So I have a MM Zin kit it has been fermentating for 5 days butthe gravitykeeps decreasing. Did I do something wrong?Day 1 it was a temp 65 gravity was 1.080day 2 temp was 70 gravity was 1.080day 3 temp 73 gravity was 1.050day 4 temp 73 gravity was 1.030today day 5 temp is 72 gravity is 1.020will it go back up? My husband says we waited too long and should of racked it yesterday. Why does it keep going down? Thanks for your advice!
Mosti Mondiale Primary Fermentation question
- Thread starter kixx1185
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Personally I think racking that early is dangerous in that the wine is still fermenting pretty well. Waiting, even accidentally was good or you would have a mess on your hands. I generally let the wine ferment completely in the primary, others will rack it once it drops below 1010. Either way the wine will be fine, you really have to work pretty hard to mess up a kit wine.
+1 with vcasey
Ferment to dry in the bucket (~1.000) Make sure you have the lid snapped and airlock on. Add the yeast nutrient in the bucket as well at ~1.020 if they are still including it these days as a separate package.
Remember when you transfer it over to glass to transfer it all. This should be a quick and dirty rack as it is still fermenting the last bit of sugar so you want as much viable yeast in the carboy to help it finish out. Keep it warm as well this whole time.
Ferment to dry in the bucket (~1.000) Make sure you have the lid snapped and airlock on. Add the yeast nutrient in the bucket as well at ~1.020 if they are still including it these days as a separate package.
Remember when you transfer it over to glass to transfer it all. This should be a quick and dirty rack as it is still fermenting the last bit of sugar so you want as much viable yeast in the carboy to help it finish out. Keep it warm as well this whole time.
That will work fine. As has been mentioned, it is very difficult to mess up a kit wine. Numbers and times are suggestions.
Some general concepts:
Specific Gravity measures the density of a liquid relative to water. In our application it can be correlated to the depletion of sugars and conversion to alcohol.
We start the fermentation in a bucket. To start the wine(must) needs a large surface area to allow forexpansion when the sugar is converted to alcohol and CO-2 bubbles are released. In addition during fermentation the yeast need a high level of O-2.
As the fermentation progresses as measured by decreasing S.G. there is a point where the wine no longer needs large amounts of O-2, and is no longer producing large amounts of CO-2. At this point the fermentation needs to be sealed either by snapping the lid on the bucket and adding a air lock, or racking to a glass carboy and adding the seal. The idea of sealing is to prevent exposure to additional O-2 and needs to be done early enough that the fermentation is still producing CO-2 to form a insulating blanket.
Exact times and S.G. to perform these steps varies with each of us. The times and S.G. levels in the instructions are the Mfg. guidelines for safgest results.
Some general concepts:
Specific Gravity measures the density of a liquid relative to water. In our application it can be correlated to the depletion of sugars and conversion to alcohol.
We start the fermentation in a bucket. To start the wine(must) needs a large surface area to allow forexpansion when the sugar is converted to alcohol and CO-2 bubbles are released. In addition during fermentation the yeast need a high level of O-2.
As the fermentation progresses as measured by decreasing S.G. there is a point where the wine no longer needs large amounts of O-2, and is no longer producing large amounts of CO-2. At this point the fermentation needs to be sealed either by snapping the lid on the bucket and adding a air lock, or racking to a glass carboy and adding the seal. The idea of sealing is to prevent exposure to additional O-2 and needs to be done early enough that the fermentation is still producing CO-2 to form a insulating blanket.
Exact times and S.G. to perform these steps varies with each of us. The times and S.G. levels in the instructions are the Mfg. guidelines for safgest results.
I agree with above comments. Racking at 1.040 or higher is a recipe for disaster! Many of us ferment to dry in bucket but youll want to put the airlock on at around 1.020 or there abouts if your not using it all the time. If you have very young kids orcats & dogs that can get to this then just play it safe and snap the bucket shut with airlock on or move it somewhere that they cant get to it. You canb rack at around 1.020 or there abouts but in doing so you may leave to much viable yeast behind this creating a stuck fermentation meaning your wine may not ferment all the way down to or below 1.000.
Well I followed the instructions and racked it last night 1.040 and the temp was about 80 (actually reading was about 1.037 but with the correction for temp it was 1.040). After reading this I wondered if I had made another mistake so I went in there and checked my SG it was down to 1.020 and still fermenting quite well! I'll take another reading later tonight.
I might be wrong but with the "splash" type of racking O2 will be well saturated for the yeast. Plus I like the idea of letting the oak sit on the fermentation a bit longer.
Speaking of Oak... I am planing on bulk aging the wine and was wondering if any had any experience with aging in/on oak... Haven't finalized a plan yet but thinking... Anyone have any input?
JJ
I might be wrong but with the "splash" type of racking O2 will be well saturated for the yeast. Plus I like the idea of letting the oak sit on the fermentation a bit longer.
Speaking of Oak... I am planing on bulk aging the wine and was wondering if any had any experience with aging in/on oak... Haven't finalized a plan yet but thinking... Anyone have any input?
JJ
