Recent content by rsa

Does that mean juice buckets also?

Yes it's been under airlock. It smells fine. Before reading your post I had already stirred it well and then added yeast solution. I checked it 20 minutes later and I'm now getting bubbles in the airlock. Is it possible that there's fermentation or is that from something else? I want...

There was quite a bit of gas. I degassed with a vacuum pump.

It was never below 73. Is there anything I can add?

I started 2 Chilean juice buckets on May 8th. One Pino Grigio and one Cab/Merlot blend. Starting SG's were 1088 and 1080 respectively. In 12 days the Pino dropped to 992 and was racked to carboy and then stabilized 4 days later. The Cab/Merlot is the problem. It went from 1080 to 1014 in 12...

Maybe that's it. I'll keep checking SG then degass.

My 6gal juice of Sangiovese is still fermenting for over a month. Here's the particulars: 10/8 Started with Lalvin 212 SG 1080 10/13 SG 1025 10/20 SG 1012 Racked to carboy 10/28 SG 1002 Vacation :) 11/12 SG 998 Temperature steady at 70 degrees Granted the activity has slowed...

Yes, I think I will invest in a meter. I was using "economy" Ph strips better suited for beer as they were a weird color to begin with. My mistake. I think both my pails self started before I received them. Since the Cab Sav was my first pail, I wasn't paying much attention. The...

It's what I estimated by using some Ph paper test strips. Looking again, I would say it's closer to 4 or less. These strips are very difficult to use. Wish I had a meter.

That's what I thought, but I was starting to get paranoid :)

I just checked the ph with some test strips. It's about 5.0. Is that way off? I'm pretty sure the numbers are correct. I just started a Sangiovese today and the SG was 1080. I also checked my hydrometer in distilled water and it was OK.

I am working on my first attempt. I started with a 6 gal juice bucket of Vinemount Estates Cab Sav. The initial SG was only 1055. That concerned me although I guess it started fermenting on it's own. Yeast used was Lalvin ICV GRE. Primary kept at 74 degrees. After 4 days things really slowed...