Fermenting temperature.

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WineYooper

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I found the cranberry wine recipes and would like to start some but am concerned with my home ambient temp., 68F or lower during the day and 60F at night. Will this cause me problems getting fermentation started and maintaining it when it starts? Would I be best to plan for a heater just for the primary and possible the 1st carboy to get it going and keep it going? I believe with my limited experience and what I have read I am probably on the right track but would like some comments. Any recomendations on heaters? Thanks to Wade and Davepopularcpt for the recipes.
 
I would surely get a brew belt or heating pad to ferment in and to degasthe wine then after hat the temp really dont matter. Cranberry can be a real pain to ferment so make a good starter yeast for this, not just sprinkle or rehydrate.
 
A couple weeks ago I too had a cranberry that was a real pain to get fermenting. Temperature is mostly important, but make a starter for sure. it will save you alot of frustration. Once it gets going, it WILL go.

These brew belts seem the way to go they wrap around your fermenting bucket and only use like 25 watts.

Hope it all works well for you, keep us posted and don't be afraid to ask if you have any other questions.

Troy
 
Cranberry has a rap of hard to start. So, make a large starter. I would do as Wade said @ brew belt. Temp is that important. which yeast you using. That can also come into this as well.
 
Thanks. I have just rehydrated so far for my other batches so making a starter yeast will be new to me, that's a good thing. I used Lalvin K1-V1116 yeast for my blackberry and raspberry wine and both seem to be doing okay and have racked both once already, clearing nicely. Do I need to look at a different yeast for cranberry? I would think the supply house could help with this also.
 
1116 has a fermenting temp range of 50-90*f
 
A starter is nothing more than rehydrating your yeast and every hour or so add some of the wine must to it, it will continue to "grow".
 
I guess I need to do a better job on the search side as I see now in the similar threads it shows much of what is being discussed here. I was looking under cranberry and not temp or fermentation temp. Still, thank you for the info and I will probably try the belt.
 
I can see the experience and knowledge of the members involved with this. For you to know the temp of 1116 is impressive to me, of course you may have some good reference at your fingertips.
 
Elsa, the search feature in here works real well. I wish more people took advantage of it. Sometimes I think some don't even know it's here. It may not be Web Crawler, but many answers can be found in there. Glad you found it useful!
Troy
 
I can see the experience and knowledge of the members involved with this. For you to know the temp of 1116 is impressive to me, of course you may have some good reference at your fingertips.
Its all 3
Experience
Knowledge
References
 
Cranberries contaqin benzoate whicg is a yeast prohibitor and that is what causes problems, it is also found in blueberries. You mau not have problems with this batch but somewhere down the road if you make these 2 frequently you will encounter a sluggish fermentation if not using a starter fermentation. All a starter is is a smaller version of a wine with yeast added to a small amount of juice with nutrient and or energizer to get it really going mad and then dump it in the juice you want to ferment. If the juice you want to ferment is a problemchild you have already made it past the part of where the yeast has the most difficult part of (starting) I always make a starter using 1 1/2 cups of OJ or grape juice and let it go for about 12 hours. Ill start my wine 12 hours before hand and add my sulfite and then wait 12 hours before adding my pectic enzyme and then start my starter right then.
 

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