Cool fermentation of reds?

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AaronSC

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Hi all,
I like to experiment a lot with wine making -2020 it was a bunch of different yeast strains and use of Malo-lactic fermentation. I noticed that the yeasts strains had a very big impact on mouthfeel, and secondarily on fruitiness. I'm interested in increasing fruit expression by other means than yeast strain. One thing I was curious about was temperature. Has anyone tried fermenting a red at typical white wine temperatures? I ferment my whites at 60 degrees ambient tempurature, but reds at "garage temp" that varies from 75-85. Fermentation rarely last more than a week. I'm curious what the effect of a long cool fermentation would be -has anyone tried this? I'm getting a lot of grapes next year -700lbs of Syrah, 1100lbs of Grenache and 800lbs of Mourvedre and I wanted to increase the complexity of the base wines by accentuating different aspects -basically fermenting 1/3 whole cluster, 1/3 traditional, 1/3 cool temps, etc. and blending later for effect.

Thanks for any insights,

-Aaron
 
I have done sarah at several temps as 45, 55, 65, 75, 85.
* The two high temps had a sulfur smell that went away, nutrition is more critical
* Low temp retains more fruity aroma
* It takes a lot longer at low temp, ex. 85 was two days and 45 was six weeks
* I ran multi temps, room temp a day to get the yeast population up followed by controlled temp
 
I did it in a cool area with a few frozen musts and they turned out well. Got down to 40 ambient but the must stayed a bit higher probably 30-40 day ferment?. One of the juice buckets stalled pretty hard and took like 7-8 months even when I moved it back into cellar temps and hit it with an ec1118 bomb.

i’ll do it again.
Cheers!
-j
 
Thanks for the feedback!

CDrew, I would only be fermenting a 1/3 or so of the grapes in the cool environment and I would just use the 60 degree ambient environment to cool the fermentation in a stainless tank of around 100 liters.

Question to folks: from the feedback it sounds like this approach captures a lot more fruit than warm fermentation. Since the fermentation goes on a long time does it also increase tannin, especially seed tannin? Any thing else you noticed in the cool fermentation?

-Aaron
 
Thanks for the feedback!

CDrew, I would only be fermenting a 1/3 or so of the grapes in the cool environment and I would just use the 60 degree ambient environment to cool the fermentation in a stainless tank of around 100 liters.

Question to folks: from the feedback it sounds like this approach captures a lot more fruit than warm fermentation. Since the fermentation goes on a long time does it also increase tannin, especially seed tannin? Any thing else you noticed in the cool fermentation?

-Aaron

Aaron,

I use a portable AC unit to control the ambient temperature in my garage during fermentation. I set it to 60F, which stabilizes the temperature in the low 60’s.

If I am using commercial yeast I will turn it on immediately following pitch. If I am using native yeast I will wait until visible signs of fermentation, usually two or three days.

The quality of fruit you have access to and your extraction preference will drive your decision.

The fruit I use is high quality and in no need of maximum extraction - low and slow minimizes tannin extraction and maximizes the fruit. My wines are made in the vineyard, not in the cellar, and when I get a gritty, grippy, drying tannin beast on my hands I tame it with egg whites. I also use little, if any, oak – even in my Cab’s. I prefer fruit to oak and liveliness to structure. Food friendly. That’s just our preference. Many of my relatives produce mega extraction oak monsters, which we also enjoy.

All the best to you.
 
Aaron,

I use a portable AC unit to control the ambient temperature in my garage during fermentation. I set it to 60F, which stabilizes the temperature in the low 60’s.

If I am using commercial yeast I will turn it on immediately following pitch. If I am using native yeast I will wait until visible signs of fermentation, usually two or three days.

The quality of fruit you have access to and your extraction preference will drive your decision.

The fruit I use is high quality and in no need of maximum extraction - low and slow minimizes tannin extraction and maximizes the fruit. My wines are made in the vineyard, not in the cellar, and when I get a gritty, grippy, drying tannin beast on my hands I tame it with egg whites. I also use little, if any, oak – even in my Cab’s. I prefer fruit to oak and liveliness to structure. Food friendly. That’s just our preference. Many of my relatives produce mega extraction oak monsters, which we also enjoy.

All the best to you.
Thanks a ton for the feedback. I too am interested in the grape and the fruit and not about added flavors like oak so I think we're on the same wavelength. I was a bit worried that long fermentation time might cause high tannins due to seed contact but it doesn't sound like this is the case with you.
 

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