Hi All,
I was hoping someone might be able to advise as to what I should do in my situation. I am doing a 5 gallon batch of plum wine from fresh fruits. I had the hardest time getting it to start fermenting for some reason. I waited four days after adding the yeast for it to start with no luck. Everything seemed to check out OK (temperature, acid, sugar, rehydration technique, amount of campden, energizer, nutrient, etc, etc), so I thought maybe it was the yeast. I tried again with newly purchased yeast, no luck after three days of that. My last ditch effort was to try a different type of yeast and within 8 hours the must is heavily fermenting.
Anyway, so far so good, but the problem is this threw me off schedule. The main problem is I will be out of town soon and do not have anyone to watch after the wine or rack it when it should be racked. The last time I can have contact with it is exactly 4 days after it began fermenting, or after 8 days. I know I should rack between 5-7 days.
I'm new to winemaking so I'm not sure how best to adapt. Given my circumstance, would you err toward racking too early or too late? I don't know if racking earlier is OK since the pulp has already been sitting in the juice for more than a week now. If I rack later, I won't be able to push down the cap / stir and don't know if that will cause problems.
Any advice as to how I should proceed?
Thanks!
I was hoping someone might be able to advise as to what I should do in my situation. I am doing a 5 gallon batch of plum wine from fresh fruits. I had the hardest time getting it to start fermenting for some reason. I waited four days after adding the yeast for it to start with no luck. Everything seemed to check out OK (temperature, acid, sugar, rehydration technique, amount of campden, energizer, nutrient, etc, etc), so I thought maybe it was the yeast. I tried again with newly purchased yeast, no luck after three days of that. My last ditch effort was to try a different type of yeast and within 8 hours the must is heavily fermenting.
Anyway, so far so good, but the problem is this threw me off schedule. The main problem is I will be out of town soon and do not have anyone to watch after the wine or rack it when it should be racked. The last time I can have contact with it is exactly 4 days after it began fermenting, or after 8 days. I know I should rack between 5-7 days.
I'm new to winemaking so I'm not sure how best to adapt. Given my circumstance, would you err toward racking too early or too late? I don't know if racking earlier is OK since the pulp has already been sitting in the juice for more than a week now. If I rack later, I won't be able to push down the cap / stir and don't know if that will cause problems.
Any advice as to how I should proceed?
Thanks!