Primary producing heat?

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jayhkr

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Hey guys, so I made the jump from my small 1 gallon bucket all the way up to a 7.5 gallon bucket (yes I know I was told to start there anyway). So my question is with my little bucket I had to keep a heater on it to keep the temp around the 72-75* mark. With my 7.5 one (only about 6 gallons in it though) it seems to be putting off heat. Now the ironic thing is, I'm trying out a batch of DRAGON'S BLOOD! Could the dragon within it be spitting his fire out? :HB I know there is more going on in the bigger container, but I'm surprised by the amount of heat I feel. I broke my digital thermometer yesterday so I don't know an accurate temp on it (as the stick on thermo-cell ones don't seem to be accurate at all) but it's well warm both on the outside of the bucket, and when I squeeze the fruit in the bag.
 
Yes, the fermentation process does produce heat. It's normal for the wine to be a few degrees warmer than the ambient air during active fermentation. You are probably noticing it more with the larger batch size because there is a lot more liquid which retains heat a lot better. The ration of the total surface area of the small container including sides/bottom and top compared to the small amount of liquid is a lot higher with the small batch so it will loose heat faster than the large batch even if it is in a larger container.
 
This makes sense, but I wanted to be sure. Darn, I thought maybe I was brewing up my very own Dragon too. :)

Thanks everyone!
 

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