Mosti Mondiale MM AJ Malbec.....we have liftoff!

[whino-wino]

Wine bottles, and brand new carboys
Oak it along the way
There's too many wines and not much time
Look what's going on inside you
Ooooh that smell
Can't you smell that smell
Ooooh that smell
The smell of fermenting surrounds you.....

Sorry 'bout that. Had a song stuck in my head. Anyway, I got the MM AJ Malbec going strong in the primary. Pitched the yeast on Tuesday evening and it had a nice cap on it yesterday when I got home. Today I opened the wine room to the glorious smell of fermenting grape juice and that song just kind of popped in my head...

I had to use a brew belt to help kick start it for the first 24hrs (it's been in the -20° range here lately) and I unplugged it yesterday. Temp is a nice 75° now and the hydrometer reads 1.070 today. Right on schedule. No pics yet, but you all know what foaming juice in a bucket looks like. I will post some as I keep this updated though.

 

[ibglowin]

Thats a good smell for sure.

You might want to keep that belt handy and on this time of year especially considering where you live. You sorta have to babysit it through. Just keep a good eye one it and turn it off when it gets to warm and back on when it cools down a few degrees. Try and keep the temp swings to a minimum as that is hard on the yeast more than anything.

 

[whino-wino]

I have a space heater in that room on "standby" if I need it. It's easier than plugging and unplugging a brew belt trying to keep the temp constant. Don't know if mine are defective (I have 3) but if you leave any of them on too long it seems to raise the wine too close to the 80° range for my liking.

Oh, and I apologize if anyone has that Lynyrd Skynyrd song stuck in their head now. 3rd most annoying song of all time in my opinion...at least for the lyrics. It wouldn't be so bad if there weren't any words.

 

[ibglowin]

"Sweet Home Alabama", best song ever, OK one of the best next to "Dream On", "More Than A Feeling" .......

See, Its easy to replace it!

 

[whino-wino]

I racked it into the secondary yesterday. SG was at 1.020. Almost had a volcano but it stopped just shy of going up the airlock. The foaming settled down after a few hours and today the airlock is bubbling away harmoniously.

Not much to see, but here it is:

Since my large primary bucket was now available, I decided to go ahead and start the MM-ME Carmenere. I have this weird penchant for wanting to do things slightly different, so I substituted a packet of K1-V1116 Lalvin yeast for the EC-1118 that came with the kit. Why? Well, like I said, to be different but mostly because I had the other yeast in the fridge for almost a year now and I figured I'd better use it up soon before it goes bad on me. It appears to have still been good. This is what it looked like this morning: