whino-wino
Senior Member
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2008
- Messages
- 335
- Reaction score
- 2
I've got a bit of a problem. I mixed up a 5 gallon batch of Wild Blueberry must last night. I put in some K-meta so I am waiting the standard 24 hour period before pitching the yeast, which I planned on doing tonight.
Here's my problem, I was just informed by my boss today that I had been "volounteered" to go visit a customer next week and help them with an issue. I'm not complaining about that, it's my job, but I have to leave on Monday and travel 6 and a half hours by car to the customer. The way it sounds, I will not be back home until the following Sunday at the earliest. If I pitch the yeast tonight it will have basically two days of fermenting before I am forced to rack into a secondary, possibly at a very high S.G. I've racked wines as high as 1.03 before and not really had an issue, but I'm concerned that if it is still in the 1.05 to 1.07 range that there could be problems, especially if I am not there to monitor the situation (which if I was there, I wouldn't be racking yet!!).
Has anyone had experience with having wine in the carboy which is still in the early stages of fermentation? What kind of issues could I expect?
Since the must is already mixed up, Ithought I couldraise the temp in that room to about 78° to 80°. I am hoping by doing thisI canget the fermentation off to a very fast start. Also, instead of racking into just a single5 gallon carboy, I can split it between two 5 gallon carboys in order to leave a lot of head space.
The problem I have is that I fear the must will not have enough Oxygen if I rack too soon even if I did rack into two 5 gallon carboys.
Any thoughts?
It has warmed up here considerably. We are looking at temps in the 20's and down to around 10° at night. If I delayed pitching the yeast and just stuck the bucket of must in my unheated garage for the week, do you think it would keep forthe entire week? If it was still -20° like it was last week I would probably do this.
For the record, my garage is insulated, but not heated. Even when it was -30 the other night it was considerably warmer in the garage although still really freaking cold. Even at 10° I don't think the must would freeze. There are large windows on overhead door which let in a lot of sunlight and that seems to warm it up pretty nice in there during the daytime. It would be similar to just sticking the bucket of must into the refridgerator.
Any advice here would be greatly appreciated.
Here's my problem, I was just informed by my boss today that I had been "volounteered" to go visit a customer next week and help them with an issue. I'm not complaining about that, it's my job, but I have to leave on Monday and travel 6 and a half hours by car to the customer. The way it sounds, I will not be back home until the following Sunday at the earliest. If I pitch the yeast tonight it will have basically two days of fermenting before I am forced to rack into a secondary, possibly at a very high S.G. I've racked wines as high as 1.03 before and not really had an issue, but I'm concerned that if it is still in the 1.05 to 1.07 range that there could be problems, especially if I am not there to monitor the situation (which if I was there, I wouldn't be racking yet!!).
Has anyone had experience with having wine in the carboy which is still in the early stages of fermentation? What kind of issues could I expect?
Since the must is already mixed up, Ithought I couldraise the temp in that room to about 78° to 80°. I am hoping by doing thisI canget the fermentation off to a very fast start. Also, instead of racking into just a single5 gallon carboy, I can split it between two 5 gallon carboys in order to leave a lot of head space.
The problem I have is that I fear the must will not have enough Oxygen if I rack too soon even if I did rack into two 5 gallon carboys.
Any thoughts?
It has warmed up here considerably. We are looking at temps in the 20's and down to around 10° at night. If I delayed pitching the yeast and just stuck the bucket of must in my unheated garage for the week, do you think it would keep forthe entire week? If it was still -20° like it was last week I would probably do this.
For the record, my garage is insulated, but not heated. Even when it was -30 the other night it was considerably warmer in the garage although still really freaking cold. Even at 10° I don't think the must would freeze. There are large windows on overhead door which let in a lot of sunlight and that seems to warm it up pretty nice in there during the daytime. It would be similar to just sticking the bucket of must into the refridgerator.
Any advice here would be greatly appreciated.