. I added the rest of the lemon juice, nutrient, and energizer and gave it another good stirring. It's now dry and ready for the carboy.

I just wanted everyone to know that you don't necessarily need a yeast cake, to invert the sugar, or stir the must for two days before adding the yeasties. I think the most important thing to take away from this is that you need to KEEP IT WARM!!! I definitely wouldn't try this in the winter if I didn't have a heating pad or brew belt.

Good luck!
 

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