Fermentation Temp

[Rocco]

My room is set to 75 but the temp of must stays at 75. Not getting a spike to 90 for my cab sav/malbec that I had hoped. It's very active, foaming largely. Do I need to get the spike to 90? What advantages am I gonna miss?

 

[cmason1957]

Is this a kit, juice bucket, or fresh grapes? If a kit or juice bucket there is no need to try to get it to go high. If it is fresh grapes, you probably want to try to get it a bit warmer, but if you can't the wine will still probably be just fine. Maybe not quite as dark.

 

[Rocco]

I thought the heat of the reaction of fermentation increases temp to this degree....how can I achieve 85 degrees for a day??

 

[HB_in_Subic]

Active fermentation can spike the temperature in the first few days. After that it cools down on it's own. You might want to invest in one of these to assist http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001D6IUB6/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[Rocco]

Looks good but can only use w small buckets--I have 2 32 gallon fermenters

 

[cmason1957]

I just went and reread the morewinemaking guide to fermentation temperatures. It had been a while since I last read it. It is freely available on the Web and very easy to read. A great reference. I would link to it, but getting urns to copy and paste is sometimes hard on my phone.

Basically it says there are as many opinions on temp as there are winemakers, but most agree a temp between 70 and 90 is just fine for red wines. Some say to spike the temp up some say don't. I generally let the ferment do what it does and try not to worry about it. I do get mine hotter one of the early days, by dragging it to the sunny spot of my basement. But if I forget to do that, the wine is still pretty good.

 

[sdelli]

I like my fermenting around 75 to 80 degrees so it does not go to fast or start to stress the yeast. I have a few of these that are actually overkill on a carboy... I have to peal it back so it does not cook the wine. But I use them on my 30 and 40 gallon brutes just fine every year.
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/fermenting-heater.html

 

[Floandgary]

I've been using that heater on most all of my red juice buckets for some time now. They come as a two square foot unit which can be cut in half. If you're handy, you can add an electrical cord and have two - one square foot - units. They will give a boost to any 6 gal. juice bucket or carboy.

 

[stickman]

The temperature you achieve without additional heating equipment is primarily related to batch size, the more must in one vessel, the hotter it gets. If you want higher temps on your next batch you could fill one brute a little higher than the other. As mason said, there is no absolute right way, some like the high temp early in the fermentation to get color and body without extracting as much tannin yielding a bit more fruit expression, high temp late in the fermentation when significant alcohol is present tends to extract tannins from skins and seeds possibly ok for long term aging. All of this depends to some extent on the type and maturity of the grapes in the first place, the type of tannins present etc. Some winemakers are looking for more tannin and some are looking for more fruit to get balance.....this is a crazy hobby, but I suspect that's why we're all here.